Quick Serve Restaurant Management Series

The setting

A quick serve location has a hand-washing sink in the food preparation area that staff walk past. A new shift lead has noticed, has been told this is how it has always been, and does not know how hard to push.

Your role

You are to assume the role of a shift associate.

Your task

The district manager (judge) wants you to explain what you would do. Demonstrate proper hand-washing technique and what the standard actually requires, discuss the role of personal hygiene in food safety, identify the personal health conditions that affect food handling, explain the relationship between personal safety and sanitation practices, and explain the nature of the pathogens the practice exists to control.

Performance indicators

• Demonstrate proper hand-washing technique.
• Discuss the role of personal hygiene in food safety.
• Identify personal health conditions that affect food safety.
• Explain the relationship between personal safety/sanitation and allergen exposure.
• Explain the nature of pathogens.

The judge will ask

1. 1.How do you change a habit that predates everyone on shift?
2. 2.What do you do if the store manager tells you to leave it?

The setting

A new grilled sandwich has become popular and takes far longer to make than anything else on the menu. The people who order it are pleased; everybody queuing behind them is not.

Your role

You are to assume the role of a shift associate.

Your task

The regional operations manager (judge) wants you to recommend what happens to the sandwich. Explain the concept of production and where this item breaks it, explain the nature of operations in a kitchen built around speed, explain how service standards should be maintained during peaks in demand, identify the types of food service this location is actually set up for, and assess the trends affecting food preparation that made the item popular.

Performance indicators

• Explain the concept of production.
• Explain the nature of operations.
• Maintain service standards during peaks in demand.
• Identify types of food service in different segments of the culinary and foodservice operations industry.
• Assess trends affecting food preparation.

The judge will ask

1. 1.Would you remove it, change it, or change how it is made?
2. 2.What do you tell the customers who love it?

The setting

A routine inspection found a cleaning log signed for shifts that had not happened yet. The manager says it saves time on busy nights and that the cleaning is always done anyway.

Your role

You are to assume the role of a shift associate.

Your task

The franchise owner (judge) wants you to explain how serious this is and what changes. Explain the policies and procedures for handling contamination risks the log exists to control, discuss the role of personal hygiene in food safety, explain how noncompliance with health and safety regulations should be reported, explain how the restaurant's hazardous chemicals and waste should be identified, and identify the types of harmful bacteria the cleaning schedule is there to prevent.

Performance indicators

• Comply with policies and procedures for handling bodily fluids.
• Discuss the role of personal hygiene in food safety.
• Report noncompliance with business health and safety regulations.
• Identify restaurants' hazardous chemicals/waste.
• Identify types of harmful bacteria.

The judge will ask

1. 1.Which worries you more, the log or what it says about the culture?
2. 2.What changes before the next inspection?

The setting

A quick serve location near a stadium runs out of its most popular items on event nights and throws away stock on quiet ones. Ordering is done the same way every week regardless of what is happening nearby.

Your role

You are to assume the role of a shift associate.

Your task

The store manager (judge) wants you to recommend how ordering should work. Discuss the types of inventory the location carries and which of them are at risk either way, describe the types of purchase order available, discuss the use of make-or-buy analysis in a food establishment, describe the factors influencing those decisions, and explain how the restaurant management system should be used to support the change.

Performance indicators

• Discuss types of inventory.
• Describe types of purchase orders.
• Discuss the use of make-or-buy analysis in food establishments.
• Describe factors influencing make-or-buy decisions.
• Utilize restaurant management system applications.

The judge will ask

1. 1.What would you need to know each week before placing the order?
2. 2.Which is worse, running out or throwing away? Defend it.