Food and hospitality

Each quick service restaurant has what we call a front-of-house (FOH) and a back-of-house (BOH). What are their roles? How do they work together? This course will help you learn more about a restaurant's FOH and BOH.

Get to know your restaurant’s front of house! This lesson aims to help you know more about the role, importance, and expectations of a quick service restaurant's front of house.

Let's learn more about the role, importance, and expectations of a quick service restaurant’s front of house.


Your name is Alex, an employee from a local sales company.


Every Friday, your team eats together in a local restaurant. Today, your team decided to eat at the nearby burger and sandwich chain.


As soon as you enter the restaurant, your team moves to different places. Others line up to the cashier to order, while others immediately go to the eating area to reserve tables.


While waiting for your orders, you catch up with one another about your week, while others take turns to freshen up in the bathroom.


Your orders all arrive soon. Your team spends a great night eating and talking to one another.


When everyone is finished, you share hugs, say your goodbyes, and go home to rest from the week’s worth of work.


All areas you can access as a customer are called the front of house.


Which areas of the restaurant did your team go to?


The Front of House
The front of house or the FOH refers to all parts and areas of the restaurant that customers can interact with.


Common areas under the FOH include the entry, waiting area, cashier lines, dining area, and restrooms.


Employees in charge of the FOH are called the front of house staff.


How can you become an excellent front of house staff?


Maintain cleanliness
Doing so maintains food safety and improves the overall dining experience. If there are problems in any area, do not hesitate to approach the manager for solutions.


What should you do when a customer is rude?


The Front of House

Get to know your restaurant’s back of house! This lesson aims to help you know more about the role, importance, and expectations of a quick service restaurant's back of house.

Let's learn more about the role, importance, and expectations of a quick service restaurant’s back of house.


In the last lesson,
We learned that the front of house refers to all parts and areas of the restaurant that customers can interact with.
Given that description, can you guess what a restaurant’s back of house is?


Let's recap!


The Back of House
Any part of the restaurant that the customer cannot see or experience is called the back of house or the BOH.


These are areas such as the kitchen, employee areas, and offices where either food is made or administrative tasks are accomplished.


The employees that handle BOH operations are called the back of house staff.


As back of house staff, you are important to the restaurant’s overall system.


You are responsible for making the restaurant’s main products: its food.


Similarly, non-cooking staff are also responsible for the overall operations of the restaurant.


There would simply be no restaurant without its main products and its overall system.


Take a guess:
What happens if you don’t maintain cleanliness in the kitchen?


The Back of House

The front and back of house have very different tasks, and that often leads to miscommunication. How can we deal with that? This lesson will show ways in how you can increase coordination and communication between the front and back of house.

Let's explore different ways on how we can increase the coordination between the front and back of house.


If the front and back of house don’t work together…


It’s possible that customers might experience the following:


No matter how great your food may be, it’s easy to lose customers if the service that they receive is bad.


Hopefully, those are experiences that we can avoid in the future.
Lucky for us...
...there are ways that we can use to completely avoid those problems!


Get to know your workmates
The first step to increasing communication is to know who you’re talking to.
Make sure to know your workmates, their positions, and tasks for ease of communication.


Promote community
An encouraging and supportive community allows for better teamwork among its members.
Engage in team-building opportunities to increase comfort among members.


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Getting to Know Your Restaurant’s FOH and BOH

Getting to Know Your Restaurant’s FOH and BOH Lessons

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