|
QUESTIONS FOR THE ORAL EXAMINATION
General questions?
1) What is a text?
2) What do we mean by the words coherence and cohesion?
3) Which kind of texts can we have?
4) Which are the main features of a text?
5) Which are the main features of a scientific text?
6) What is a "topic sentence"? (main concept)
7) What are "linkers" or "connectors"? They are grammatical words
that signal the logical relationships within a sentence and between
sentences and paragraphs.
8) Make an example of linkers for "Addition", "Result", "Time
Sequence", "Purpose", "Concession", and so on.
9) How would you define the kind of education you receive at school
? (Excellent, Good, Unsatisfactory, Very bad).
10) What is the cause of your answer? (Inadequate teaching methods,
Uninteresting subjects, Too much discipline, Too many students in a
single classroom, Other reasons).
11) Do you think the subjects you are studying, or you have studied
are - or will be - of some use to understand the world in which you
live or to find a job?
12) At the end of the secondary school, are you planning to...a) go
to the university? b) look for a job?
13) Should anyone who wants to go to the university be allowed to?
QUESTIONS AND TOPICS ABOUT BUSINESS, TRADE AND MARKETING COLLEGES
QUESTIONS AND TOPICS ABOUT LIVING, SURVEYORS AND ARCHITECTS COLLEGES
QUESTIONS AND TOPICS ABOUT HOSPITALITY AND CULINARY ARTS COLLEGES
QUESTIONS AND
TOPICS ABOUT OPTICIANS AND OPTICAL COLLEGES
QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS FOR ITALIAN
HOSPITALITY AND CULINARY ARTS COLLEGES
1) What do you know about the Victorian Period and its innovations?
The Victorian era represented the height of the Industrial
Revolution, a period of significant social, economic, and
technological progress in the United Kingdom where the theories of
Jeremy Bentham, Carl Mark and Charles Darwin were spreading about.
Victoria's reign was marked by a great expansion of the British
Empire; during this period it reached its zenith, becoming the
foremost global power of the time. During the reign of Queen
Victoria Britain emerged as the most powerful trading nation in the
world, provoking a social and economic revolution whose effects are
still being felt today. Since the latter part of the eighteenth
century the process of industrialisation had built a firm foundation
for nineteenth century growth and expansion. At the heart of this
was the successful development and application of steam technology.
Like the steamship, the railway predates the Victorian era. By 1845
2441 miles of railway were open and 30 million passengers were being
carried. The building of the railway network was the major
achievement of the Victorian period, changing for ever both social
patterns and the landscape of Britain. Other useful inventions of
this period were the Telephone, the Radio, the Refrigerator, the
Toilet, the Camera, the Sewing Machine, the Stamps and the Vacuum
Cleaner. There were also significant improvements for food
preservation and the first “canned food” like dried soups and
chemicals appeared. (Pasteur’s theories).
2) What was a typical Victorian Menu?
During Victorian times the diet of most people began to improve: the
invention of steam ship and of refrigeration meant that meat, fish
and fruit could be imported! People could begin to eat shellfish,
poultry, game, cheeses but also exotic fruit (peaches, pineapples,
etc.). The cooks were especially prized for their dessert-making
skills-puddings, cakes,…
The Victorian period was an epoch of compromise: progress and
poverty; corruption and moralism. For the Victorian Upper-classes
the woman planned lunch and evening meals (the largest one). She had
a cook that did the work for her. They ate 5-6 courses when they
were alone; 12-13 when there were guests. “Supper” was the Victorian
mid-night snack. The Afternoon tea served to show off the lady’s
finest silver, china and linen. A typical Victorian Menu was
composed by Soup, Roast Turkey with dressing or Roast Pork with
potatoes or Chicken Fricassee served with rice, Two vegetable side
dishes, Citrus ice, Jam, jellies and sweet pickles, and to end Cake
and preserved fruit with Coffee, hot punch and water.
Wine was served at the end of each course. Madeira and sherry after.
Breakfast could be done with scones, fruits, omelettes, bacon and
more.
3) What must be the foundamental skills of a good Food and Beverage
Manager?
