Comparison Of Food And Beverage Operations In Cordis Hotel And W Hotel, Hong Kong

Background of Food and Beverage Industry

What Is The Differences Between Cordis Hotel Hong Kong W Hotel Hong Kong?

The origin of food and beverage industry dates back to history. When the ancient people started travelling to different places for different purposes, they stopped at various places for having food, drinks and rest. This opportunity was grabbed by some local people and they started supplying the basic amenities to the travellers. The food and beverage industry grew from this concept and now it has gone global from local. In recent times, the operations in the food and beverage industry have become extremely diverse in terms of cuisines, service, deliveries, ingredients and equipment (Xiao, O’Neill and Mattila 2012).

The research report is aimed to make a comparison between two different food and beverage businesses or operations. Food and beverage sector is comprised of institutions that are engaged in the making of several and diverse types of food and drinks, for instant or late consumption, for buffet or a la carte service and, on or off the premises (Riley 2005). The food and beverage sector operations include a number of undertakings that engage the staff with purchase of ingredients and raw materials, inventory management, equipment, presenting and serving the food and beverages and maintaining quality of the services. The nature and size of the management of the food and beverage operation regulate the size of the service areas and also influence the style of delivery service (Waller 2009). Different types of services include different types of equipment. This is a large industry operating all over the world and is endlessly growing.        

The thesis statement of the research report is to make a comparison between the two types of service areas in the food and beverage sections of two renowned hotels in Hong Kong. It aims to highlight how the services areas are different or similar in styles, type of equipment needed, the advantages and disadvantages of the service styles across the two hotels.

Cordis Hotel and W Hotel in Hong Kong are chosen for this research report. Both the hotels are quite popular and luxurious and offer great food and beverage to the guests. Cordis Hotel is situated in the heart of the Kowloon city, Hong Kong with 664 suites and rooms in a 42 storied building. It has a collection of contemporary and innovative restaurants and bars, state-of-the-art banquets and conferences halls, and excellent work out provisions (virtualfieldtrips.edu.au 2018). The restaurants are almost always full. There are open kitchens, where the customers can see the food prepared by the chefs. It is very popular among the guests, as they prefer unwinding, indulging and having fun in Cordis Hotel. In the 6^th floor, it has placed the Ming Court Restaurant, which is two Michelin Star restaurant in the city. It houses the finest, organic, boutique, unique and vintage wines. The Ming Celler has around 380 wines from 20 different countries over 100 regions. Other than that, they also have The Place Restaurant, Alibi Bar, The Backyard Bar, which are all very popular in Kowloon (cordishotels.com 2018).

Objective of the Research Report

W Hotel has themed its lobby as per the story of Alice in Wonderland to provide the guest a fantasy and luxurious experience in West Kowloon, Hong Kong. It is situated in the third tallest building, W Hong Kong (virtualfieldtrips.edu.au 2018). The hotel provides an excellent scope for relaxing and experiencing great food and drinks. It offers many restaurants and bars, such as, WooBar, The Kitchen Restaurant, Sing Yin Cantonese Restaurant and main kitchen, situated in various floors. The Kitchen Restaurant offers continental cuisine, in a la carte and in buffet, while the Sing Yin Cantonese Restaurant has specialty in Cantonese food (w-hongkong.com 2018).

The first service area chosen for the report is the FOH F&B Attendant. The Ming Court Restaurant from the Cordis Hotel and Sing Yin Cantonese Restaurant from the W Hotel are chosen for the comparison.

Being a two Michelin Star restaurant, Ming Court is one of the most expensive as well as very popular restaurants in Hong Kong (cordishotels.com 2018). It offers a great combination of most authentic Cantonese cuisine with most exclusive wines, collected from around the globe. Since, it is a fine dining restaurant, the décor and menus are prepared to maintain the luxury of the place and sophistication of the food. On the other hand, Sing Yin Cantonese Restaurant in W Hotel is not a Michelin star restaurant, but it belongs to the same genre of food like Ming Court, that is, the Cantonese cuisine. It is a casual dining restaurant. Both the restaurants follow pre-plated service or American service style. Ming Court also offers private dining while Sing Yin has options of takeout, special occasion dining, private dining and local cuisines. Ming Court and Sing Yin both have only lunch and dinner options.

