Food and Beverage Management

Business

Food and beverage is a most important element in any of the hospitality

industry as it provides a wide scope of earning good profits. It is a major
sector and thus is important to focus on its excellence and quality.
 Food and Beverage Management

Introduction

Food and beverage is a most important element in any of the hospitality industry as
it provides a wide scope of earning good profits. It is a major sector and thus is
important to focus on its excellence and quality. The organizations of hospitality
industry such as hotels and restaurants are mainly focusing on the production of
food and beverages and their operations. The present Unit 5 Food & Beverage
Operations Management Assignment is carried out to analyze various aspects of
the operation and the factors related with the food and beverages. The operations
being undertaken in the in the production of food and beverages would be
identified by moving further in the report. The study has been presented in context
of Mercure Hotel UK.

Task 1

1.1 The characteristics of a range of food production systems and the various food
and beverage service systems
As a catering manager in Mercure Hotel UK, I had discovered many of the food
safety production and services and had also experienced their effectiveness. Most
of the food producers enters in to the food service system and bring innovations in
the system. The food and beverage services includes several activities of hotel and

www.hndassignments.co.uk Page 1
 Food and Beverage Management

catering industries and thus the function of F&B industry are been categorized
according to its size and diversified nature. The food production system of Mercure
Hotel UK has been evaluated as the organization serves the best quality food with
the choicest ingredients of the season by sourcing the best quality products. The
organization has to be very much attentive towards the safety and quality of food
production. The system of food production includes various characteristics and has
been discussed below:

It had a major contribution towards the economy of the nation

It promotes a diversified concept of food and cuisines
It provides a delight to the customers and fulfils the basic need of them.
It is a labour intensive industry
The demand of food is dynamic and keeps on changing.

There are several types of food and beverage service systems like Traditional
service system, Table service, assisted service system, family service, silver
service, single point service system, etc. For example Mercure Hotel adopts a
mixture of assisted and self-service as the customer are served a part of the meals
and then had to be followed by self only (Akkerman.et.al, 2010). This service
system is much cost effective as do not require much manpower to serve the menus
and also makes the customer comfortable in selecting the food according to their
choice.

1.2 The factors affecting the choice of menu and recipes for specific production
and service systems, including the consideration of cost and staffing using the
selected alternatives.
Mercure Hotel offers a wide range of choices in its menu and the production
system. It covers a large variety of ingredients and additional products in its food
production. There are various food and service systems being adopted by Mercure
Hotel for serving the system according to the customer preferences. It is very much
important to consider the factor involved in the preparation of menu and recipes as
the factors could affect the choices of the customers for the service system and
production system specifically (Chon.et.al, 2013). The factors that could affect the
choice of menu and the recipes are the availability of financial resources, nature of
the restaurant, the power of spending over the menu, the cost of production of
food, the competitive environment, the skills of the chef, the requirements and
orders of the diet by the customers, etc. These factors are been considered while
preparing a menu list in Mercure Hotel. Different types of system acquire different
cost and staff in the organization.

www.hndassignments.co.uk Page 2
 Food and Beverage Management

Staffs lay down an important effect of the success of operations in the foodservice.
The selection process of staff must be concerned upon the
requirements, knowledge and communication capabilities and the required
experience of an individual. The activities in the food and beverage production
services wholly depend upon the effectiveness of the staff only as it is the only one
who serves the customers directly. The skilled staff with good communication and
other qualities could enhance the productivity and services of the organization. The
cost is been considered in the entire process as which system or service implication
would be provide benefit to the hotel and make it earn more revenues out of it (Wu
and Pagell, 2011).

1.3 Justification of the suitability of the selected food production systems and food
and beverage service systems.
Mercure Hotel had two section for food and beverages both. For the food section
the best suitable service system I would justify is the Buffet/counter service
system. The buffet could be identified as the alteration of self service. The food is
been displayed in an attractive way on a table and is been presented in very
effective way. This service is a combination of cold and hot foods both and is best
appropriate for the events, Hotels, restaurants, conferences, banqueting, etc. It is
beneficial for the organization and the customer both as it is produced in large
amount the cost of production is not much high whereas the customer had to just
pay out a fixed amount and could have the food as much as want. It even requires
less staff and could feed large number of people at a time. The buffet service
proves to be advantageous as the customer have varieties of choices and could opt
for what is been preferred. There is no need of much staff also as the customers
itself takes the food.
However sometimes this service system could also be disadvantageous as it
involves long queues and need not necessary that everyone likes it. The
presentation could also give a negative impact as if not effective and attractive
would not get more people towards it. For the beverages single point service could
be used as at a single point each and every activity is performed as the customer
orders, takes and pays for the beverage at the same point. All the varieties of
beverages are being offered at the same section. It also requires less staff to serve
the customer as from one point various activities could be performed by an
individual.