Food and beverage managers plan, organize, direct, control and
evaluate the operations of restaurants, bars, cafeterias and other
businesses that operate serving food and beverage. These kind of
professional workers may be employed by restaurants, bars, hotels
and resorts etc. Food and beverage managers still require great
customer skills but apply management skills ensuring the labour and
financial goals of the organization are maintained. The most
important and foundamental professional skills and competence that a
good Food and Beverage Manager should have are: a deep operational
knowledge of technical methods and processes of production, service,
costs control and revenues; conflict resolution skills, ability to
work under pressure and good steel nerves, ability to multi-task
operations, good organizational skills, leadership skills, good
knowledge of two or three foreign languages, qualities of
flexibility and adaptability. In addition to all that he/she must
have also strong human qualities and must be a good communicator, a
quick decision maker, a motivating staff promoter, a skillful
organizer and an expert coordinator.
4) Do you know some typical lombard wines? Can you tell something
about them?
The winemaking tradition of Lombardy dates back to its settlement by
Greek colonist from Athens along the Po river. The climate of
Lombardy is varied due to the diverse terrain of the region but is
generally considered a "cool" continental climate and it is very
favorable to grapes cultivation. The region is known particularly
for its sparkling wines made in Oltrepò Pavese and in the
Franciacorta; the importance of this last area is given by the
exceptional quality of its wines, mainly the whites of the classic
method "Champenoise": a taste fine and delicate, as well as the
flavour make of it a superb sparkling wine, present on the tables of
the most celebrated restaurants. Lombardia also produces still red,
white and rosé wines made from a variety of local and international
grapes including Nebbiolo wines in the Valtellina region, Trebbiano
di Lugana white wines produced with the Chiaretto style rosé along
the shores of Lake Garda. The wine region currently has 15
Denominazione di origine controllata (DOC), 3 Denominazione di
Origine Controllata e Garantita (DOCG) and 13 Indicazione Geografica
Tipica (IGT) designations. The main cities of the region are Milan,
Bergamo and Brescia. In this last town province you can find
Franciacorta and Botticino areas, or the Garda zone where important
and famous wines are produced.
5) What do you know about ethnic and fusion cuisine?
Ethnic is the adjective form of "ethnos" which can be defined as the
people of the same race or nationality who share a distinctive
culture. An "ethnic restaurant" or "ethnic food" is a lazy way of
saying "food from another country I'm not used to eating."
Eventually, if you like the food/restaurant enough and begin to eat
it regularly, it sheds the “ethnic” label and you just call it the
type of food/restaurant that it is. I never understood why people
can’t just call it what it is from the get go. Every dish is ethnic.
The so-called "ethnic" restaurants may seem a logical outgrowth of
the waves of immigration to the United States and Europe from India,
China, South America and Asia in the late nineteenth and early
twentieth centuries and the result of faster and faster travel
possibilities and world wide globalization. The food served in
ethnic restaurants often constitutes a distinct cuisine. In all
cultures and contexts, there are some foods that are almost
exclusively eaten in restaurants and others that never are. (For
example, one would have to read a great many U.S. restaurant menus
before finding those two staples of the American diet,
peanut-butter-and-jelly sandwiches and popcorn.) If we consider
Indian restaurants in the United Kingdom, we find that by the 1990s,
they employed more people (roughly 70,000) than the shipbuilding and
steel industries combined. At Ethnique cuisines, we bring you dishes
from different ethnicities all over the world. Fusion cuisine
combines elements of various culinary traditions while not fitting
specifically into any. The term generally refers to the innovations
in many contemporary restaurant cuisines since the 1970s. Fusion
cuisine blends the culinary traditions of two or more nations to
create innovative and sometimes quite interesting dishes. It tends
to be more common in culturally diverse and metropolitan areas,
where there is a wider audience for such food.
6) How could be composed a typical Lombard Menu?