The role of FOH F&B attendant is very crucial in both of these restaurants. Their job is to welcome the guests, ask them to wait in the waiting area if the dining area is full, handing the menu to the guest and take the order, communicate to the kitchen staff about the orders and if any specific requirement is mentioned by the guests and have detailed knowledge about the menu, so that, they can guide the guests through the menu and suggest if necessary (Enz 2012). Their job is similar in both the restaurants.

The service style in MingCourt is fine dining while that in Sing Yin is casual dining. In fine dining, full services are provided with dedicated meal courses, priced very high. Décor of the fine dining is made of very high quality materials and it maintains exclusive style. It usually has a set of codes for the guests to follow, which often includes a dress code. On the other hand, in casual dining, moderately priced food is served. It can be a buffet service or a table service. The atmosphere is casual and usually there is no dress code. MingCourt has highly detailed a la carte menu with numerous options, hence, the attendants need to have a great knowledge about the each item in detail. Sing Yin has a limited and small menu of a la carte menus for lunch and dinner and special occasions and the attendants must have a detailed knowledge on the ingredients of the items in the menu.

Introduction to Cordis Hotel and W Hotel

The FOH F&B attendant requires tablet for taking the orders and checking the vacancy status in MingCourt. They also use wireless headphones for internal communication. The attendants in Sing Yin use pen and paper for taking the food order and check the available table status through electronic system. The equipment for taking the order is different but checking the availability of tables is done using similar device. The headphones are not used in Sing Yin for internal communication. In both restaurants, the attendants must wear uniforms.

The primary advantage of fine dining is to gain an exclusive experience from dining. The quality of authentic food, ambience, service quality, attention from the attendants, privacy, all contribute in making the experience. However, the biggest disadvantage of fine dining is the extreme high cost. Secondly, sometimes, the rigidity of the restaurant codes does not allow the guests to unwind and enjoy. On the other hand, casual dining does not offer the best authentic cuisine, a very high quality interior, privacy, which can be disadvantageous for some, but the major advantage is the cost effectiveness. Many casual restaurants, like, Sing Yin provides high quality food and service at a moderate price, in a casual atmosphere, which makes these more popular among the masses.

Figure 1: Ming Court dining area

(Source: cordishotels.com 2018)

Figure 2: Sing Yin dining area

(Source: w-hongkong.com 2018)

The kitchens of the restaurants are situated in the back of the house. None of the restaurant has open kitchen. The kitchen in both places are made with state-of-the-art facilities, however, the kitchen of Ming Court has more expensive and more high quality interior than that in Sing Yin. They provide made to order service. However, W Hotel has a main kitchen for all the restaurants in the building and Sing Yin is a part of that (w-hongkong.com 2018). Thus, Sing Yin has a shared kitchen unlike Ming Court that has its own kitchen.

The primary function of the kitchen staff is to make the food. Along with making the food, they also present the food in the best possible manner to make it look attractive and delicious. The chefs in the kitchens are the ultimate responsible people for creating the best memory for the guests, who come to these restaurants. If the guests had a good time in the restaurant, experienced a high quality food and amazed by the presentation of the food, it is likely that they would come back to the restaurant. The chefs remain at the back of the house kitchen, but they are the ones who do the most critical job in a restaurant. The kitchen staff in Ming Court has more expert knowledge on authentic Cantonese cuisine and as a two Michelin Star restaurant; they maintain the quality of the Michelin Star food and service quality. On the other hand, the kitchen staff of Sing Yin is more experienced in local Cantonese food. Sing Yin has a smaller menu than Ming Court and hence, the staff of Sing Yin does not have much scope for experimenting and enhancing their skills with more dishes.

