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Home Foodservice News 8 Tips On How to Train a New Waiter/Waitress
Total Food Service is a monthly B2B foodservice publication and website covering foodservice and hospitality news, industry trends and exclusive interviews.
But what happens when you’re unsure of how exactly to train a new waiter or new waitress? You may have been doing the job for so long that you know everything as if second nature, so teaching someone else without forgetting something can be a little nerve wracking. Some restaurants have a strict training policy, but others kind of just throw you into it, so be prepared no matter which category your job falls into.
Of course, there are a few things to keep in mind when training: does the person you’re training have experience…or not? At first, I would suggest treating each new employee as if they’re learning for the first time and work from there. The more experience you see, the less you’ll be teaching about how to be an actual server and the more you’ll be teaching about the working system of your particular restaurant. Either way, here are a few 8 tips on how to train a new waiter or new waitress:
There are so many things that need to be taught that some of us don’t even know where to begin. If you have enough notice from your boss on when the first day of training is, take some time before then to make a list of everything that needs to be shown to the newcomer. What’s the first thing you want to show them? What are the most important things that the trainee should memorize? What do they need to learn first in order to learn the way the restaurant is run?
Here’s an example of a list of priorities, starting with the first day of training:
Make sure you follow a certain schedule so that their training makes sense. You don’t want to start showing them how to take orders if they haven’t even begun to memorize the menu (although, in my opinion, the trainee should have at least 85% of the menu memorized by their first day of training. Tip of the Day: Learn Your Menu.) Following your list of priorities will help you make sure you didn’t skip a step.
A very important step. Have your new waiter or new waitress “shadow” your every move. Before they even take an order, have them watch every step you take. Tell them to note how you speak with the customers, your tone of voice, your facial features, your posture, etc. Every little thing is important and if your restaurant has a way of presenting specials, up-selling promotions, or even describing the catch of the day make sure that your trainee knows the proper way to do these things. Consistency is very important in the restaurant business.
Also, when it comes time to picking up the speed and running drinks and food, it’s important that your trainee recognizes the pace of your particular restaurant and learns how to keep up with it. At a quickly paced restaurant, the last thing you want is for your trainee to get stuck in 2nd gear when they should be shifting it up a few notches. Tell them to keep up with you and that you want them 2 steps behind at all times.
No matter how naive the question may seem, just answer it in a polite way. It may seem like common sense to you, but remember that every restaurant is different and they just want to know how things run at their new place of work. The more questions they ask, the better. Take note, however, if they are asking the same questions over and over. They are there to learn and soak up as much knowledge as they can, but if they can’t retain any of the things you are teaching them, it may be a red flag.
This is the best way for a new waiter to learn, especially when it comes to learning the menu. Ask them to describe certain dishes for you. If they stumble or come out with a wishy-washy description, show them the correct way of describing the restaurants’ meals and tell them to practice. Ask them to name all the beers the restaurant offers on tap.
They may respond, for example, like this “Uh…Heineken…um, Guinness….” so be prepared to show off a little and show them how you list off all the beers. Asking questions before customers get a chance to ask them is the best way for them to be prepared when it comes time for them to take orders. Feel free to ask questions out of the blue and don’t be afraid to put them on the spot. During a rush, they’ll need to be prepared so catch them off guard so when the time comes they aren’t flailing for answers.
Pretend you are a customer and go through a dry run of taking a table’s order. Have them come up to you (pretending to be a customer) and act out a service. If you think it’s silly…well it is a little. But it’s the best way for you to get an idea of how they will be once faced with real customers. Remember, your new waiter or new waitress will be practicing on your tables, so you want them to make as little mistakes as possible. A dry run will help you to correct any bad habits, mistakes, and allow you to make suggestions. Also, it will give the trainee a chance to get out their nerves before heading over to their first table.
Once the training has been done and you are ready to see them in action, let them take the reigns for a while. Inform them that they will be handling everything from A to Z and you’ll be following them to make sure that they are serving the guests properly. Be ready to jump in when they aren’t sure and take mental notes on anything that they are doing that doesn’t meet your restaurant’s standards.
At the end of the day, go over what they need to work on, point out any strong points or things that they did perfectly, and ask if they have any questions or comments about how they believe their service was.
If your new waiter is catching on quickly and is starting to really get a feel for the job, give them a bit of space. Back off and let them take the wheel for a bit. See how they do on their own. Let them make a few minor mistakes so that they will learn (while making sure it doesn’t affect your customer’s dining experience of course). Make a few comments here and there such as “Hurry it up a bit” or “You forgot to order their drinks” and ask a few questions to help guide them such as “What are you forgetting on that table?” or “What’s your priority right now?” But other than that, pretend that they are working alone. It’s the best way for you to see if they are capable of handling the job and the best way for them to get a real sense of what is expected of them.
Every restaurant has a different way of spoiling their customers. Whether it be offering a drink on the house for a regular customer or going above and beyond the steps of service, there are always ways that you can teach someone how the restaurants’ customers prefer to be served. Your new waiter or new waitress may have worked at a previous restaurant that wasn’t as keen about giving good service as you, so make sure they live up to the standards of the restaurant.
Now you’re all set for the basics of training a new waiter or new waitress. Of course, there are so many other little details, but this will help give you an overview of what to do and tricks on how to get the best out of your trainee.
The Waitress has been working in the food and service industry for over 8 years having experienced the restaurant business from several different angles. Her experience is anything from hostess to waitress and expeditor to floor manager which has inspired her to share her personal advice for servers everywhere and her thoughts on the restaurant business. She uses her everyday experiences to gather ideas for her blog, ‘The Waitress Confessions.’

