F&B Deconstructed

DECONSTRUCTED

food & beverage

Tracy StuckrathCSEP, CMM, CFPM | Thrive! Meetings & Events | @tstuckrath

Line Cooks

F&B PROCESS

Meeting Planner

Convention Services Manager

Executive Chef

Banquet Captain

Attendee

Sous Chefs

Banquet Server

Banquet Chef

Sales Manager

©December 2015 | Thrive! Meetings & Events | @tstuckrath

F&B PROCESS

➤ Menu Design

➤ Food Choices

➤ Ordering

➤ Preparation

➤ Service Types & Levels

➤ Labor

➤ Safety Needs

➤ Quantity


ACTIVITYF&B Deconstructed

ACTIVITY©December 2015 | Thrive! Meetings & Events | @tstuckrath

SCENARIO

➤ National Sales Meeting

➤ Las Vegas

➤ 14,000 attendees + 500 staff

➤ 60% Male; 40% Female

➤ 4 days

➤ 60 food functions

➤ All buffets

➤ Multinational/cultural attendees

➤ 860 dietary requests from previous year


TEAM PUZZLE➤ Attendee

➤ Meeting Planner

➤ Sales Manager

➤ Convention Services Manager

➤ Executive Chef

➤ Banquet Captain

➤ Banquet Server


MEETING PLANNER

Oversees entire event


MEETING PLANNERYou are responsible for executing the international sales meeting for your company. You have 300 staff (10 full-time and 280 contractors) working for you. Your F&B Manager has 12 senior level event contractors working for her to manage 60 meal functions. Last year $160k was wasted on food prepared for attendees who need special meals - custom eaters. You need to minimize the waste while still accommodating the needs of the potential 860 attendees (those who requested meals last year). You need to also provide meals for 300 staff and 200 vendor staff.

➤ What processes do you have to obtain dietary needs of attendees and staff?

➤ What methods of communication will you employ to inform attendees and staff on receiving their meals?

➤ Do you have a process to accommodate needs and if so, what does it entail?

➤ How do you communicate or share attendee needs with your F&B partners?

➤ How do you ensure the needs are met properly by the hotel?

➤ What do you do when the needs have not been met?

➤ What emergency procedures are in place in case someone has an allergic reaction?


EXECUTIVE CHEF

Plans & Manages Menus


EXECUTIVE CHEFYou are responsible for all food production used in the venue’s restaurants, banquet functions and other outlets. Included in your responsibilities are developing menus, specifying food purchases and creating recipes, supervising front and back-of-house staff, developing and monitoring food and labor budgets for the department and maintaining the highest professional food quality and sanitation standards.

The client has requested that all food be labeled if it contains wheat, soy, shellfish, peanuts, nuts, milk and egg and if the menu items are vegan and/or vegetarian.

The client has informed you after the contract was signed of the following special meals: (180) Gluten- & Dairy-Free, (70) Vegan, (290) Hindu Vegetarian, (42) Kosher and (80) Halal that will be served at breakfast and lunch. No special meals will be provided at the receptions. The client wasted $160k on special meals last year and needs to eliminate or reduce that loss this year. Guests requesting a special meal will have a code on their badge and be asked to pick up their meal in a designated area of the meal room.

➤ Do you have a process to accommodate needs and if so, what does it entail?Do you use off-site caterers to meet the needs or prepare in-house?

➤ Since the client has no additional budget to spend on special meals, how can you help them meet the needs and keep the budget in tact?

➤ How do you ensure the needs are met properly front and back of the house?

➤ What do you do when an attendee questions the meal being served as one containing their allergen?

➤ What processes do you have in place in the case the needs are not met?


ATTENDEEEvent participant


ATTENDEEYou are a 30-year-old woman with a life-threatening allergy to seafood and you maintain a gluten-free diet. As a sales executive for your company you must attend the event along with your staff from 10 countries, some of whom maintain special diets as well.

During registration, it states both breakfast and lunch will be provided every day and dietary needs will be met, if information is provided by you. There are three evening receptions, but it states no dietary needs will be accommodated. It also states that guests requesting a special meal will have a code on their badge and are to pick up their meal in a designated area of the meal room.

➤ Online registration asked you to provide your dietary requirements with check boxes listing allergens to wheat, soy, shellfish, peanuts, nuts, milk and egg and the options of Gluten/Dairy-Free, Vegan, Hindu Vegetarian, Kosher and Halal. There is also an open-ended area. How do you respond?

➤ You supplied your requirements through registration, but they have not received any communication about meals since then. What steps do you take to ensure you have a safe meal?

➤ At the first meal function, there is not a meal ready for you even though your badge has a code on it. What do you do? What impression does this make on you?