Lombardy is characterized by a high-quality tourist offer,
consisting of lakes, rivers, mountains, cities of art,
oenogastronomy, sport and leisure. An area that stretches from the
Alps to the Oltrepò and includes the great lakes, large hilly areas
and a plain that has been used for agriculture since ancient times
can't help but be an inexhaustible supply of delicious specialities
for gourmets. Therefore, it is not by chance that this region has
over 250 traditional specialities including cheeses, cold meats,
vegetables, cakes and biscuits, without counting the DOC wines which
are the pride of whole areas. There are also many delicious dishes,
typical of a culinary tradition that has improved over time, and
that today boasts dishes that are famous the whole world over, from
"cotoletta alla milanese" (veal cutlets in breadcrumbs) to saffron
risotto, from "pizzoccheri della Valtellina" (buckwheat pasta with
cheese and vegetables) to "mostarda di frutta cremonese" (fruit
pickles from Cremona); from pumpkin tortelli from Mantua to "casonsèi
bergamaschi" (a type of homemade pasta), to sweet things such as
"torrone cremonese" (nougat from Cremona) to "torta sbrisolona" (a
nutty, biscuit type cake) from Mantua, a delight for all those who
have a sweet tooth. Therefore a typical menu could be: Rosettes of
bresaola (cured raw beef), Risotto at the Milanese, Agnolotti with
Bitto cheese and porcini mushroom sauce, Perch with sage, Veal chops
in sauce, Potato croquettes, stewed peas, Stuffed apples. In this
region we can also have a wide selection of wines such as Valcalepio
white wine; Franciacorta red ; Lugana white or San Colombano red ;
Oltrepo Pavese and sweet Muscat.
7) What do you know about Fast Food and Takeaway restaurants?
Fast food also known as Quick Service Restaurant or QSR within the
industry itself, is the term given to food that can be prepared and
served very quickly. While any meal with low preparation time can be
considered to be fast food, typically the term refers to food sold
in a restaurant or store with low quality preparation, preheated or
precooked ingredients, and served to the customer in a packaged form
for take-out/take-away. The term "fast food" was recognized in a
dictionary by Merriam–Webster in 1951. Precooked foods such as
french fries or pizza typically must be used within a few hours, or
they become dried out and unpalatable. The restaurant must balance
availability with the expected numbers of customers, to avoid
discarding unused expired product. Similarly, the food itself is
often intended to be consumed quickly, using strong contrasts such
dry corn chips with greasy or wet toppings that will combine into a
gooey mess if stored for later consumption. Outlets may be stands or
kiosks, which may provide no shelter or seating, or fast food
restaurants (also known as quick service restaurants). Franchise
operations which are part of restaurant chains have standardized
foodstuffs shipped to each restaurant from central locations. The
capital requirements involved in opening up a fast food restaurant
are relatively low. Restaurants with much higher sit-in ratios,
where customers tend to sit and have their orders brought to them in
a seemingly more upscale atmosphere, may be known in some areas as
fast casual restaurants.
In areas which had access to coastal or tidal waters, 'fast food'
would frequently include local shellfish or seafood, such as oysters
or, as in London, eels. Often this seafood would be cooked directly
on the quay or close by. The development of trawler fishing in the
mid nineteenth century would lead to the development of a British
favourite fish and chips partly due to such activities. British fast
food had considerable regional variation. Sometimes the regionality
of dish became part of the culture of its respective area. The
content of fast food pies has varied, with poultry (such as chickens)
or wildfowl commonly being used. After World War II, turkey has been
used more frequently in fast food. A particularly British form of
fast food is the sandwich, popularised by John Montagu, the fourth
Earl of Sandwich in 1762 when he wrapped dried meat in bread so as
not to interrupt his work or his gambling (accounts vary).
8) What do you know about August Escoffier and why is he so world
wide known?
Georges Auguste Escoffier (28 October 1846 – 12 February 1935) was a
French chef, restaurateur and culinary writer who popularized and
updated traditional French cooking methods. He is a legendary figure
among chefs and gourmets, and was one of the most important leaders
in the development of modern French cuisine. Much of Escoffier's
technique was based on that of Antoine Carême, one of the codifiers
of French haute cuisine, but Escoffier's achievement was to simplify
and modernize Carême's elaborate and ornate style. Referred to by
the French press as roi des cuisiniers et cuisinier des rois ("king
of chefs and chef of kings"), Escoffier was France's pre-eminent
chef in the early part of the 20th century.
