Food and Beverage Services - Basics

Food and beverage services sector contributes a great deal to the profits in hospitality industry. With the increase in importance of business meetings, a range of personal and social events, a large number of customers visit catering establishments frequently. The food and beverage professionals tirelessly work to intensify customers’ experience through their service.

The F&B Services providing businesses deliver food and beverages to their customers at a particular location (on-premise) such as hotel, restaurant, or at the customer’s intended premises (off-premise).

F&B Services – Definition

Food and Beverage Services can be broadly defined as the process of preparing, presenting and serving of food and beverages to the customers.

F&B Services can be of the following two types −

• On Premise − Food is delivered where it is prepared. The customer visits the premise to avail the food service. The premises are kept well-equipped and well-finished to attract customers to avail F&B service.
  For example, restaurants, pubs, etc.
• Off Premise or Outdoor Catering − This kind of service includes partial cooking, preparation, and service at customer’s premises. It is provided away from the F&B Services provider’s base on the occasion of major events which call for a large number of customers.

Types of F&B Services Operations

There are two broad types of F&B Services operations −

• Commercial − In this case, F&B Services is the primary business. The most known commercial catering establishments are — hotels, all kinds of restaurants, lounges, cafeterias, pubs, clubs, and bars.
• Non-Commercial − Non-commercial operations are secondary businesses in alliance with the main business. These F&B services mainly cater to their consumers with limited choice of food and beverages. These establishments often run under contracts. For example, food and beverage services provided at hospitals, hostels, and prisons.

In this tutorial, we mainly consider commercial food and beverage service sector. Let us first understand some common forms of F&B service.

What is Catering?

Catering is the business of providing foods and beverage service to the people at a remote location. It is a part of food and beverage service sector. For example, arranging food services at a wedding location.

What is QSR?

These are the fast food outlets called Quick Service Restaurants where the food is prepared, purchased, and generally consumed quickly. They are run with convenience as a main factor. Branded outlets such as McDonalds and Nando’s are QSRs.

What is FSR?

They are fine dining, family, specialty, ethnic, or theme restaurants called Full Service Restaurants where the food and beverage menu is wide and the customer’s expectations are high. They are operated with customer satisfaction and experience as the key factors.