Both the kitchens have the basic kitchen equipment, such as, freezers, utensils, microwave, ovens, refrigerator, and many more. However, Ming Court has more high quality, costly and state-of-the-art utensils, while Sing Yin and other kitchen staff of W Hotel use moderately priced appliances in the main kitchen. In both the restaurants, the kitchen staff is required to wear uniforms and chef hats.

The kitchen service area for the both the restaurants are almost similar but they differ in quality, price, size and trained staff. Ming Court requires more trained staff in the kitchen as per the Michelin guide. They hire extremely qualified chefs with degrees in hotel management and a good amount of experience in food making. Creativity is more important in Ming Court than in Sing Yin.

Conclusion

The report discusses about the similarities and differences of two major service areas, namely, FOH F&B Attendant and BOH Kitchen of two major restaurants in Hong Kong, Ming Court and Sing Yin Cantonese Restaurant. The basic nature of service is different in the two restaurants, as the first is fine dining and the latter is casual dining. However, the basic functions of the F&B attendants and the kitchen staff in both the restaurants remain same, only the style of delivery and facilities are slightly more sophisticated in Ming Court. In Ming Court, every facilities and services by the F&B attendants are of very high quality, such as, using of tablets for taking orders, personalized services, private dinner facilities, information regarding food ingredients are paid high attention. The chefs and staff in kitchen are highly experienced in authentic Cantonese food as they maintain their Michelin star status. On the other hand, Sing Yin also provides high quality service in casual dining options but not with high level of technology for attendants and a private kitchen for the chefs. However, Sing Yin has also gained a reputation for itself as one of the best places for Cantonese food in Hong Kong at a moderate price.

References

cordishotels.com, 2018. Michelin Star Fine Dining Cantonese Restaurant | Cordis, Hong Kong. [online] Cordishotels.com. Available at: https://www.cordishotels.com/en/hong-kong/restaurants-and-bars/ming-court/ [Accessed 4 May 2018].

Enz, C.A., 2012. Strategies for the implementation of service innovations. Cornell Hospitality Quarterly, 53(3), pp.187-195. [Available at: https://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.685.2983&rep=rep1&type=pdf]

Riley, M., 2005. Food and beverage management: A review of change. Management, 17(1), pp.88-93. [Available at: https://s3.amazonaws.com/academia.edu.documents/36035025/food_and_beverage_cos_control.pdf?AWSAccessKeyId=AKIAIWOWYYGZ2Y53UL3A&Expires=1529901156&Signature=LnEwpr4vBeFdV3gLFL3sUqoG4eI%3D&response-content-disposition=inline%3B%20filename%3DInternational_Journal_of_Contemporary_Ho.pdf]

virtualfieldtrips.edu.au, 2018. Virtual Field Trip. [online] Virtualfieldtrips.edu.au. Available at: https://www.virtualfieldtrips.edu.au/vft/cordis.html#cordis_mingrestaurant [Accessed 4 May 2018].

virtualfieldtrips.edu.au, 2018. Virtual Field Trip. [online] Virtualfieldtrips.edu.au. Available at: https://www.virtualfieldtrips.edu.au/vft/whotel.html#whotel_kitchen [Accessed 4 May 2018].

Waller, K., 2009. Improving food and beverage performance. Taylor & Francis. [Available at: https://books.google.com.au/books?hl=en&lr=&id=82fsWU6GF4sC&oi=fnd&pg=PR1&ots=C0ltKawjTj&sig=sPhsTmZwf2qB2eR6pNLwSThXbbw#v=onepage&q&f=false]

w-hongkong.com, 2018. SING YIN Cantonese Restaurant. [online] W Hong Kong. Available at: https://www.w-hongkong.com/en/sing-yin [Accessed 4 May 2018].

Xiao, Q., O’Neill, J.W. and Mattila, A.S., 2012. The role of hotel owners: the influence of corporate strategies on hotel performance. Management, 24(1), pp.122-139. [Available at: https://146.186.15.14/users/j/w/jwo3/documents/HotelCorporateStrategy.pdf]