➤ The receptions are on the exhibit show floor and you have appointments set up with several exhibitors, so you must attend. What will you do for dinner?


BANQUET CAPTAIN

Oversees wait staff


BANQUET CAPTAINYour main duties include preparing banquet rooms or events, supervising and coordinating the work of chefs and kitchen help and training banquet staff on proper service, sanitation and etiquette. Banquet captains also interact with guests to ensure all their food and drink requests are satisfied. You ensure the proper set-up, tear-down and completion of the event as specified in the BEO.

There are 60 attendee and staff meal functions—all buffets—over the course of the event. Your banquet staff consists of 40% full-time and 60% “B” and “C” level servers who work part-time.

The client has requested the following special meals: (180) Gluten- & Dairy-Free, (70) Vegan, (290) Hindu Vegetarian, (42) Kosher and (80) Halal that will be served at breakfast and lunch. No special meals will be provided at the receptions. Guests requesting a special meal will have a code on their badge and be asked to pick up their meal in a designated area of the meal room.

➤ What processes do you have to prepare your staff for the meal functions and handling the special meals?

➤ Do the staff know the ingredients of the menu items?

➤ How will you communicate ingredients to the attendees?

➤ What processes are in place for your staff to ensure the attendees get their meals?

➤ What procedures do you and your staff follow in case someone has an allergic reaction?

➤ What do you do when attendee tells you that the meal he was served is not to the same level and quality as his colleagues?


BANQUET SERVER

Serves F&B to attendees


BANQUET SERVERBanquet servers are responsible for accommodating all guests at a function while circulating the room. Anticipating the needs of the guests and responding politely to their requests are common required tasks. You report directly to the Banquet Captain who has 10 banquet “area” managers working for him on each meal function.

You are a “B” level server who called in and picked up this event on Friday (today is Sunday). You will be working the entire event (five days) for the breakfast, lunch and receptions. You will arrive for your shift at 4:00 a.m. each morning to prep for breakfast at 7:30 a.m. The number of attendees for each meal will vary from 1,500 to 7,000.

Menu labels listing item name, allergens (wheat, soy, shellfish, peanuts, nuts, milk and egg) and vegan/vegetarian have been created for each of the 20 buffet tables. YOU are responsible for placing them on the buffets. You have not been provided any other ingredient list for the items. During service, you will be restocking the buffet.

➤ From whom and when do you receive training on the menu?

➤ Where will the buffet labels be placed?

➤ Do you know the ingredients of the menu items?

➤ An attendee approaches you stating they cannot eat anything on the buffet because of an allergy to fish and gluten. What do you do?


CATERING SERVICES

MANAGERCoordinates venue services


CATERING SERVICES MANAGERYour main job function is to ensure that all events run as planned, helping coordinate meetings, conventions and other special events for the client at your property. You work to synchronize the needs of the client and the hotel staff, including banquets, set-up, AV, security, housing and more.

The sales team handed this event to you seven months ago. With 14,000 attendees and 75% of the meeting space taken up by this client, there are a lot of moving parts. You will have five “red” coats working with you daily to ensure the client’s needs are met. The daily meal functions include multiple breakfasts, AM and PM breaks and lunches as well as a cocktail receptions on the exhibit show floor each night. The client is providing food, but 10 different exhibitors are also placing food orders.

The meeting planner told you after the contract was signed that there will be 600+ special meal requests that need to be accommodated at the breakfasts and lunches functions. They have no additional money to spend on these meals so the menus need to be adjusted to meet all the needs.

➤ How do you coordinate between the chef and planner on the menu?

➤ What steps do you take to ensure the food is accurately labeled and prepared?

➤ Where and how will be the special meals be presented - on the buffet? in a separate area and pre-plated?

➤ How will you handle requests during the receptions? Will there be menu items that are free-from allergens and meet other needs?

➤ How will the exhibitors food be managed and will it be labeled?


HOTEL SALES

MANAGERSold the event space


SALES MANAGERIt took you two years to land this client. After the contract was signed, you found out that the group had more than 800 special meal requests at the last event. The catering services manager and chef are in a tizzy since this is adding more cost and labor the F&B budget that the client says they do not have room to wiggle. You want to ensure the client is happy, the guests are fed and the client comes back next year, but you also need to minimize costs on your end so you don’t lose money.

➤ What should/could you have done when courting the client to find out about their needs in advance?

➤ When finalizing the contract, are there steps and/or clauses that could help alleviate the last minute request by the client?

➤ The extra meals are going to cost anywhere from 25-50% more than budgeted. How do you work with your client to make it work?

➤ How can you work with your culinary team to ensure the needs are met safely and deliciously.

