Professional Table Service

Professional Table Service Sylvia Meyer, Edy Schmid, Christel Spühler Translated by Heing Holtmann In a plush dining room, beautifully dressed guests dine on a sumptuous meal. The food is superb; the ambience, elegant; and the prices, surprisingly reasonable. These guests will surely return to enjoy this restaurant again, won't they? Unfortunately, they will not. After waiting half an hour in the crowded lobby for their reserved table, they were seated without apology or explanation by a clearly harried maiître d'. After another half hour, their waiter quickly and silently passed out menus while on his way to serve another table. One of their table settings lacked forks; another, a napkin. One guest received the wrong appetizer, and when she complained, the waiter argued that she was mistaken. When the main courses arrived, two guests discovered their food was not what they had expected and violated their diets. The red wine was served, already poured, in white-wine glasses. When the waiter began to prepare their dessert tableside, he realized that he had forgotten to bring matches to flambé it, and it was ruined. On his second try, in his annoyance, he tilted the pan too far while flambéing and scorched the tablecloth, barely missing the guest of honor's arm. After another long wait for the check, which was illegible, the guests were happy to escape. Sound like a nightmare? It was, not only for the guests but for the service staff and the restaurant's management. But such nightmares occur all too often, and they can be easily avoided. The key to providing quality table service is a knowledgeable, well-trained staff. This handsomely illustrated volume supplies that knowledge, covering everything service personnel need to know, from setting a table to recommending a wine to accepting a credit card. Professional Table Service has been translated directly from the acclaimed German edition, which is the most widely used service manual in the foodservice industry. Now