Hospitality Management - Coursework Example

Hospitality Management Menu compilation and product design showing management The menu was quite successful with the recipe being very easy to make. The recipe was also easily understandable by the chef. It was not a walk on the park to produce the menu items under pressure on the day, and this was because we dealt with Chinese dishes which the chef had never cooked before. The complications also arose as the cooking of Chinese dishes as it requires the chef to follow the Chinese process of cooking the dishes to the latter. Negative and positive feedbacks were received from the customers about the services of the restaurant. Tasty foods and friendly student service from the restaurant are some of the positive feedbacks received from the clients. As part of the negative feedbacks received, the clients complained the main course was sometimes served at a low temperature with the plate not being hot enough as required by the clients. The clients also complained of being served foods in lower portions and that the rice served in the restaurant was not well cooked hence not soft enough. If the restaurant had the chance to do it again, it would change the product design of the restaurant. Some Chinese dishes require a chef who is highly trained and with experiences in preparing these dishes. Since this is a Chinese restaurant, I would look for those chefs with training on the preparation of Chinese foods or those with experiences in order to avoid the complications experienced in the restaurant. With this, the chef would be able to follow the due process of preparing the dishes in which would lead to positive customer feedbacks and retain customers. 2. Analysis of standard recipes in relation to menu pricing and customer satisfaction The following list indicates the numbers of dishes sold: Starter: Vegetable Spring Rolls: 12(Best sells) Cha Siu Bao: 4 Hoi Sin Chicken Wings: 2 Chili, Salt and Pepper Spare Ribs: 8 Main course: Beef fried rice noodles: 10(Best sells) Braised pork with rice: 10(best sells) Yang Zhou fried rice: 3 Boiled chicken & potatoes: 2 Dessert: Crispy banana: 15(best sells) Sago with coconut milk: 4 Roast cheese sweet potatoes: 5 From the above list, it is evident that Crispy banana for dessert, Beef fried rice noodles and braised pork with rice for the main course and Vegetable Spring Rolls for starter were the most popular dishes. This is because the restaurant recorded high sales for these dishes which indicate the popularity of the dishes to the clients. Though people like to try new products, most consumption is always recorded on those products which are familiar and popular to the people and so is the case with the Chinese restaurant. In the course of running the business, the restaurant ran out of one tin of tinned coconut milk, one bottle of dark and light soy sauce, 2 bags of bean sprout fresh, garlic, shallots and onion. Most of the things which ran out were those things which were under high demand from the restaurant clients. The customers had to certain extend thought the menu for the restaurant was good value for money because of the lower prices charged for the dishes. The restaurant had initially set a course price of ￡12.5 which would help in running the restaurant. The price set for the dishes was lower than that of other competitors. However, it was later discovered that the prices set for the dishes was too low as the restaurant was operating at a loss which led to an increase in the price. This would help the restaurant to make some profit. If the restaurant was to this again, it would replace its starters and perhaps replace hoi sin wings into a soup. The restaurant would also combine Yang Zhou fried rice with boiled chicken and potatoes as its main course and also add one more meal in its main course. The restaurant would also replace one of its desserts and replace it with roast cheese sweet potatoes and even add one more dessert. 3. Effectiveness of works schedules, time frame and briefing documents The work schedules and time frame were working though they were not effective. Not everything in the company was done in time as most employees seemed to drag themselves in one way or the other. Preparation of dishes was never completed in time in the initial days of the restaurant as the chefs lacked the knowledge on how to prepare the Chinese dishes. However, as time went by, things looked a bit better as the chefs got the experience required and were able to prepare all dishes at ease. The training manual was also not quite effective as it did not prepare clear information to the workers to work effectively. This calls for the management of the restaurant to write more details on the training manual in order to enhance efficiency as the workers will be thoroughly trained on time management and how to adhered to the given work schedule. The leadership in the restaurant also lack proper and well coordinated communication (Fallon and Rutherford 100). Even though I am a manager, all problem solving tactics employed were not effective. All this indicate the staff documentation were not effective. Next time, it would be better to ensure the workers are well trained before commencing their work in the restaurant to enhance the effectiveness of the stated time frame, work schedules and staff documentation (Baraban and Durocher 14). 