Food & Beverage | Les Roches Students Blog | Les Roches International School of Hotel Management

Here at Les Roches, the Market Place is the major Food and Beverage outlet, serving breakfast, lunch and dinner to a large percentage of the students and staff each day. It is a very important part of our training in HOI as service students and HOII as kitchen students. Because it is the largest and busiest of the outlets, there is an element of pressure and working quickly and efficiently is very important.

We spent two weeks working in Market Place, one week on breakfast/ lunch shift and the other on lunch/ dinner shift including a class on Service Concepts. Each day we were allocated a section and a number of tables in each section. Each morning we set the tables for lunch with special napkin folds, after lunch we set for diner and after diner for breakfast. There we had to give a menu explanation, take orders, serve water and clear the plates when the guests were finished.

The goals of our practical training were learning about 6 major points:

Teamwork- this is important in any group activity and more so when there are a number of tables to be served and the work load is shared.
Guest interaction- you have to make small conversation with the guest that you are serving and begin to get to know them so that the next point becomes easier.
Anticipation- this is where you pre-empt the guests wishes and act before they have to ask.
Observation- you have to be aware of all you tables and their needs and also see where you teammates need help.
Communication- is developed and is a necessity with you team mates, teachers and of course the guests.
Organization- in a pressurized situation it is necessary to be well organised. A trick we learned was never make a trip to a table or back to the side board empty handed, always pick up a plate here or there and bring a water jug to top glasses up.

In service concepts we learn a range of things from using kitchen equipment, cutlery and plates to flower arranging. Each day we had a different topic to cover and we managed to fit a whole lot into two weeks.

Time is going by so quickly and according to the changing weather around Bluche most of us think that the summer is literally over. It’s good though, the change of a season means that things have to follow a cycle as well and we have to move on, continuing with new experiences and more challenges, trying to get the most out of every day that goes by.

In the last few weeks I have had the chance to talk with people from so many countries, some countries of which I had heard a lot about before and also a few that were quite unfamiliar to me. It has been a very international experience in these past weeks and it is only getting better.

Within the tourism and the hospitality industry you start to quickly understand the fact that nowadays we are actually citizens of the world. Working in hospitality is indeed a conjunction of activities involving guests and people from everywhere abroad. There are so many interesting cultures of which you can always learn something new and in one way or another the international ambiance here at the school prepares you on a higher level to face the industry while working. It may help you to face or solve a situation with a guest or a particular client sometime or confront work pressures with people from other countries.

At the school and during activities outside the school especially during meals and through classmates, you learn a bit about each different culture. It could be the special cuisine they might have, interesting and touristic places in their home countries, weather differences, salutations and greetings in their languages, they share stories with you about other places where they have been and so on.

Here I attach some recent pictures of my classmates while celebrating the birthday of one of our classmates from Thailand, of course eating at a Thai restaurant in Montana, we learned for sure a lot about Thai food, the ingredients they use and main dishes in Thailand!

In some of the classes, we are also learning about beverages and service. This class is called Food Production and Service Operations; it is definitely one of my favourite classes with Mr. La Sala where we have started learning about the basics of the production of beverages.

We started this time with different types of appetizers, short drinks, long drinks, cocktails and so on. Attached is a picture of us during this class where we learn right away how to make, mix and serve these types of beverages and the attitude of bartenders and waiters while they are serving.

It is really nice to be able to make them and not only see how to make them. We really learn right away the origin of different liquors, how they should be mixed and how all types of drinks should be served and decorated.