Escoffier's greatest innovations were in menu planning. For hundreds
of years, doinners had been served in the style called à la
francaise, with a large number of different dishes set out on the
table at once. Service à la Russe is the practice we know today of
serving dishes consequently rather than simultaneously. Alongside
the recipes he recorded and invented, another of Escoffier's
contributions to cooking was to elevate it to the status of a
respected profession by introducing organized discipline to his
kitchens. He organized his kitchens by the brigade de cuisine
system, with each section run by a chef de partie. Escoffier's
reorganization into parties, each dependent on the pothers, made the
work in the kitchen co-ordinated and well controlled. Escoffier
published Le Guide Culinaire, which is still used as a major
reference work, both in the form of a cookbook and a textbook on
cooking. Escoffier's recipes, techniques and approaches to kitchen
management remain highly influential today, and have been adopted by
chefs and restaurants not only in France, but also throughout the
world.
9) What do you know about Pellegrino Artusi and why is he so world
wide known?
Pellegrino Artusi (1820–1911) was the author of the famous Italian
cookbook "The Science of Cooking and the Art of Eating Well. Artusi
was born in Forlimpopoli, a town near Forlì, and made his fortune as
a silk merchant, but after retiring devoted himself to fine dining.
In 1891, at age 71, he completed his famous cookbook, but could not
find a publisher. So he used his own money to self-publish, selling
a thousand copies of the first edition in four years. Soon, however,
the cookbook caught on, and before Artusi died in Florence in 1911,
more than 200,000 copies had been sold. Filled with amusing
anecdotes as well as recipes, the book is a perennial best seller in
Italy, and has been translated in Spanish, Dutch, German and
English. In 1904 Artusi published a practical manual for the
kitchen, with over 3,000 recipes and 150 tables, simply entitled
"Here is your cookbook" with the anonymous participation and
influence of the baroness Giulia Turco. Writing only two decades
after the unification of Italy, Artusi was the first to include
recipes from all the different regions of Italy in a single
cookbook. He is often credited with establishing a truly national
Italian cuisine for the first time. Still today his main literary
work counts a great number of editions and widespread diffusion. It
collects 790 receipts, from broth to liqueurs, passing through
soups, hors-d'ouvres (or well beginners), second dishes and cakes.
The approach is a didactic one, the receipts are followed by the
author's reflections and anecdotes, as he writes in az witty style.
The kitchen science and the art of well eating was a real boundary
line in the gastronomic culture of the age.
10) What is a kitchen brigade and where can we find it?
Late in the 19 th Century, the ingenious chef Georges Auguste
Escoffier (1846-1935) created the modern brigade system while
working in London at the Savoy Hotel, even though evidence of
brigade-style culinary arrangements can be found in late medieval
French and English sources. For getting the utmost efficiency, he
organized the kitchen as a strict hierarchical ladder of authorities
and functions. This structured team system delegates
responsibilities to different individuals that specialize in certain
tasks.
At the top of this ladder we find the Head Chef (Chef de cuisine)
who coordinates and supervises the kitchen activities, establishes
the standards, works out the prices on the menu and so on. He also
directs the trainees on work experience. The size of the kitchen
brigade usually depends on the type of restaurant and the food that
is served. Due to the high costs involved in employing a large
staff, many food establishments now expect much more flexibility
from a smaller kitchen brigade. Another factor in kitchen staff
reduction is the dramatic impact that technology and standardisation
have had on the industry process. In any case luxury hotels and
first-class restaurants around the globe still employ large brigades
because they must provide efficiency and personalised service which
are necessary for the standards of their clientele.
11) What are the main roles of a head chef and the duties of an
under chef?
The Kitchen chef (Chef de cuisine) is responsible for overall
management of kitchen. He supervise staff, create menus and new
recipes with the assistance of the restaurant manager, make
purchases of raw food items, train apprentices and maintain a
sanitary and hygienic environment for the preparation of food. He
must have the ability to organise duties and solve any problems that
may arise in kitchen daily operations. He is not just a cook, but he
is a head cook, which implies a higher level of prestige. Depending
on the skill, training and perserverance, a chef can climb the ranks
and gain more prestige and responsability. many famous chefs have
planned their own progress and worked in some of the most notorious
restaurants under some of the most renowned chefs in the world until
they, too, became skilled and well-known.