➤ How much do you know about your culinary team’s capabilities in designing specialty meals? Is this something you can sell in the future?

➤ The client wasted $160k on special meals last year and needs to eliminate or reduce that loss this year. How can you help them.


An attendee calls in to say she has a newly diagnosed medical condition that requires her to avoid all spicy food, beef, pork,

gluten, dark greens and sesame.

Lunch will be served in 1 hour.She needs the same for the next 3 days.

ACTIVITYNew Orders

CHALLENGE #1©December 2015 | Thrive! Meetings & Events | @tstuckrath

Your F&B staff on level 3 and in the arena call to say they need the following meals for staff members:

6 gluten-free, 2 peanut free, 1 vegan and 2 vegetarian. You can not place any additional speciality food orders.

What do you do?

ACTIVITYStaff Orders


An attendee picked up her specialty breakfast. Once seated, she removes the plate cover to inspect the meal, but immediately replaces the cover

and pushes it away. When asked if there is something wrong, she says she ordered a gluten-free, dairy-free meal and questions whether the potato

casserole served with the scrambled eggs and bacon is either.

How do you handle it?

ACTIVITYDietary Needs


Attendee has eaten something off the buffet that does not “taste right” to her. She has a life-threatening allergy to seafood. Her eyes start to itch

and she says her throat is starting to swell. She has her epinephrine pens in her purse. When reviewing the menu, you find out the chicken was

marinated Worcestershire sauce.

What procedures are in place to handle this situation?

ACTIVITYAllergic Reaction


This year, you have 660 special dietary meal requests. At any given meal function, around 40% of the specialty meals are not picked up. You are

meeting your guarantees for “standard” meals. What remains are: 60% Gluten/Dairy-free 20% Hindu Vegetarian

80% Kosher 70% Vegan 20% Halal

What steps could/can you create to reduce the waste?

ACTIVITYWasted Food



1.8Million


225Million

© April 2015 | Proprietary and Confidential | Thrive! Meetings & Events | @tstuckrath


54.5Billion

OBLIGATION Legal | Ethical | Financial


DUTY OF CARE➤ Food Safety

➤ Workplace Safety Laws

➤ Disability Laws

➤ Allergen Labeling Laws

➤ EU 1169

➤ Stock Epinephrine


RFPs

Pre-Con

Registration

Site Visits

SurveysTastings BEOs

INFORMATIONrequest & provide


Check the food functions you plan to attend

Indicate Your Dietary Restrictions

Disclaimers

Eggs Wheat Milk Soy Crustaceans Fish Tree Nuts Peanuts Mollusks Gluten Mustard Sesame

Lupin Celery Sulfites Tomatoes Buckwheat Peaches Pork Barley Bee Pollens Royal Jelly Other _______________

REGISTRATIONVegetarian Vegan Halal Kosher Gluten-free Food Allergy Other________ None

Is there treatment or accommodation you want us to be aware of to ensure your health and safety at the event?

Please complete this emergency action plan for yourself

Dietary restrictions must be indicated here to receive a special meal for the food functions. Special requests cannot be provided at meal functions without a ticket.

We strive to work with our food service vendors to provide safe and delicious meals for those with dietary restrictions. Despite taking every precaution, we cannot guarantee that menu items are free of trace amounts of allergens or other ingredients.

I require a CERTIFIED Kosher meal. I require a CERTIFIED Halal meal? My meal must not contain shellfish, pork and/or meat and dairy together.

A vegetarian meal is acceptable? A vegan meal is acceptable?

© April 2015 | Proprietary and Confidential | Thrive! Meetings & Events | @tstuckrath

Gluten-Free I have celiac disease and/or non-celiac gluten-sensitivity I’m following a gluten-free diet by choice

© August 2015 | Thrive! Meetings & Events | @tstuckrath

COMMUNICATE

• RFPs • Contracts • Registration

• BEOs • Meal Tickets • Menus

• Apps • Labels • Surveys

CONTRACT CLAUSES

We ask that you…….


FOOD ALLERGEN LABELING AND CONSUMER PROTECTION ACT OF 2004 OPPORTUNITY

© June 2015 | Proprietary and Confidential | Thrive! Meetings & Events | @tstuckrath

REALITY“The shared meal is no small thing. It is a foundation…”

©December 2015 | Thrive! Meetings & Events | @thrivemeetings

Michael Pollen

EVERY EFFORTTracy Stuckrath CSEP, CMM, CFPM (404) 242-0530 [email protected]

www.thrivemeetings.com @tstuckrath thrivemeetingsevents

www.thrivemeetings.com/mpiMI

mailto:[email protected]

http://www.thrivemeetings.com

http://www.thrivemeetings.com/MpiMI