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Sara Bareilles's new musical Waitress is fun and bubbly. But it's not feminist.

By

Aja Romano @ajaromano

May 13, 2016, 1:00pm EDT

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Sara Bareilles's new musical Waitress is fun and bubbly. But it's not feminist.

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Near the end of the new musical Waitress , which debuted on Broadway in April and subsequently nabbed four Tony nominations , main character Jenna sings a climactic ballad about crafting a new self, one who will "[learn] how to toughen up when she's bruised."
It's this mantra, along with a few magical pies, that gives Jenna, played with rich depth and world-weary emotion by Tony-winning Jessie Mueller, the strength to find empowerment and start a new life.
But this fable, though dependably crowd-pleasing and beautifully sung, comes at the expense of a more significant theme: feminism.
Waitress is a homespun tale about a young woman who toils away at her local country diner while crafting delicious pies of every variety, the names of which are cheeky reflections of plot points — for instance, Jenna makes "betrayed by my own eggs" pie after she finds out she's pregnant. Jenna's dreams of life away from her abusive marriage are derailed by an unplanned pregnancy and an unplanned affair, all as a national bake-off contest looms. Throughout it all, the diner remains a magical safe haven away from the realities of Jenna's violent home life.
Critics have been quick to label Waitress a "feminist fable," "feminist tale," "feminist fairy tale," and "for the most part delightfully a feminist musical ." It's easy to see why reviewers jump to this conclusion; the show is, astonishingly enough, the first musical in Broadway history to be captained and crewed by an all-female creative team. Led by director Diane Paulus, Waitress represents pop songwriter Sara Bareilles 's move into musical theater as she follows in the footsteps of other successful songwriters like Duncan Sheik ( Spring Awakening ) before her.
It's also an adaptation of the 2007 film of the same name whose writer-director, Adrienne Shelly, was brutally murdered just before the film's debut at Sundance; the tragedy prompted her grieving husband to create the Adrienne Shelly Foundation, a nonprofit organization that supports women in film. Additionally, the Adrienne Shelly Award is given out annually by the Women Film Critics Circle to the film that "most passionately opposes violence against women."
The original, movie version of Waitress not only dealt with domestic violence but stands as a critically acclaimed emblem for how to tackle serious issues with levity for the films that have followed it. So the musical adaptation version of Waitress is standing on big shoulders.
Waitress is female-centered: It boasts a diverse cast, a complex female lead who doesn't instinctively yearn to put her own life aside to be a mother, and a heartwarming portrayal of female friendships. But while all of these elements could have passed for examples of enlightened feminism in the late '90s or early 2000s, they're very weak by 2016 standards. Waitress 's statements on female empowerment are nice, but that's about all they are. What's more, they're crucially undermined by Waitress 's failure to deal with its other major theme: domestic violence.
Waitress is a wonderful musical in so many respects. The pacing and staging pair well with Bareilles's vibrant, lush score; her songs are polished, and she expertly conveys character evolution and transformation through her lyrics. Mueller, in a Tony-nominated performance, juggles her character's fatigue with warmth and frailty without ever letting Jenna feel like a cliché. The side characters are all quirky and endearing — especially Drew Gehling as the doctor with whom Jenna has an affair and Orange I s the New Black 's Kimiko Glenn as Dawn, a deadpan Southern waitress who has mild OCD, geeks out over US history, and dreams of true love.
When it comes to Waitress 's theme of toxic relationships, however, the musical falters, particularly in the central relationship between Jenna and her abusive husband, Earl. While Mueller is pitch-perfect in her portrayal of a woman battling emotional and physical abuse, Earl as acted by Nick Cordero comes off as a cartoonish, buffoonish stereotype — less Stanley Kowalski, more Gaston from Beauty and the Beast . The result is that scenes where his violence should feel real and menacing seem odd and off-kilter. Jenna's face tells audiences he can hurt her, but Earl's stilted nonchalance and the pains the show takes to downplay his controlling behavior contradict her.
Meanwhile, Dawn's dreams of true love, while presented by Waitress as "fulfilled," are achieved in an inherently problematic way. The character goes on an OkCupid date with a man named Ogie, who then turns up the next day at her job, refusing to leave and declaring his intent to love her forever in a number called "Never Ever Getting Rid of Me." In the hands of Broadway vet Christopher Fitzgerald, the moment becomes a crowd-pleasing showstopper (indeed, Fitzgerald earned a Tony nomination for the performance). But even though Ogie quickly wins over Dawn and the audience, it's not enough to erase the ickiness of seeing what clearly amounts to stalking passed off as mutual love.
These ideas come only partially from Waitress 's source material. In Shelly's film, Earl's violence is more upfront, and when Jenna finally orders him out of her life, he doesn't go quietly. And while Dawn's stalker is portrayed as ultimately a good man, she directly acknowledges that he wore her down and stalked her into a relationship, admitting that she's only with him because she's settling.
But these important details remain firmly at the edges of an otherwise clear-sighted musical. When the show was still in previews, the world's most patronizing New York Post article alleged that its creative team was toning down the film's domestic violence in order to keep things light and happy. If true, it's deeply unfortunate. Waitress suffers tremendously from not being straightforward about the reality of Jenna's home environment. And audiences deserve more credit — this isn't the first time thes
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