The Head chef is assisted by an under chef (sous-chef de cuisine),
who supervises how the food is prepared, portioned and arranged
according to the head chef's directions. The Deputy kitchen chef
receives orders directly from the chef de cuisine for the management
of the kitchen and often represents the chef de cuisine when he or
she is not present.Subordinate are the section chefs (chefs de
partie); each one is in charge of the preparation of particular food
and dishes. All this staff makes up the kitchen brigade, of course
the number of the section chefs depends on the size and the class of
the restaurant as well as the number of assistants.
12) What does the acronym HACCP mean and what it is used for?
HACCP is the acronym of Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point
which is a systematic preventive approach to food safety and
pharmaceutical safety that addresses physical, chemical, and
biological hazards as a means of prevention rather than finished
product inspection. HACCP is used in the food industry to identify
potential food safety hazards, so that key actions, known as
Critical Control Points (CCPs) can be taken to reduce or eliminate
the risk of the hazards being realized. The system is used at all
stages of food production and preparation processes including
packaging, distribution, etc. A critical control point means a
point, step or procedure in a food process at which a control
measure can be applied, and at which control is essential, to
prevent, reduce or eliminate and identified food hazard. This method
was applied for the first time in the USA in 1971 by the NASA when
the Pillsbury firm accepted to make the food for astronauts and
wanted to produce it being very careful with the maximun
precautions, in order to assure the safety of the food and the
astronauts themselves. This method is nowadays applied everywhere
since customer health safety is extremely important, and therefore
proper hygiene in the food and beverage industry must be treated
with the utmost respect and attention.
13) What are the seven steps to develop a HACCP plan?
In order to develop a good and healthily prevention system in the
food processing industry an accurate HACCP plan must be elaborated
and written; this document delineates all the procedures to be
followed during food preparation in every kitchen. Once the plan has
been prepared, it is necessary to validate and verify that the plan
works after it is implemented. there are seven principles which are
used to develop and implement a HACCP plan. These seven parts are:
1. Analyse Hazards. Everyone who works in the catering industry must
be aware of the hazards associated with food and drinks. Hazards can
be biological (i.e. microbe), chemical (i.e. pesticides) or physical
(i.e. metal fragment) 2. Identify Critical Control Point. These are
the stages, or points, in the food production process where hazards
should be controlled or eliminated. 3.Establish Preventive Measures
with critical limits for each control point. This should be for any
cooked food. (i.e. determining the minimun cooking temperature). 4.
Establish Procedures. To monitor the critical control points. This
could include deciding how cooking time and temperature should be
supervised and who is responsible. 5. Establish Corrective Actions.
To be taken when monitoring which shows that a critical limit has
not been met. 6. Establish Procedures. To verify the system is
working properly. 7. Establish an Effective System. In order to
record information to document HACCP system.
14) Can you classify what are the main types of restaurants, with
their food, clients and price range?
Restaurants are classified on the kind of food, type of clients and
price range. Therefore wowadays we can have all the different range
of food establishments, since in the 20th Century with the
development of commerce, business, technolgy and a huge immigration
flow, we can have a large variety of offers, of dishes, of menus and
of culinary different traditions. We can have: Fast-Food
Restaurants, Coffe Shops and Self-Service Restaurants, here the
price range is inexpensive and the customers are mainly clerks,
students, teachers, families and so on, the food is often pre-cooked
or prepared in advance, here you can find soups, pasta, metas,
vegetables, desserts, or pizza, hamburgers, french fries, soft
drinks, sandwiches, hot and cold drinks, ice cream, snack items, and
so on. Then we can have Hotel Restaurant in which the food, the
price and the clients are based on the hotel category, or Ethnic
Restaurant where you can find international food such as Chinese,
Mexican, Brazilian, Indian, all different kinds of clients and the
price range varies from inexpensive to average, finally we can have
Speciality Restaurant and Gourmet Restaurant, here you can find
speciality cuisine or top quality and elaborate dishes, you can also
find all types of clients, from families to VIPs, business clients,
celebrities, conference delegates, wealthy people etc. and also the
prices varies, from average to expensive and very expensive.
15) What is the origin of the term “Menu”, what are the main types
of menus and what features should a good menu have?
