A food and beverage director oversees a company’s entire food and beverage operation in most hotels and large restaurant chains. He is in charge of overseeing the planning and execution of large banquets, weddings, conferences, and restaurant events. In addition, this director is in charge of the food and beverage department’s employees, inventory, and budgets.
A hotel restaurant management program or a culinary degree are usually required for this position. The director should be familiar with the fundamentals of hotel and restaurant management. This type of program is offered at a number of culinary schools around the world.
Many directors work their way up through the ranks of restaurant management, gaining experience in areas such as cooking, serving, and shift management. The director is in charge of the entire team at the restaurant and banquet facility. Depending on the size of the company, his staff can range from 50 to 100 people.
The majority of food and beverage directors are also in charge of the alcohol budget. This necessitates a close eye on the bartenders, the bar area, and pouring techniques. To ensure that adequate profit margins are maintained in the bar area, the director is required to conduct daily inventories of liquor sales and usage.
To manage a restaurant’s profit margin, it’s also critical to keep food costs under control. This is usually accomplished reducing food waste and tightening inventory controls within the department. The director is in charge of ordering and using food before it spoils due to age or mishandling. He must plan weekly menus to ensure that waste is kept to a minimum.
In most cases, the director is also in charge of planning large banquets and wedding receptions. This necessitates significant logistical expertise as well as strong management abilities. Banquets and receptions are formal occasions that necessitate close coordination between meal courses, with most receptions including a full four-course meal.
Organizing multiple levels of staff to manage a large banquet is a difficult process. Managing servers, cooks, waiters, and table bussers are common examples. To ensure that food is distributed quickly and evenly, each group must work in tandem with the course completion. During a banquet reception, the food and beverage director is in charge of coordinating this effort.
The food and beverage director is also in charge of selling meeting rooms and convention space in a hotel. This usually necessitates a knowledge of hotel restaurant management in order for the director to match the right clients to the right spaces.