Kitchen co-ordination with other department ??? PART-2

Internal Customers

Internal customers are the most important people with whom chefs deal on a daily basis and without whom their existence is almost negligible. The kitchen prepares food for the entire staff in the cafeteria and healthy and nutritious food is a great motivating factor for the entire team. Sometimes in cafeteria, chefs also celebrate the festivals with special food for the employees.

Food and Beverage Service 

It is a most common sight to see the kitchen staff arguing with service people and vice versa. The age old animosity between the two departments results from the fact that both do not appreciate each other's job. However, in spite of such differences, they are completely interdependent and cannot do without each other. 

The kitchen depends on the service for the following things.

1. Service operates sales in various outlets. It takes the food order and serves it to the guest.

2. Service acts as a bridge between the guest and the chef and helps to communicate requests and opinions of the food by providing constant feedback. 

3. For cooking, wines and liquors are required from F&B on daily basis.

4. Service sells the food and markets the chef's speciality, thereby bringing in more sales and happy customers.

Housekeeping

1. Kitchen requires clean uniforms, aprons, and dusters on daily basis, which are provided by housekeeping,

2. Kitchen also needs to coordinate with housekeeping regarding the pest control and fumigation in the kitchen 

3. Special uniforms if required for particular functions or theme parties are obtained from housekeeping

4. Festive decorations if required in the restaurants or outlets, is again taken care of by housekeeping

Front Office

Following are the important points related to the coordination between the kitchen and the front office.

1. Front office communicates the daily arrival list to the kitchen and it helps the chefs to forecast their production so that the wastage is minimized. The daily arrival list also contains guest history and the chefs come to know if there was any problem with food or service during the guest's previous stay. Hence, they could make it up this time by exceeding his/her expectation

2. The front office circulates VIP lists in the kitchens for any special requests of guests and for the room amenities to be placed in the room.

 3. Sometimes welcome drinks are prepared by the kitchen for some VIPs.

4. Front office also assists guests in making their dining choices and helps in marketing the restaurants and outlets.

Purchase and Stores

Following are the important points related to the coordination between the kitchen and the purchase and stores department 

1. This department procures raw materials at the best possible prices, not compromising

on the quality of ingredients. 

2. Chefs help the purchase department to create the standard purchase specifications for commodities

3. Chefs must give sufficient time for the orders to be procured and so maintaining of par stock levels are decided by the chefs and the purchase managers depending upon the frequency of withdrawals and availability from the market.

4. Chefs also receive the goods at receiving bay, thereby ensuring that the right quality of ingredients as per the standards specified is purchased,

Finance

Following are the important points related to the coordination between the kitchen and the finance department.

1. Finance does the costing of the recipe and this helps the management to decide upon the selling price to get the desirable profits and maintain the agreed food cost.

2. Finance helps chefs and the purchase managers to go for regular market surveys ang see if any new and better quality products are available.

 3. Finance helps chefs to keep a check on their expenses by giving a periodic report mentioning their profits and losses.

Sales and Marketing

Following are the important points related to the coordination between the kitchen and sales and marketing.

1. This department helps the chefs to promote new menus and festivals.

2. Sales department promotes the chefs so as to increase the sales of their product

3. Banquet sales works in close coordination with the kitchen to sell the menus and bring in more business. The banquet sales, however, form a part of F&B service rather than direct sales and marketing

4. Sales people entertain VIP guests to bring in the business:

5. Sales department coordinates with the kitchens in times of festivals for providing hampers and gifts to VIPs

Engineering

Following are the important points related to the coordination between the kitchen and

the engineering department.

1. Engineering department does the preventive and breakdown maintenance of the  machinery used in the kitchen.

2. Helps in installation of new machinery and equipment and trains the staff in its usage and precautions

3. Coordinates with chefs to utilize the resources effectively to minimize costs and increase profits

4. Maintenance schedules are made and followed up by chefs, 

5. Fire fighting and safety procedures are laid down by the engineering and followed up

Human Resources and Training

Following are the important points related to the coordination between the human resources (HR) and training department.

1. HR department helps chefs to find the skilled people and facilitate recruitments by helping chefs to take interviews and trade tests. 

2. Chefs highlight the training and development required by their staff and communicate it to the training department, who then prepare the training calendars and train people accordingly. 

3. Appraisals and career developing of the kitchen people is liaised with the HR department. 

4. Joining formalities of the new staff, induction, orientation, locker facilities etc. are dealt by HR department.

security

1.Items taken out of the hotel are taken on a 'gate pass'. This can be returnable returnable. It is made in triplicate and one copy is retained in the book, one go finance department and the other one goes to security department.

 2. Any fire in the kitchen is immediately reported to security. 

3. Keys of certain areas are deposited in the security and only authorized personnel ca withdraw the same.

 4. Sometimes store room needs to be opened in case of exigencies. In such a case, the normal procedure is to inform duty manager who will inform security and together with chef the stores shall be opened in front of security supervisor and duty manager and locked duly after the commodity is withdrawn against a store room requisition.

 5. Employees swipe the cards when they come for work and go off duty. This is done a the staff entry point of the hotel, which is also known as 'time office'. The swiping helps the HR department to compute their salaries. However, when the machine is faulty or the employee has forgotten to swipe the card or any other reason the following format (Fig. 2.13) is duly filled up to avoid deductions in salary. 

conclusion

when you are study kitchen in hotel management college then you know this co ordination briefly.