There are two parts to every successful restaurant: the front of house and back of house. They have different functions, but a restaurant’s success depends on both parts working together to create a memorable dining experience for customers.
What Is the Back of House?
As the name implies, the back of house is the “back” part of a restaurant. It’s the part customers generally don’t see, but the back of house plays a critical role in ensuring customers have a delightful experience.
Think of the back of house as the backbone of the entire operation. It’s where the ingredients are stored, food preparation happens, and administrative tasks take place, like calculating the number of covers for a service or taking care of payroll.
How Is the Back of House Different From the Front of House?
Some restaurants have an open concept where customers in the dining room can peek into the kitchen, but most of the back of house is invisible to diners. It’s very different from the front of house, which encompasses everything your customer sees and interacts with. The entryway, the host stand, the bar, and the dining room are all part of the front of house, as are the maitre d, the host or hostess, the servers, the bartenders, and even the bussers.
While customers see and interact with the front of house, the back of house plays an equally important role in the customer experience. They are just as likely to remember slow or inattentive service as they are a dirty glass or salty food.
What’s in the Back of House?
The back of house is where every meal is prepared, and staff members get ready for their shifts. It’s also where the business and administrative aspects are handled, deliveries are made, and the trash goes out.
Kitchen
The kitchen is probably the biggest part of the back of house. It’s where everyone from the head chef on down ensures orders are prepared quickly and correctly.
Break Area
The break area is a crucial part of the back of house in that it supports every employee. It’s where front and back of house staff can take a much-needed break during slow periods, safely store their personal items, and change into their uniforms.
Office
No matter how large or small the restaurant, every back of house needs an office. It’s where you can lock up excess cash when you can’t run to the bank, a safe place to count receipts, and a place to maintain all your records.
Delivery Area
The back of house is also where you’ll find the delivery area. It’s where ingredients, supplies, and alcohol are dropped off and gives the back of house staff a centralized location to receive orders.
Dishwashing Area
It’s unlikely you’ll have enough clean dishes to make it through service once, so quickly washing and sanitizing dishes ensures no one has to wait for a plate or fork before getting food out to customers.
Who Works in the Back of House?
While not every restaurant will have every role, these are some common staff positions you’ll find in the back of house.
Kitchen Manager
Kitchen managers are more common in large restaurants. They oversee the entire kitchen and often the entire back of house staff. Kitchen managers ensure the kitchen runs smoothly during service and may coordinate communications and operations between the front and back of house during busy times.
Kitchen managers may also help with inventory management, recipe and menu development, and hiring and training new staff.
Executive Chef or Head Chef
The executive chef or head chef is the next most senior staff member after the kitchen manager. Not every restaurant has an executive chef. They usually work for large operations or restaurants with multiple locations.
In either case, the executive chef or head chef creates the menu, engineers the recipes, and decides how every dish should be prepared and served. They often do this with a careful eye toward inventory management, like creating specials around seasonal ingredients.
Sous Chef
The sous chef is the second in command and leads the kitchen or back of house when the restaurant manager or executive chef is not around. They know how to prepare every dish and can help any cook in a pinch.
Line Cook
Line cooks usually work at a specific station that focuses on one aspect of food preparation. For example, a fry cook, grill cook, and saute cook are all line cooks, but the fry cook only prepares fried items. That could be fried onion strings to go on top of a salad or deep frying fish for an entree.
Pastry Chef
A pastry chef is a kind of line cook, but this person focuses strictly on creating and preparing desserts. Usually, these are specialty desserts, like chocolates or baked goods.
Expeditor
The expeditor serves as a crucial link between the front of house and the back of house. They ensure the servers know when their orders are ready, serve as a final check before sending the order out, and check on orders when customers have questions.
What Happens in the Back of House?
While food prep is a significant activity, the back of house is responsible for other tasks that contribute to a restaurant’s success.
Inventory Management
The back of house is responsible for inventory management. In addition to ensuring they have enough ingredients on hand, the back of house should also have a good idea of what items are big sellers and which ones aren’t. This can help the restaurant manager or owner forecast what will sell and adjust orders accordingly.
Food Safety
The back of house is responsible for a majority of the food safety, sanitation, and hygiene in a restaurant. They have to ensure food is stored at a safe temperature — whether raw or cooked — and make sure that all food is prepared safely (like not undercooking chicken).
Menu Planning and Recipe Development
The chef, sous chef, and line cooks are all back of house staff and play a role in menu development and recipe planning. They can create specials that take advantage of seasonal offerings, play up local cuisines, and source ingredients close to the restaurant to help decrease its carbon footprint.
Food Cost Management
Food cost management plays a significant role in a restaurant’s revenue. In addition to inventory management and menu planning, the back of house ensures no food item goes to waste. Using up items before they expire or spoil is part of food cost management, as is monitoring food costs and adjusting menu items to combat inflationary pressures.
Common Back of House Slang and Terminology
Restaurants have specialized terms and slang that help employees communicate efficiently without letting customers know that something is amiss. The back of house is no exception and has unique slang terms that keep staff in the loop.
- 86. Sometimes, the chef runs out of ingredients to cook a specific menu item. When that happens, the dish is 86’d, meaning it’s no longer on the menu.
- Behind. Staff in the back of house will say “behind” to let someone know they are right behind them.
- Corner. Another way to let someone know where you are. This is usually said when someone is moving around a corner and can’t see or isn’t sure they’ll be seen.
- Drop. When it’s time to cook the side dish, the chef will let the team know it’s time to start by saying drop.
- Fire. When it’s time to start cooking an order.
- Hands. Said when someone needs extra servers to help carry food.
- Heard. Asking the person you’re speaking to to acknowledge what was said.
- In the weeds. Being extremely busy. When someone says they’re in the weeds, they’re letting you know they have a lot to do and could use extra help.
- In the window or Window. Letting servers or expeditors know the food is ready to be served,
- Misfire. An order that was prepared incorrectly
- On the fly. Any order that needs to be cooked at the last minute, as opposed to being prepped in advance. Dishes are usually cooked on the fly to please a guest.
Two Halves to Make a Whole
Just like live theater has a front stage and a back-stage, your restaurant has a front of house and back of house. And though each part plays a different role in your restaurant, they work together to ensure diners are happy and return to the dining room.
If you’re wondering how to coordinate your front and back of house staff, looking for ways to improve your menu engineering or inventory management, or want to improve your restaurant’s operational efficiency, Kezner Consulting can help. Our experts have years of experience helping restaurants enhance operations and boost their bottom line. Contact us today for a free consultation.
