The Hierarchical Structure of a Restaurant

The hierarchical structure of a restaurant. Anyone who opens a restaurant knows very well that they are not opening just any business, but are starting a small or large company. As such, therefore, the restaurant must be managed with criteria, planning, monitoring and organizing every aspect of the business as best as possible.

The hierarchical structure of a restaurant

Restaurants have a hierarchical structure. The first level is head chef and she reports to the owner, who in turn relies on him or her for guidance on how things should be done in his restaurant's policies and procedures of managing any type of commercial establishment as these types are supposed to successfully manage from start to finish including making sure that all employees know what to do when so that there is no mistake made along the process which would lead to problems later down the road, even if something goes wrong after everyone has been trained properly according to the standards of management.

The restaurant will also have to equip itself with an internal organization of staff, just as happens in a company, and adopt a real hierarchical structure. Only in this way, in fact, can the roles be defined clearly and precisely and each staff member will know what to do and who to answer to.

The hierarchical structure of a restaurant

Forgetting to equip your restaurant with an internal organization of this type can therefore represent a fatal mistake. In this case, in fact, the risk is to condemn the activity to confusion and total improvisation. For this reason, if you have decided to make your restaurant a truly successful business, you will have to start from theorganizational chart, precisely defining roles and hierarchies.

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The hierarchical structure of a restaurant: the main roles

The hierarchical structure of a restaurant

To be clearer, restaurant staff must be divided into work groups, which are called brigades. By brigade we mean that part of the staff who works in a specific sector. Naturally the brigades can be different, more or less numerous, depending on the type of restaurant and how it is organised, the type of menu, the catering sector in which one works, etc.

Each brigade therefore does not have common characteristics and it is therefore very difficult to identify its standard elements. In any case, in general it is possible to list some brigades or work groups that we find in any catering.

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We will therefore have the management and administration department. This is the working group that takes care of the actual management of the restaurant.This department therefore brings together:

The hierarchical structure of a restaurant

• the owner or director (General manager)
• the Restaurant & Business manager
• the Food & Beverage Manager
• the Assistant Manager (a support figure to the first three)
• Sell and public relations manager: deals with the search for new and potential customers and public relations
• Booking (a person in charge of reservations)
• Communication and Marketing (it can be a single person or several people who work together with the Sell & public relations manager, defining the restaurant's marketing and communication plan.
• Research and Development (a figure who deals with both the research of innovative technologies and systems and the control of competitors)
• Personnel Director
• Administration worker (a person who takes care of the restaurant's accounting)
• Training and Development (a professional figure who deals with personnel research and training)

The managerial work group, which varies depending on the size of the restaurant, is then joined by two other brigades: that of the kitchen and that of the dining room.

In the kitchen, in particular, the complexity of the staff is very variable:

The hierarchical structure of a restaurant

You can go from a few cooks and a chef to a whole series of figures ranging from Executive Chef to the kitchen boy. It is clear that if in a family restaurant it is possible for the chef to also be the cook, in a higher level restaurant the staff will increase and with it also the various hierarchical levels. For example, some restaurants may also have a Chef Patissier, i.e. a figure completely dedicated to small and large pastry shops.

The hierarchical structure of a restaurant

This figure is the classic example of the match chef, that is, a chef who deals exclusively with the preparation of some specific foods.

The dining room brigade includes all those figures who spend most of their working hours in the dining room and deal directly with customers. The dining room staff takes care of taking orders, advising and providing information to customers on the menu and serving the various courses. In short, a very delicate role that defines what we call restaurant service.

The hierarchical structure of a restaurant

The dining room staff can also vary depending on the type of restaurant. So we will have a couple of waiters in the case of a small restaurant. A large restaurant, however, will necessarily also have to have a head waiter, i.e. a figure capable of directing and monitoring the work of the waiters. Not only that, the figure of the Sommelier is also among those present in the dining room team of a certain level restaurant.

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