Fundamentals in Food and Service Operation

• The history of food and beverages service includes early groups cooking together in big groups, early inns providing bread and wine to travelers, and the forerunner of the modern restaurant developing in Rome.
• In the Roman era, there were establishments that offered sausage or roast meat, bread, and a cup of wine.
• The first modern restaurant that provides hot food and drink developed in Rome.
• Many of the early restaurants were in the cities, near temples and government buildings.
• After the fall of the Rome Empire, the minors and castles provided food to large numbers of people.
• The early inns provided bread and wine to travelers.
• In 1200, public cook shops were opened in London which offered precooked takeout food.
• The royal families of Europe introduced cutlery, table linen, crystal glasses, new foods such as turkey and potato, and the roadside tavern.
• In the sixteenth century British inns and taverns began to serve meal a day at a fixed time and price and at common table.
• The most famous ordinary in London was the Castle and Lloyd’s which was the meeting place for the merchants and ship owners.
• In the seventeenth century, the ordinaries became fashionable clubs and gambling places as well as centers for political activities.
• The word “restaurants” was used in the late eighteenth century for a Paris dining room serving light dishes.
• In the United States, taverns and inns were very similar to those in England.
• A famous tavern in New York was Fraunces Tavern.
• In 1834, the famous Delmonico’s was opened in New York.
• The early 1900s, several events that were significant to the food industry occurred.
• Diners may either eat inside the restaurant or order their food “to-go”.
• Level of standard refers to the quality of food and beverage, the service staff, the standard of equipment and decorations being utilized.
• Service flexibility is the extent to which alternatives are made available, and to which there can be variations and alterations in the standard products that can be offered.
• Service ability is based on what was agreed upon on the onset.
• Service reliability is the extent to which the project is intended to be consistent with industry practices and goals to satisfy customers need at all possible and workable cost.
• The main goal of food and beverages operation is to achieve customer satisfaction and ultimately to meet customer’s needs.
• Fast food on the other hand, usually offers a limited menu accompanied with quick service.
• Service level is the intensity of or the limitations in the individual person’s ability to give customers the attention expected and required in the operation.
• A specific food service operation will determine the level of customer service that one should provide in order to enhance the customer’s meal experience and to meet expectations.
• Customers have varying needs and expectations which the provider has to attempt to meet.
• Food service operations are designed to meet a diverse range of needs of demand.
• Restaurants can be classified as quick service, traditional, quick comfort, double drive through, cafeteria, buffet and smorgasbord.
• The hamburger was first served in 1904 at the St Louis World’s Fair.
• The first root beer stand was founded by Roy Allen and Frank Wright.
• The Second World War brought many changes to the American public.
• People became richer, the automobile made them more mobile, and they shifted to the suburban areas of cities.
• In the 1960s, fast-food establishment emerged.
• Modern popular cuisine including French, Chinese, Mexican, and Japanese has become common in most cities.
• The role food plays in tourism may be a direct and indirect attraction.
• Kolschitski opened the first coffee shop in Central Europe in 1683.
• Boulanger, a soup vendor, is recognized as the first to create the first restaurant.
• Cesar Ritz became the general manager of the Savoy Hotel in London in 1889.
• Auguste Escoffier is known as the greatest chef of all time.
• Walter Anderson & Billy Ingraham introduced the White Castle Hamburger chains in 1921.