A fine dining restaurant is judged plate by plate and table by table. The kitchen brigade and the floor team must be skilled, steady and on time, through split shifts and late nights that few staff stay in for long.
Not sure what you need? Tell us about your business in six short steps and we will come to the first meeting prepared.
Share your requirementsA fine dining restaurant serves a tasting menu or an elaborate a la carte to a small number of covers each evening. The kitchen is organised as a brigade: executive chef, sous chefs, chefs de partie, commis and kitchen stewards. On the floor, a restaurant manager, captains, waiters and sommeliers or bar staff look after guests who notice detail. Prep starts mid-morning, there is a break, then dinner runs late. Weekends, holidays and events are the busiest days, so staff are rarely free then. Pay often includes a share of service charge or tips. See the food and beverage sector page and the restaurants and cafes hub for what the wider trade shares.
These are the places the people side of this kind of business tends to give way. The rest of this page works through them.
HR here has to work for each of these groups, not only the office. The set-up below is written with all of them in mind.
When a strong chef de partie leaves, the section slips, and the sous chef spends nights covering rather than leading.
Staff work lunch prep, rest for two hours and come back for a late dinner, ending near midnight with a long journey home.
The busiest days for guests are the days others meet family, and weekly offs are pushed into quiet midweek days.
How to pour, present, clear and speak to guests is taught by the nearest captain, and standards differ across shifts.
Kitchen, floor and stewards each think another group gets too much, and the rules are rarely written or explained.
Young cooks learn quickly, then leave for a bigger name or a cruise ship, taking the training with them.
Pressure at the pass leads to shouting, and the line between demanding and unfair is never agreed.
Start with the topics that matter most here: Learning and Development; Compensation, Payroll and Benefits; Career and Succession Management. Then work through the rest. Each topic is written for food and beverage, not in general.
Training planned from need rather than from the calendar.
Salary structure, payroll inputs and a month that closes on time.
Named backups for the roles that cannot be vacant.
How many people, in which roles, by when — and what they will cost.
Structure, reporting lines and who is allowed to decide what.
Requisition to joining, the same way every time.
A first day that is the same for the fifth joiner as the first.
Records, attendance, leave and the day-to-day HR that must simply work.
Goals, reviews and ratings that hold up in a conversation.
Communication, recognition and the conditions people actually work in.
Two routes — one for complaints, one for conduct — kept separate.
Policies a manager can apply, and obligations with owners and dates.
Induction, records, incident reporting and follow-through.
Who leaves, when, why — and which of them mattered.
Resignation to relieving letter, in a defined order.
Records that survive people, and approvals that do not queue.
A short monthly pack management actually reads.
An HR function that runs the same way every month.
The pieces a fine dining restaurants business puts in place, in an order that makes each easier. Open any card for the detail.
Commis, demi chef, chef de partie and sous levels with sample tasks at each rung and a link to pay.
What this coversHideCommis, demi chef, chef de partie and sous levels with sample tasks at each rung and a link to pay. See competency work.
Greeting, seating, order taking, wine service, clearing and farewell, each with two or three lines.
What this coversHideGreeting, seating, order taking, wine service, clearing and farewell, each with two or three lines. Captains teach from the same page.
A fortnight roster published early, with a fixed pattern for offs and fair sharing of late nights.
What this coversHideA fortnight roster published early, with a fixed pattern for offs and fair sharing of late nights. The attendance, shift and leave process can hold the rules.
Who receives a share, in what proportion and how it is announced, explained to every new joiner on day one.
What this coversHideWho receives a share, in what proportion and how it is announced, explained to every new joiner on day one.
A stage rotation across sections, a named mentor and a date for review.
What this coversHideA stage rotation across sections, a named mentor and a date for review. Learning and development supports it.
What is acceptable under pressure and what is not, agreed with the chefs and applied to everyone, including senior ones.
What this coversHideWhat is acceptable under pressure and what is not, agreed with the chefs and applied to everyone, including senior ones.
Before changing anything, find out what is true today. These checks take an afternoon and tell you which of the topics above to start with.
Share your requirementsConfirm with a qualified professional. What applies to you depends on your business, your state and your arrangements, and it changes. This page describes practice. It does not state a legal position.
The services below fit this kind of business best. Each starts by recording where you stand, and every later report compares against that. We do not promise outcomes.
A route from commis to chef de partie, and from runner to captain, tied to signed-off skills.
Clear sharing of service charge and rewards between kitchen, floor and stewards.
Grades for the brigade and the floor that show who is ready to step up.
Split-shift rosters and weekly offs that are fair and published early.
Start with a free conversation, or see the paid HR Diagnostic.
Understand the business, its workforce, current processes and HR challenges.
Find the missing, weak, inconsistent or person-dependent processes.
Create the structure, processes, policies, SOPs, dashboards and systems needed.
Help HR and department managers actually adopt the new system.
Digitise repetitive and approval-based workflows where it is worth doing.
Track hiring, attendance, employee cost, performance, training and attrition.
Strengthen the people-management system continuously, not once.
From the GullyHR blog: one on HR in food and beverage, and one on each of the topics this page points to.
Kitchen, service and outlet staff leave quickly in food and beverage. How to ask what lies behind the first answer, compare outlets and act on what you learn.
7 min readRead article
Plastics training dies when it waits for a free Saturday. Tie it to mould changes, purges and cold starts, use one-point lessons and a visible skill ladder, and protect it in peak months.
7 min readRead article
How to design incentives for operators, setters and inspectors in fastener, gear, spring and valve units so that accepted lots, not piece counts, earn the bonus.
7 min readRead article
A two-hour exercise that names the roles you could not fill quickly, who could cover them, and what readiness would actually require.
7 min readRead articleMore on the GullyHR blog.
Give them a clear route up, fair pay against comparable kitchens, humane rosters and a say in the menu. Chefs often leave for a better name, so let them build their own.
Publish rosters early, share late nights fairly, give a proper rest area for the break and arrange transport where you can. Predictability matters as much as the hours.
Choose a clear rule, such as points by role, and write it down. Explain it at joining and review it when the team changes. Hidden rules are what cause quiet resentment.
Write the steps of service, practise them before opening with a senior captain, and have a short briefing each night on one point. Observation with kind feedback works better than a manual.
Agree the limits with your chefs, state them plainly and apply them to everyone. High standards do not need abuse, and young cooks stay where they are treated with respect.
First we would sit with your executive chef and restaurant manager to map who can run each section and each floor station, then look at a month of rosters. A brigade grade ladder with a written service charge rule is a natural first job, and scope is agreed in writing.
All 8 business types in restaurants & cafes · Find another business type
See all HR topics for food and beverage, or another industry.
Tell us what is slowing your team down. We’ll help you find a practical way forward, starting with a conversation.
