Home

Catering/Restaurant Manager

Do you want to become a Catering/Restaurant Manager? Here is some information to help point you in the right direction:

Job Description - Print Page

Restaurant managers work in hotels, restaurants or fast-food outlets, keeping the business running smoothly, and customers and staff happy. Catering managers work for outside catering firms, business or factory canteens, hospitals or schools.

The job can include:

• hiring and training staff
• ensuring food hygiene standards are understood and maintained
• overseeing the budget and ordering supplies for the week's menus.

The most important part of the job is keeping a constant eye on the standard of the ingredients, the meals, the restaurant environment and the service.

Restaurant managers have to be prepared to work long days and unsociable hours. Catering managers - especially in businesses or schools - are more likely to work regular daytime hours. Part-time work may be possible.

Catering and restaurant managers usually work indoors in warm, pleasant environments. A restaurant manager spends some of the time ‘front of house' in the restaurant itself.

Restaurant and catering managers may earn between £14,000 and £60,000 a year.

They need to be:

• excellent organisers
• good at thinking quickly and sorting out problems on the spot
• good motivators and leaders
• interested in food and customer service.

The hospitality, leisure, travel and tourism industry is a large and growing sector, employing nearly two million people. Every kind of eating place - from restaurants and fast-food outlets, to hotels and business canteens - needs good managers.

The two most usual entry routes for young people are by gaining experience in the food or hospitality industry at a lower level and working up to management posts, or by studying for a foundation degree, HND or degree, and joining a company as a trainee.

There is no age limit for becoming a restaurant or catering manager. Some employers do prefer people with experience.

Catering and restaurant managers are normally trained on the job to give them experience in many different areas of the business. They may study for NVQs/SVQs. Management training is likely to include specialised courses in subjects such as finance, marketing, human resources, food safety and training.

Promotion could lead to the management of a regional area for a chain of hotels or restaurants. There are also opportunities to move into hotel or leisure management.

More Useful Resources - Catering/Restaurant Manager:

Do you know of a useful and relevant website that would be helpful to our users? Tell us about it by emailing