A Waiter's Guide to Navigating the Underbelly of the Restaurant World

By Rob Canning-Rogers

A concise guide to the restaurant industry as seen through the eyes of a waiter, with helpful advise on subjects and issues such as communication, reading guests and handling mistakes not usually tackled and trained. This book has plenty of useful tips that are handy not only for waiters but managers and owners as well. Regular stories on personal experiences and humour make this a pleasant, quick read.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Rob Canning-Rogers
• Release date: Apr 21, 2022
• ISBN: 9781005392406

Rob Canning-Rogers

I grew up and lived most of my life in sunny South Africa which is so silly that it has provided me with ample writing material on the follies of the human race. I steer toward middle school and young adult fictional fantasy (but not to worry, I have plenty of adult content as well) based on the animals in my care and it is their idiocy that is mirrored in our fractional society. But my characters always save the day in the end through a range of crazy adventures.I live with my wife and a collection of other animals in a small village called Suurbraak (if you dont know how to pronounce it dont stress, neither can I). We have a sanctuary of cats, dogs, horses and of course goats, all of whom add richness to my books with their characters.I love the works of Asterix, Tintin, The Chronicles of Narnia, Tolkien, Beatrix Potter, Gerald Durrell, James Herriot and Terry Prachett and although I am not in the same league as these esteemed authors their voices are forever ringing in my writing mind.

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A Waiter’s Guide

to

Navigating the Underbelly of the Restaurant Trade

By Robert Canning-Rogers

Copyright © 2022 Robert Canning-Rogers

Smashwords Edition

Cover picture credit to pixabay.com/illustrations

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ISBN: 9781005392406

Disclaimer

The information contained in this book is for general information purposes only and while we endeavour to keep the information up to date and correct, we make no representations or warranties of any kind, express or implied, about the completeness, accuracy, reliability, suitability, or availability with respect to this book or the information, products, services, or related graphics contained on this book for any purpose. Any reliance you place on such information is therefore strictly at your own risk. In no event will we be liable for any loss or damage including without limitation, indirect or consequential loss or damage, or any loss or damage whatsoever.

A note of thanks firstly to my wife who has diligently removed all obstacles to my writing. Thanks to Luis, Darryl, Garth Strübel, and John Jennison for always setting an example, sometimes verbally but mostly merely with their presence. A final note of thanks to all the managers, chefs, pot washers, waiters, and runners who made the dreary task of serving others infinitely more entertaining.

Introduction

I have called this little book A Waiter’s Guide to Navigating the Underbelly of the Restaurant Trade not because I want to write an exposé. I have more than made my professional sacrifices on time, family, and indeed my sanity, not to write on all the bad experiences. I am retired from the trade and wish to concentrate on all the good experiences I had. I must say the good experiences far outweighed the bad ones, although I have included some bad experiences as a lesson rather than a complaint.

Oxford Dictionary describes a waiter as one whose job is to serve tables in a restaurant. I can guarantee you it is so much more than that, even in the simplest operations. A waiter is a buffer between the sleek, calm atmosphere of the floor and the hard, aggressive production line of the kitchen, he is a mediator.

A decent waiter will know and understand what production capabilities the kitchen has and will juggle and balance these out against the needs and desires of the guest. Think of it this way, you are a salesperson for a company producing a range of ready-made foods. You are not going to tell customers the boring factory line processes involved, and you are most definitely not going to take orders for products that are not on the catalogue. It is the same for restaurants.

A good waiter will apply his knowledge, it is the inexperienced waiters and those who are lazy and incompetent that will cause the whole production line to be unbalanced. These waiters make the mistake of wanting to suck up to a guest. Serving people is not about sucking up to them for a tip, it is about doing your job. The tip is the bonus you get for doing your job. It is all about under-promising and over-delivering.

I have also worked with many competent chefs, most of whom are not people-friendly. The chef makes the food, the waiter sells and serves the food. As such the waiter becomes the face of the restaurant. When a guest complains he does not have the chef or manager in mind, he does not even know who the chef and manager are. It is the waiter, as the face of the restaurant, that he targets. It is at times such as this that a waiter’s diplomacy and tact come to the fore.

Waiters are particularly good at moaning and complaining, in fact, it is an art form to walk through a restaurant and hear waiters moaning about their sections, their bosses, clientele, and tips. Even the most resilient waiters will occasionally resort to this negative mentality.

Waiters occupy their own culture in the restaurant trade, and I have worked with, complaining aside, waiters who are every bit as tough as the toughest chef or owner. Waiters are also known to be avid party animals who can go at it the whole night and report for service the next day, bright as a daisy. I have a friend in fact who went on to become a chef and now owns his own restaurant.

To be fair to waiters, it is a tough trade. A waiter lives on his tips and must face daily a myriad of issues, complaints, shouting, and sometimes near downright slavery and balance that out against serving likewise clientele with a smile and professionalism normally displayed by lawyers and the like. So, a little bit of bitching along the way is expected.

This book serves rather, at least I hope, to empower waiters and readers with issues usually not discussed or trained. You, as a student or bistro waiter may think some of these issues like communication and sales are overkill, but these are in fact hard-won lessons that have taken me 25 years to learn and apply in bistros as well as fine-dining restaurants. As a student, you will have student loans and the like, good salesmanship will help in achieving your goals. As a bistro waiter, you enjoy a relaxed style of service, but well-established communication will lighten your load even more.

I have also written this for the professional waiter. One definition of a professional is someone who works for money full-time, rather than doing it as a hobby or as a part-time venture. There has been a meaningful change in my country over the last 25 years.

In past times most waitering jobs were part-time occupied by students. Some restaurants had full-time waitering staff who were from minority groups. The greater population, who was poorly educated, worked in kitchens away from the clientele. Under the new government, things changed and the occupation of waitering has slowly been formalised and transformed. Nowadays many people are coming from previously disadvantaged backgrounds who look at waitering as a profession. If this, is you, rest assured I have authored this book with you in mind.

You are going to find plenty of contradictions in this book. The reason behind this is that there are always different circumstances and outcomes for any situation. How you respond to one situation is completely different from another. I cannot train you on how to respond to different circumstances, only life can do that, but I have tried to compile an outline as a guide for you.

I have kept this book brief; I do not want to bore you with long-winded explanations and details. I may have not covered certain things you may think applicable. My apologies for this and I hope you take the opportunity to advise me. You will most definitely have different experiences from what I had and as the name says, this is only a guide.

This is not an instruction manual. I am not here to teach you how to lay a table or pour wine. Each restaurant has its own way of doing what is called standard operating procedures and it is pointless training something that is different from what you must do. It is each restaurant’s responsibility to train their staff in their own operating procedures in any case.

Chapter 1 – Attitude

Oxford Dictionary describes attitude as a settled way of thinking or feeling about something. A person’s attitude affects his behaviour or how he responds to a situation and the world. The reason I write about attitude as a first chapter is it is one of the critical points of any interview and is vital in successfully doing any job on a long-term basis.

When I was an employer the most crucial point for any prospective employee was attitude. The reason for this is an employee with a bad attitude is the guy who is always late for work, always fighting with the bosses and colleagues, and most importantly, always attracts customer complaints.

As an employer, I preferred to employ a guy with no experience but a great attitude rather than some hotshot with years of experience and a bad attitude. It is easier to train an inexperienced person than it is to employ a know-it-all who thinks there is nothing left