Managing People in Commercial Kitchens

A Contemporary Approach

Charalampos Giousmpasoglou, Evangelia Marinakou, Anastasios Zopiatis, John Cooper

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2022
• ISBN:
  9781000546040
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Negocios y empresa
• Subtopic: Hostelería, viajes y turismo

Managing People in Commercial Kitchens: A Contemporary Approach uses original research to argue that senior managers (head chefs) should differentiate their people management practices in kitchen brigades from those used in the hospitality industry more generally (induction, socialisation, and performance evaluation) due to the group's strong occupational identity and culture.

The understanding of chefs' work from a management perspective is critical for successful hospitality operations but has been historically under-researched. Chapters provide a detailed account of chefs' work in commercial kitchens from an HRM perspective. Using occupational identity and culture as a vehicle, this book explores the different aspects of managerial work in commercial kitchen settings: general management, leadership, education and training, skills and competencies, managing deviant behaviour, managing stress, and managing diversity (focused on gender segregation). The final chapter looks at future perspectives on this unique working environment and the many challenges arising from the latest developments such as the COVID-19 pandemic.

Providing both theoretical insights and practical applications with the use of case studies throughout, this will be of great interest to upper-level students and researchers in hospitality, as well as a useful reference for current managers in the field.

1 The commercial kitchens’ structure and organisation

DOI: 10.4324/9781003160250-2

Introduction

The types of commercial kitchens and the organisational structure of kitchens in terms of human resources should be presented first in order to be able to understand other concepts and the culture of professional kitchens. This chapter presents the history of culinary arts and the origins of commercial kitchens. A discussion of the brigade and the ratings of restaurants is also provided to create an understanding of the sector.

The restaurant and foodservice industry – an overview

Eurostat (2020) reports that nearly eight million people were employed in 2019 in the food and beverage industry in Europe, with Greece (2.5 million) being among the top on the list of countries with the highest proportion of the population working in this industry and the UK (2.3 million) being among the top five. The restaurant and foodservice industry in the UK had annual sales of $35.4 billion in 2020, with more than 42,000 operators. The foodservice industry in the US demonstrated a 4% growth rate in 2020, reaching $889 billion despite the challenges of the pandemic and the shifting priorities of consumers (Fantozi, 2020); on the other hand the COVID19 impact on employment in food services (Kochhar & Barroso, 2020), was the loss of 750,000 in 2020 (National Restaurant Association, 2020). There were 1.512.110 chefs and cooks in quick service restaurants, casual and fine dining restaurants in the US (U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2021). At the same time, the global foodservice market reached $3.5 trillion in 2020 (Lock, 2021). Due to rising costs, reduced consumer spending, and market saturation, countries were faced with survival issues in 2019. The pandemic of COVID-19 worsened the situation, resulting in the closure of big chain outlets. Nevertheless, a full recovery is suggested to take place by 2024 (Lock, 2020). Hill (2020, p. 8) suggests that the global foodservice market lost $1.1 billion, proposing that “in percentage terms, North America will experience the highest decline of (34.2%), West Europe (29.3%), and Asia (27.2%)” (Figure 1.1).

Figure 1.1 Global foodservice industry size (2019). Source: adapted from Deloitte (2020), Foodservice market monitor (p. 11). Available at: www2.deloitte.com/content/dam/Deloitte/it/Documents/consumer-business/Deloitte_FoodserviceMarketMonitor.pdf

Other pressuring forces in the foodservice industry included the instability of global trading and the political and macroeconomic environment challenges, which forced key players in the industry to change their strategies, business models, supply chain, and employees (Deloitte, 2020). This led to new business models, such as more takeaway and delivery services from even fine dining restaurants. It also increased the number of chefs who turned to entrepreneurship and their own businesses (Rogers, 2021), or to even offering “private chef” services (Lucas, 2020). Professional chefs in Ireland dealt with the pandemic through creativity and innovation, as they began reflecting their values, food community, and self-care to inspire young entrants. Their contemporary culinary education empowered them to adapt and innovate, as well as embed their vast array of skills into an open and collaborative sense of community. Evidently, chefs were able to explore new ways for their creativity and talent to shine through. Sweeney (2020) states that “social gastronomy is the new hospitality and the kitchen garden is now an essential extension of the professional kitchen”.