4. Food stock take and sales analysis Food stock take The final food cost after returns was ₤255.98. Target sales & Actual sales Target sales Actual sales Vegetable Spring Rolls 12 12 Cha Siu Bao 15 4 Hoi Sin Chicken Wings 19 2 Chili, Salt and Pepper Spare Ribs 15 8 Beef fried rice noodles 12 10 Yang Zhou Fried Rice 8 3 Braised pork with rice 12 10 Boiled chicken & Potatoes 12 2 (V) Fried Rice 3 0 Crispy Banana 20 15 Sago with coconut milk 15 4 Roast cheese sweet potatoes 15 5 In this case, there was a wrong forecast about beef fried rice noodles as whenever the restaurant had a service, the rice noodles would be too popular to providers and hence preparing it again and this explains why the actual sales nears the targeted sales. The restaurant prepared too much boiled chicken with potatoes. May be the restaurant prepared the raw material the same as the traditional local food a situation which made the dish unattractive to the customers. Hoi Sin Chicken Wings, Roast cheese sweet potatoes, Sago with coconut milk and Cha Siu Bao did not receive much attention from the clients which made it quite unpopular to the clients and hence the high variance between the target and the actual sales. This explanation accounts for the variance between the target sales and the actual sales. 5. Planned control measures The planned control measures in the restaurant were implemented successfully. The restaurants HACCP/health and safety plan was successful to some extent. There were no accidents ever reported in the restaurant kitchen. The workers worked in a safe manner to ensure all health and safety plans are adhered to the latter. In the initial days of the restaurant, the portion size of the restaurant dishes was high which made the restaurant operate at a loss as the cost of preparing the food was higher than the revenue obtained from the sale of the dishes. To control the portion size of the restaurants dishes, the restaurant plans to reduce the size of its dishes. The reduction in portion size will be done in accordance to the cost of preparing the dishes and the expected revenues. The portion control was done gradually in order to avoid too much complaint from the customers. To control wastage and pilferage, measures were put in place to a medium plate to all clients. This would avoid wastage from left over’s. Measures were also made for the chefs to prepare enough food to last a day depending on the customer turn over. In the future, the restaurant plans to have the chefs set every ingredient for each meal and only prepare the meal when the customers orders for a meal. Though this may be tasking and time consuming, it would help the restaurant to control wastage. To avoid wastage of food, the restaurant chefs should also increase the production of those dishes which are popular with the clients as per the recorded actual sales of these dishes. This will ensure total consumption of the prepared foods as the restaurant is assured of consumption as per the actual sales. The restaurant worked so hard to control the quality of the food leaving the kitchen. The restaurant ensured that the food leaving the kitchen was not too hot rather with the required temperature to avoid burning the customer’s mouth or to avoid time wastage by the client as they await the food to cool down. However, this was not successful as many customers complained that the food served had low temperatures and was not hot enough as they would have liked it to be. 6. Brief constructive critique on individual staff performance Good team work and friendliness among the staff members are some of the positive aspects of the team performance. The negative aspects include poor management and inefficient problem solving strategies. The problem solving methods applied seemed unsuccessful and never yielded as expected due to internal constraints like language barrier. This is because the people involved were international students and therefore there was a language barrier. Language barrier led to inefficiency in the performance of the team (Wagen and Goonetilleke 130). The teams working for the Chinese restaurant were all assessed for their respective competencies depending on the position they would hold in the restaurant. For example, chefs were assessed on their training and qualification from their college or university to determine whether they qualified to prepare foods for the restaurant. The teams were also assessed on whether they understood the code of ethics of restaurant and what they knew about the services and products of a restaurant, how they understood customer service in a restaurant setting and their qualification level. The team members have behaved well against all the competencies in which they were assessed against. Though it took some time for the team members to perform well, they have since been performing well against their competencies. 7. Conclusions and recommendations It is quite recommendable for the restaurant to modify the menu in order to let all customers have a better choice. The restaurant should also double check the temperature of the food and plate before serving it to the clients as a way of making sure all clients are satisfied. This would help to do away with the negative feedback from clients regarding the food temperature. The restaurant managers should improve on its training manual to improve it and add more details. This will ensure that all the teams are well trained and equipped for their respective positions which would enhance efficiency which would then lead to the increase in the number of positive feedbacks from the clients (Wagen and Goonetilleke 130). Communication with the staff should also be enhanced. With enhanced communication between the staff and the managers, the restaurant will be better placed in understanding the running of the restaurant as well as any problems and challenges facing the restaurant. A two way communication channel between the staff and the supervisors or the managers should be implemented in the restaurant. Formal and informal communication should be emphasized to ensure a smooth running of the restaurant. The restaurant should also improve on the preparation of those dishes which are popular with the customers as this would avoid wastage. Works Cited Wagen, Van and Goonetilleke, Anne. Hospitality Management. Pearson Education Australia, 2007, pg 100-200 Fallon, Michael and Rutherford, Denney. Hotel Management and Operations. John Wiley & Sons, 2010, pg 50-200 Baraban, Regina and Durocher, Joseph. Successful Restaurant Design. John Wiley & Sons, 2010, pg 14 Read More