Important Restaurant and Food Service Job Skills

Working in food service can be an invaluable experience. Food service jobs are almost always available and often well paid. Additionally, they can be opportunities to develop further skills that you can apply to many other professions. 

When most people think of restaurant and food service jobs, waiters and cooks usually come to mind. However, food services include food prep, table prep, event planning, cleaning, reception, and everything in between. Food services is often seen as a sub-industry within hospitality.

What Are Restaurant and Food Service Skills?

"Back of house" restaurant employees prepare and present food or clean dishes, while "front of house" workers welcome and interact with customers. Everyone works together as a team to create a memorable, pleasant experience for all patrons.

Although in some respects food service jobs are very similar from restaurant to restaurant, each business is unique.

There are many different roles within restaurant work, and establishments vary in how they divide up responsibilities.

Small restaurants might ask everybody to do a little bit of everything, while others place their staff in more specialized roles. 

Restaurant workers might have to be artists, communicators, managers, or sometimes arbitrators (conflict and issue resolution is important in hospitality work). Not everyone can handle this type of work, but those who can often make a career of it.

A chef does not necessarily have to know how to wait tables, while a server need not know how to cook (though knowing how to talk about food might be essential).

Although the type of restaurant does matter (proper behavior for wait staff is very different in a formal dining room versus a greasy-spoon-style diner), skills can usually be transferred from one venue to another, or even across one role to the next. 

Types of Restaurant and Food Services Skills

Customer Service

Although customer service skills are obviously necessary for the front of the house, a strong service ethic is critical for everyone on the team, including those who never see patrons. The host/hostess and wait staff must nurture a welcome atmosphere. Managers sometimes need to calm angry customers by explaining policies or addressing problems. Line cooks and dishwashers have invisible but critical roles in customer happiness and health and must take their responsibilities seriously.

• Customer Relations
• Detail Oriented
• Directing Customers
• Engage with Public
• Friendly
• Ingratiating Customers
• Interpersonal
• Patient
• People Skills
• Verbal Communication
• Service Oriented

Physical Speed and Strength

Servers need to carry awkward and sometimes heavy loads without stumbling or spilling. Dishwashers need to load and unload machines quickly without chipping plates or cutting themselves with knives. Side tasks, such as refilling salt shakers, must be done quickly and efficiently. The ability to move at a fast, steady pace, without distraction, is critical.

• Ability to Learn Quickly
• Enthusiastic
• Fast Worker
• Flexible
• Multitasking
• Working Quickly
• Serving
• Short Order Cooking

Safety Consciousness

Restaurants can be dangerous places. Improperly handled food could sicken, or actually kill, customers. Mishandled cleaning products can cause chemical burns. Walking behind a busy line cook without remembering to say “behind you” could result in serious thermal burns or accidents with knives. Millions of people enter and leave restaurants safely every day because restaurant staff members work together to keep themselves and their customers safe.

• Compliance
• Risk Assessment
• Follow Food Safety Procedures
• Safety
• Conscientious

Attention to Detail

Attention to detail is closely related to safely. Servers must remember which diner ordered the special without mint and whether there might be flecks of pepper in the dressing because some people have serious and unusual allergies or preferences that must be met. Cooks must keep their tools and workstations scrupulously clean, or food poisoning might result. Even when an unhappy diner might be less of a priority under rigorous demands of greater emergencies, keeping track of the needs of multiple tables in a noisy, chaotic environment is grueling work.

• Attentive
• Active Listening
• Situational Awareness
• Compliance
• Cashing Out Customers
• Cleaning Tables
• Clearing Food
• Enter Orders
• Food Expediting
• Food Allergies
• Handling Money
• Receive and Process Phone Orders
• Resolve Guest Concerns
• Waiting on Tables

Communication

The ability to communicate lies at the heart of both customer service and teamwork. From promoting specials to putting in orders to reminding co-workers that the floor near the salad bar is slippery, restaurant workers must be able to communicate effectively.

• Oral Communication
• Written Communication
• Nonverbal Communication
• Active Listening
• Positive Attitude

More Restaurant and Food Services Skills

• Assisting the Cook
• Bartending
• Bussing
• Cooking
• Dishwashing
• Employee Relations
• Food Knowledge
• Hiring
• Interviewing
• Inventory Management
• Maintain Workstation
• Maintain Table Appearance
• Management
• Math
• Operate Fryer
• Operate Grill
• Operate Oven
• Ordering Supplies
• Point of Sale Systems
• Prepping Food
• Presenting Menus
• Refilling Condiments
• Register Operation
• Reservation Scheduling
• Sanitation Procedures
• Taking Orders
• Team Building
• Teamwork
• Willing to Learn
• Supervising