The word menu, like much of the terminology of cuisine, is French in
origin. It ultimately derives from Latin minutus, something made
small; in French it came to be applied to a detailed list or résumé
of any kind. So originally menus were just list of food that could
be raw or cooked, then in 19th Century individual menus were
introduced and the food was divide into courses. Nowadays in
restaurants, a menu is a printed brochure or public display on a
poster or chalkboard that shows the list of options for a diner to
select. A menu may be a la carte -in which guests choose from a list
of options - or table d'hôte or carte du jour, in which case a
pre-established sequence of courses is served, then nowadays we can
have coffee shop menus. In the 2000s, many fast food restaurants
switched to digital menus which are displayed on flat-screen LCD
televisions. Depending on the restaurant, the menu may display a
list of wines and their prices, or this information may be available
in a separate brochure called the wine list. Some restaurants may
also have separate menus for beer, liquor, and mixed drinks, and for
desserts. A good menu should be planned considering a lot of
different steps, such as: analyse the potential customer, location
of the establishment, the price and cost of food, the staff skill
and size, availability of food and reliability of suppliers, time of
the year, festivity days, time of the day, number and sequences of
courses, nutritional value, last but not least the language. The
numbers of courses and the number of dishes may vary depending on
the size and type of restaurant, but you must always remember that a
menu often influences the customer, so when designing menus, chefs
and restaurateurs have to try to appeal to certain marketr segments
and they must also create the right atmosphere of the restaurant
with decor, furniture and uniforms.
16) What do you know about the Victorian Period and its innovations?
The Victorian era represented the height of the Industrial
Revolution, a period of significant social, economic, and
technological progress in the United Kingdom where the theories of
Jeremy Bentham, Carl Mark and Charles Darwin were spreading about.
Victoria's reign was marked by a great expansion of the British
Empire; during this period it reached its zenith, becoming the
foremost global power of the time. During the reign of Queen
Victoria Britain emerged as the most powerful trading nation in the
world, provoking a social and economic revolution whose effects are
still being felt today. Since the latter part of the eighteenth
century the process of industrialisation had built a firm foundation
for nineteenth century growth and expansion. At the heart of this
was the successful development and application of steam technology.
Like the steamship, the railway predates the Victorian era. By 1845
2441 miles of railway were open and 30 million passengers were being
carried. The building of the railway network was the major
achievement of the Victorian period, changing for ever both social
patterns and the landscape of Britain. Other useful inventions of
this period were the Telephone, the Radio, the Refrigerator, the
Toilet, the Camera, the Sewing Machine, the Stamps and the Vacuum
Cleaner. There were also significant improvements for food
preservation and the first “canned food” like dried soups and
chemicals appeared. (Pasteur’s theories).
17) What was a typical Victorian Menu?
During Victorian times the diet of most people began to improve: the
invention of steam ship and of refrigeration meant that meat, fish
and fruit could be imported! People could begin to eat shellfish,
poultry, game, cheeses but also exotic fruit (peaches, pineapples,
etc.). The cooks were especially prized for their dessert-making
skills-puddings, cakes,…
The Victorian period was an epoch of compromise: progress and
poverty; corruption and moralism. For the Victorian Upper-classes
the woman planned lunch and evening meals (the largest one). She had
a cook that did the work for her. They ate 5-6 courses when they
were alone; 12-13 when there were guests. “Supper” was the Victorian
mid-night snack. The Afternoon tea served to show off the lady’s
finest silver, china and linen. A typical Victorian Menu was
composed by Soup, Roast Turkey with dressing or Roast Pork with
potatoes or Chicken Fricassee served with rice, Two vegetable side
dishes, Citrus ice, Jam, jellies and sweet pickles, and to end Cake
and preserved fruit with Coffee, hot punch and water. Wine was
served at the end of each course. Madeira and sherry after.
Breakfast could be done with scones, fruits, omelettes, bacon and
more.
18) What must be the foundamental skills of a good Food and Beverage
Manager?