Structure of the restaurant and foodservice industry

The restaurant and foodservice industry are part of the service industry, as services are provided to customers. This industry is divided into commercial and non-commercial organisations (Figure 1.2). Commercial organisations include restaurants, catering companies, and others, such as vending machines. Non-commercial organisations include schools and universities, military establishments, and healthcare facilities, among others. Although the focus of this book is on the commercial sector, it is assumed that people management in service (non-commercial) organisations follow the same people management principals and best practices as the commercial foodservice sector. It is estimated that 20% of the foodservice industry is made up of non-commercial establishments (Davis et al., 2018).

Figure 1.2 The foodservice industry structure

There are many different categories or classifications of food and beverage operations. Davis et al. (2018, p. 36) propose that the different approaches include classifying by name, by food type, by business format, by market/direct v indirect, by venue/occasion, by service style/level, and by average spend. In classifying by name, words should describe the type of operations, which is not always the case. For example, “the River Café is actually an Italian-inspired, 1 Michelin-starred fine dining restaurant in London” (p. 36). When classified by food type, the type of food served is the variable used to categorise restaurants. Barrows and Viera (2013) proposed categories such as burgers, chicken, BBQ, Chinese, etc., with an expanded list that is US-centric. Such categories have been recognised based on the menu offered, as illustrated in Table 1.1.

Table 1.1 Restaurant classification by menu type

Menu Type	Description and Examples
Local cuisine	Restaurants that use only ingredients from the local area and in the appropriate season.
National cuisine	Restaurants focused on national cuisines i.e., Italian, Mexican, Greek, and Chinese.
Ingredient dominated	Restaurants focused on a single dominant ingredient i.e., meat, fish, or vegetables.
Theme concept	Restaurants based on a themed concept i.e., Hard Rock Café, TGI Friday’s, Planet Hollywood
Healthy eating	Restaurants focused on healthy eating i.e., plant-based, vegan, and vegetarian.
Cooking style	Restaurants focused on a particular cooking method, i.e., Nouvelle cuisine, haute cuisine, and molecular cuisine.
Chef-centric	Restaurants focused on the name and style of celebrity chefs such as Gordon Ramsay, Nobu Matsuhisa, and Heston Blumenthal.
Source: adapted from Davis et al. (2018, p. 38)

Food and beverage businesses are classified by so many different business formats, such as franchising, tenancy, lease agreement, chains, or management contracts (Davis et al., 2018, p. 40). Figure 1.2 illustrates the classification by direct/indirect operations. Five major categories exist on a mix of styles of service, which are illustrated in Table 1.2.

Table 1.2 Classifying restaurants by service style/level

Service Style	Description
Fine dining	Represent luxury dining at the highest quality of ingredients and cooking techniques served with a degree of formality. Often associated with the Michelin star system.
Molecular gastronomy	Describes the combination of food with science using technical advances in equipment and ingredients. Often associated with fine dining restaurants.
Casual dining	Known as “family” dining or “popular” dining, with a relaxed style of service; there are two distinctive types of casual dining restaurants: Fine casual: relaxed style of service with a refined food offer. Fast casual: budget restaurants with satisfactory quality of food, towards the fast-food market.
Quick service	Known as fast-food restaurants, with limited menus and automated; in most cases food preparation and orders taken and delivered at a counter.
Public houses & gastro pubs	Licensed establishments primarily for drinking alcoholic beverages, sometimes incorporating the offer of a variety of foods.
Coffee/ tea shops	Orders are placed and delivered at the counter, the centrality of the business is coffee and/or tea and light choices of food/snacks.
Takeaway	Food is prepared for takeaway only, in fixed, mobile, or popup units i.e., festival and events food stalls. It is not uncommon to combine with fast casual dining or quick service restaurants.
Source: adapted from Davis et al. (2018, p. 43) and Cousins (2019, p. 17)

Barrows et al. (2016) proposed the classification by average spend, referring to the price paid, which is part of the service experience. All of the above shows that there are a variety of different foodservice operations with different characteristics that are considered in the ways that these are managed, thus demonstrating the complexity of the sector. Johnston et al. (2012) suggest that the management of service operations requires constant changes to processes and people being motivated to achieve greater quality of service and productivity.

Commercial kitchens

Commercial restaurants make up the majority of businesses operating in the foodservice industry (Cousins, 2019; Davis et al., 2018). Figure 1.2 illustrates the division of foodservice op...