www.hndassignments.co.uk Page 3
 Food and Beverage Management

Task 4

4.1 Food and beverage service plan for the business conference within an agreed
budget
Food and beverage service plan for the business conference is been discussed
below:

The estimated number of delegates :100

Approximate budget: 3000.00

The budget for the projected conference could be estimated including several
aspects.
Table 1: Budget for the event

SERVICE NAME ESTIMATED COST (as per standard brands)

Cutlery & Crockery 125

Table Linen 100

Chair Cover 125

Cloth Napkins 75

Table Display 80

www.hndassignments.co.uk Page 4
 Food and Beverage Management

Waiter/ Waitress 180

Washing area 35

Food Cost 1500

Food Preparation Cost 400

Miscellaneous expenses 380

Total 3000

4.2 Carrying out the agreed F&B service plan by maintaining standards of quality
and health, safety and security along with recommendation
There are various steps being connected with the service plan of the food and
beverage keeping in consideration of the standard quality, health safety and
security (Shaw.et.al, 2011). With respect to business event maintenance of certain
standards of quality and health, safety and security must be concerned and as at
present the customers are also expecting for the quality products rather than
quantity. There are set standards for various factors in the food and beverage
production.

The quality standard includes various elements like preparation of food

and beverage, service and production planning, setting and maintaining
standards in the cooking and presentation in the entire event. The success of
the event depends on the quality. The means of quality maintains each and
every standard, the service provided by the staff members is well and the
food must be purchased from quality supplier and to be stored properly. The
required temperature must be maintained every time. The food being
prepared, cooked must not get contaminated and must be healthy to
consume.
Healthy and safety is one of the most crucial issues at any of the event. It is
very much important to make sure that the location and equipments being
decided are secured and are being kept safe to prevent certain serious
accidents. The staff at the venue must also be made aware of such risks or
hazards and should be trained as how to deal with the same. Proper health
and safety procedures must be undertaken as to protect the guests by getting
www.hndassignments.co.uk Page 5
 Food and Beverage Management

harmed from any of the danger. The health and safety processes would
enhance the trust of the guest and make them satisfy with the services
(Deraman.et.al, 2011).
Security issue is one more and very important task for organizing a
successful event. The guests want to stay safe while they are on event. Good
security will help to enhance the satisfaction level for the staff and for the
guests, all of us want to feel protect and secure. A secure environment in the
event is also a marketing advantage, it will help to reduce the penalty cost
and to rise the service provide.

For a successful conference event it is very much important to communicate with

the customers and provide them with the better services according to the
preferences. The feedbacks of the customer would prove to be very much useful to
enhance the standard and the quality of the services. It is necessary to minimize the
cost to attain maximum margin of profits with respect to the food and beverage
department. While organizing such business events the factors related to the
competitors must also be considered as to know what and how they are providing
services and this would help in improving the service standard and inventive ideas
should also be adopted.

Conclusion
The management of food and beverage operations includes mainly two things one
is food and the other one is service as both of them are interconnected. While
serving food it is very important to ensure the quality and quantity of the food. The
production and preparation of Food and beverages must be ensured with high
quality standards. The report had revealed that Health and safety must also be
made sure at the venue and throughout the whole event. At the time of preparing

www.hndassignments.co.uk Page 6
 Food and Beverage Management

the menu the preferences and the choices of the guest must be preferred. With the
help of this report it is found that to enhance the profitability of the hotel the major
attention must be paid on the customer satisfaction and attraction. The gap between
the expectations and the satisfaction must be fulfilled.
References
Books and journals:
Akkerman, R., Farahani, P. and Grunow, M. 2010. Quality, safety and
sustainability in food distribution: a review of quantitative operations management
approaches and challenges. Or Spectrum. 32(4). Pp. 863-904.
Bagwell, S. 2011. The role of independent fast-food outlets in obesogenic
environments: a case study of east London in the UK. Environment and Planning-
Part A. 43(9). Pp. 2217.
Chon, K. S., Barrows, C. W. and Bosselman, R. H. 2013. Hospitality management
education. Routledge.
Davis, B., Lockwood, A., Pantelidis, I. and Alcott, P. 2013. Food and beverage
management. Routledge
Deraman, N., Said, J., Saman, F. and Shafie, S. 2011. Data Envelopment Analysis
(DEA) evaluation framework of hotel services. In Proceedings of the 2nd
International Conference on Business Administration (ICBA'11) (pp. 154-160).
Eleri, J. 2013. Menus as Marketing Tools: Developing a Resort Hotel Restaurant
Menu Typology. Journal of Tourism Research & Hosptality.

www.hndassignments.co.uk Page 7