Food and beverage managers plan, organize, direct, control and
evaluate the operations of restaurants, bars, cafeterias and other
businesses that operate serving food and beverage. These kind of
professional workers may be employed by restaurants, bars, hotels
and resorts etc. Food and beverage managers still require great
customer skills but apply management skills ensuring the labour and
financial goals of the organization are maintained. The most
important and foundamental professional skills and competence that a
good Food and Beverage Manager should have are: a deep operational
knowledge of technical methods and processes of production, service,
costs control and revenues; conflict resolution skills, ability to
work under pressure and good steel nerves, ability to multi-task
operations, good organizational skills, leadership skills, good
knowledge of two or three foreign languages, qualities of
flexibility and adaptability. In addition to all that he/she must
have also strong human qualities and must be a good communicator, a
quick decision maker, a motivating staff promoter, a skillful
organizer and an expert coordinator. He must also recruite and train
the staff, so he must be able to educate students or new staff
ensuring that they are ready to meet the high demands of the
hospitality industry.
19) Can you explain what is a function and what are the main steps
you must follow to organize it well?
A function can be described as the service of food and drink at a
specific time and place, for a given number of people at a known
price. We can have social functions, such as weddings,
anniversaries, dinner dances, seminars; then we can have Business
functions, such as conferences, meetings, working lunches, working
dinners or finally we can have Social and Business functions such as
corporate entertaining. Sometimes these functions are also called
banquets, even if this term is used to describe a large formal
occasion. The variety of functions events ranges from simply
providing bar facilities in a conference reception area before or
during the meeting, to the more formal occasion catering for up to
one or two thousand people. Function catering is found in the
commercial and public sector of the Hospitality Industry. Policy
decisions are determined by a number of features concerning type of
catering. A caterer usually gets information of the function in
advance. This includes: number of guests; price per couvert; menu
requirements; drink required; type of menu. This information allows
the manager to assess the resource requirements, for example:
staffing, linen, food and drink, equipment. As a consequence the
manager can assess the profit margins to be achieved. Marketing
considerations must also be taken into account, in fact the function
manager should be aware of the competing companies working in the
same area and he should have information of other establishments in
order to differentiate the offer. The relationship between price and
value for money is an important aspect of pricing. Value for money
refers not only to the food but to many other factors such as the
atmosphere, décor and the level of service and so on. The function
manager must plan every aspect, such as the timing of the function,
the room layouts, the staff organization, the choice of menu
(vegetarian or allergy requirements), types of service, flowers and
centrepieces, cloakroom requirements, techinal requirements and so
on.
20) What do you know about "function catering" and more precisely
about organizing Buffets and Banquets?
The terms "buffets" and "banquets" can be summed up with the term
"Function catering". This refers to the request for the supply of
food and beverage to people celebrating special events, such as
wedding receptions, cocktail parties, business congresses and
meetings, stag parties, hen parties and so on. The type of meal
chosen largely depends on the degree of formality required, even if
the success of a good banquet or buffet mainly relies on the
impeccable organization and attention to every detail (floral table
pieces, decorations, elegant clothing, china, silverware,
glassware). Nowadays in large establishments, provided with
banqueting suites or banqueting halls, there is a permanent staff
exclusively in charge of the organization of function catering. The
trend is certainly towards buffets rather than endless formal sit
down meals and this function is ideal for large number of guests.
The customers either help themselves or are served by waiters
standing behind the buffet table. What's more clients prefer to
devote less time to eating and leave more time to entertainment.
Light and balanced menus, three courses instead of five, are
therefore naturally preceded by an aperitif and a buffet. The
arrangement of a buffet must be so to highlight all the different
food items, and before anything else it has to attract the guests'
attention fo its beauty. The cold buffet can be considered, without
any doubt, a new and modern form of catering, it replaces the large
meals of the past and allows the tasting of many food specialities.
The food items in a cold buffet can be endless, we can have assorted
hot appetisers (savoury patties, or small pizzas, etc), sea food
(cold lobster, shrimp cocktails, scampi mousse), fresh water and sea
fish, cold beef, veal and pork, mixed salads, desserts, patisserie,
fruts, etc. As for the drinks, the service starts with the aperitifs
then the white wine is served, both dry and sweet, and high quality
red wines, followed by sparkling wines or champagne, then ending
with coffee, whiskey or any other suitable cocktail. Among function
catering we can have: cocktail buffet, brunch, slunch, the buffet
lunch that can also offers hot dishes, the country buffet that can
offer country products and the dinner buffet that offers also hot
dishes. (pizzas, scones, turnovers, puff, pies, quiches, or cream
guns, fresh fruit tatelettes, donuts, cream beignet, etc).
