Why kitchen co- ordinate with other department??? PART-1

 COORDINATION OF KITCHEN WITH OTHER DEPARTMENTS

As we all know, the kitchen is the heart of the hotel operations; but its mere existence is meaningless if it does not have good people who serve the food and more so when there are no customers who will eat the food. Also, chefs will not be able to cook until they have the ingredients, so it will be right to say that suppliers too are an integral part of kitchen operations.

 Everyone works as a team and so the coordination of the kitchen with rest of the departments in the hotel or with people outside the hotel is of utmost importance. The people outside the hotel, who directly or indirectly influence the business, are called 'external customers' and the departments inside the hotel are referred to as 'internal customers'.

External Customers

Usually the executive chef and the executive sous chef deal with the external customers and it is very important for the chefs to keep them happy. We are not only talking about guests here, but many other people or organizations that will affect the hotel's business. Chels have to keep a good liaison with the following

Guests

The first and foremost external customer is the guest who will pay money for the services provided to him/her. These days there is a concept of chef salespersons, as many guests would trust chefs more than the service personnel and guests also feel proud when a chef recognizes them and personally attends to their table and takes the order. This builds more confidence in the guest and the communication is direct. The chef's interaction with the long staying in-house guest is of utmost importance, as the chef exactly knows what a guest has eaten previously and what his/her tastes are likely to be. Some of the menus have dishes mentioned as chel's special and the guest prefers that the chef comes and explains the speciality about it.

Suppliers

These are the people who supply ingredients that chefs finally process, cook, and sell. It is important for the cheh to maintain a good rapport with the suppliers so that quality ingredients are supplied to the hotel and in case of any exigencies, the supplies can be called up. whatever the time of the day Today, people are travelling around the world, so they also want meals that they get back home. That is why it is important for the chefs to educate suppliers on the ingredients and help them to procure it from international market. This helps in developing the suppliers, which in return would benefit the chefs.

Media

Chefs interact with the medium in liaison with the sales and marketing team. Whenever a new menu is launched or a food festival or a promotion is being planned, it becomes important to advertise in the papers and magazines, to get guests in. For this, chefs call in media people and prepare food, and this practice is normally known as 'food tasting Here the chefs explain to them the uniqueness of the menu and speciallity that can be highlighted as unique selling product (USP). These days there are chefs who are being spoken about almost in every magazine and television channel and hence, it is very important for chefs to keep good contacts with the media

Local Food Authority

As we have seen in the first chapter, coordination pdf  a part from cooking, the challenge that a chef faces is cooking safe and hygienic food. Unsafe food can cause harm to people and hence, hygiene and sanitation is very important. Local food authorities have health inspectors

who visit the premises for audits and regular inspections to make sure that the food is safe and wholesome . Chefs again have to maintain a cordial relationship with these authorities. A failure on the part of an organization to fail such audits can at times result in closure of business.

Government Officials

Many diplomats and important political persons visiting a country are put up in hotels.

Chefs have to closely coordinate with certain appointed government officials regarding the food of such delegates and also the sampling of food is done before it is consumed by the concerned persons. Sometimes chefs accompany the presidents or prime ministers to other countries so that home cooked food is available to them.

PDFs