Career Spotlight: Restaurant Management

Restaurant managers must be a hybrid of strong culinary skills and general management abilities. They must have mastered the concepts of both front and back of the house operations. While they do not require the same culinary skills as chefs and cooks, they must understand how food preparation, sanitation, and kitchen management fit into the overall success of restaurant operations.

Austin Chefs Move into Restaurant Management

The skills and techniques learned in culinary school programs form an excellent foundation for the many skills necessary for a move into restaurant management. If you love working in the culinary arts, but find that you prefer working with people rather than food, then restaurant management maybe the best place to take your skills that you learned as an Austin chef.

The responsibilities of restaurant managers include directing and scheduling activities of restaurants, cafés, hotels, fast food outlets and other eating establishments. Although some duties vary, many include the organizing of stock, ordering food supplies and equipment, inspection of health and safety precautions and solving employee or customer problems. The often interview, hire and supervise the training of new staff members, organize shifts, promote good teamwork and pay staff and divide the tips.

Restaurant managers also assist the executive chef or chef de cuisine in developing daily and special event menus. With cost control a major priority, the manager will assist the chef in determining the cost of required items and what menu pricing should be.

Two of the restaurant manager's biggest jobs outside of daily operations are customer service and marketing. It is important that customers receive prompt service in a professional, friendly manner, with enough staff to serve them in a timely fashion. A restaurant manager needs the expertise and patience to deal with customers, no matter how rude or unreasonable they may be with their complaints. The first and best way to succeed in marketing a restaurant is to create a stream of happy customers who tell their friends about the place they had dinner last night.

As the restaurant manager it is your job to make sure that everyone in the restaurant from servers to bussers to the kitchen staff has everything they need to successfully fulfill their job responsibilities. You must be a problem solver and efficient manager who knows how to keep everyone performing their duties at peak and on task.

This article is presented by Le Cordon Bleu College of Culinary Arts in Austin. Le Cordon Bleu College of Culinary Arts in Austin offers culinary arts and pâtisserie and baking training programs in Austin, Texas. To learn more about the class offerings, please visit Chefs.edu/Austin for more information.

Le Cordon Bleu does not guarantee employment or salary. All trademarks are property of their respective owners. Le Cordon Bleu® and the Le Cordon Bleu logo are registered trademarks of Career Education Corporation