QUESTIONS AND TOPICS ABOUT BUSINESS, TRADE AND MARKETING COLLEGES
QUESTIONS AND TOPICS ABOUT LIVING, SURVEYORS AND ARCHITECTS COLLEGES
QUESTIONS AND TOPICS ABOUT HOSPITALITY AND CULINARY ARTS COLLEGES
QUESTIONS AND
TOPICS ABOUT OPTICIANS AND OPTICAL COLLEGES
HOW PEOPLE RELAX
Going to pubs is a very popular leisure-time activity. In a recent
survey seven out of ten adults said they went to pubs, one third of
them once a week or more often.
Types of pubs vary considerably from quiet rural establishments with
traditional games, such as skittles and dominoes, to city pubs where
different sorts of entertainment such as drama and live music can
often be found. The opening hours of pubs, which were previously
strictly controlled, have been relaxed and many pubs now serve food
as well as drink. Some pubs have become more welcoming to families
with younger children than in the past, although children under
fourteen are still not allowed in the bar.
British drinking habits have changed, with lager and continental
beers now more popular than traditional forms of British beer. In
cities, wine bars have appeared in competition with pubs. Although,
in general, people in Britain now drink more than they used to, new
types of drinks such as alcohol-free beer and wine have appeared and
there has been a general move to educate people more about the
dangers of drinking too much.
USING LEISURE TIME
Percentages Men Women
Out and about
Seaside 7 8
Country 3 3
Parks 3 4
Visiting historic buildings 8 8
Going to museums and art galleries 3 3
Going to fairs and amusement arcades 1 2
In the evenings
Going to the cinema 7 8
Going to the theatre, opera and ballet 4 5
Playing amateur music and drama 3 3
Going to evening classes 1 2
Going out for a meal 41 40
Going out for a drink 64 46
Dancing 10 12
At home
Listening to records and tapes 65 62
Gardening 50 39
Sewing and knitting 2 48
House repairs and DIY 51 24
Reading books 50 61
SPARE TIME
British people now have more free time and holidays than they did
twenty years ago. The average number of working hours has fallen,
and by the mid-1980s almost all full-time manual employees were
entitled to four weeks holidays including Christmas and Easter.
The increasing number of pensioners and the number of unemployed,
particularly the young, means that large sections of the population
have found themselves with more leisure time. Typical popular
pastimes in the UK include listening to pop music, going to pubs,
playing and watching sport, going on holidays, doing outdoor
activities and watching TV.
The number of people playing sports has risen, partly due to the
availability of more sporting facilites such as local leisure
centres. As more people become aware of the necessity
for exercise, it is estimated that one third of the adult population
regularly takes part in outdoor sport and about a quarter in indoor
sport.
Among the most popular sporting activities are walking, swimming,
snooker and darts; fishing is the most popular country sport.
Football, cricket, horse racing and motor sports are all popular
spectator sports. Many magazines are published which relate to
popular and minority sports and interests.
Multi-screen cinemas have become more common and the number of
people going to the cinema increased in the mid-1980s, having fallen
by more than a half between 1971 and 1984. This was despite a large
increase in the popularity of home videos: Britain has one of the
highest rates of home video owenership in the world.
Pubs are an important part of British social life (more than
restaurants) and more money is spent on drinking than on any other
form of leisure activity. Holidays are the next major leisure cost,
followed by television, radio, musical instruments, and eating out.
If they have enough money, people travel more (the increase in
private cars is an influence) and take more holidays. The numbers
going abroad increased from 7 million in the early 1970s to 17
million in the mid-80s, with Spain still the most popular foreign
destination.
Comprehension
Use the information of the texts to answer the questions.
1 What free time and holidays do people in Britain have?
2 Why has sport become more popular?
3 How has cinema-going changed in recent years? What has helped to
cause these
changes?
4 What are the most popular leisure activities in Britain?
5 Which are the most popular destinations for British people going
abroad on holiday?
Discussion Work in pairs.
1 Do people have more spare time than they used to in your country?
When are the major public holidays?
2 What leisure activities do you prefer? How much time and money do
you spend on them?
|
HOMEPAGE
Daimon Club
