Skip to main content
Workforce LibreTexts

Glossary

  1. Last updated
  2. Save as PDF
  • Page ID
    11434

    • \( \newcommand{\vecs}[1]{\overset { \scriptstyle \rightharpoonup} {\mathbf{#1}} } \) \( \newcommand{\vecd}[1]{\overset{-\!-\!\rightharpoonup}{\vphantom{a}\smash {#1}}} \)\(\newcommand{\id}{\mathrm{id}}\) \( \newcommand{\Span}{\mathrm{span}}\) \( \newcommand{\kernel}{\mathrm{null}\,}\) \( \newcommand{\range}{\mathrm{range}\,}\) \( \newcommand{\RealPart}{\mathrm{Re}}\) \( \newcommand{\ImaginaryPart}{\mathrm{Im}}\) \( \newcommand{\Argument}{\mathrm{Arg}}\) \( \newcommand{\norm}[1]{\| #1 \|}\) \( \newcommand{\inner}[2]{\langle #1, #2 \rangle}\) \( \newcommand{\Span}{\mathrm{span}}\) \(\newcommand{\id}{\mathrm{id}}\) \( \newcommand{\Span}{\mathrm{span}}\) \( \newcommand{\kernel}{\mathrm{null}\,}\) \( \newcommand{\range}{\mathrm{range}\,}\) \( \newcommand{\RealPart}{\mathrm{Re}}\) \( \newcommand{\ImaginaryPart}{\mathrm{Im}}\) \( \newcommand{\Argument}{\mathrm{Arg}}\) \( \newcommand{\norm}[1]{\| #1 \|}\) \( \newcommand{\inner}[2]{\langle #1, #2 \rangle}\) \( \newcommand{\Span}{\mathrm{span}}\)\(\newcommand{\AA}{\unicode[.8,0]{x212B}}\)

    Section 1, Chapter 1

    Casual restaurants – restaurant that serves moderately-priced food in a casual atmosphere.

    Casual upscale restaurants -Similarly to casual dining, they typically feature a dining room section and a lounge section with multiple screens. They are typically found downtown or in shopping districts and attract young professionals and millennial’s with an urban ambiance. Premium casual restaurants carry a wide range of menu options including burgers, steaks, seafood, pizza, pasta and Asian foods.

    Commercial food service – Commercial food service, sometimes referred to as market-oriented food service, is the largest and most recognizable form of food service operation in the world, accounting for approximately 77% of food expenditures outside of people’s homes. You’ll recognize commercial food service operations as you drive around your town and down the highway, with large, fluorescent signs advertising hamburgers, pizza, and sub sandwiches.

    Family restaurants  – An eating establishment that serves relatively simple food at reasonable prices, and welcomes children as well as adults.

    Food trucks/street food – is ready-to-eat food or drink sold by a hawker, or vendor, in a street or other public place, such as at a market or fair. It is often sold from a portable food booth, food cart, or food truck and meant for immediate consumption.

    Hyper-local sourcing -is food grown, processed, and consumed at the neighborhood level of a community.

    Non-commercial food service -found in corporations, healthcare facilities, schools, and military or government installations.

    Quick casual restaurants -found primarily in the United States, does not offer full table service, but advertises higher quality food than fast-food restaurants, with fewer frozen or processed ingredients. It is an intermediate concept between fast food and casual dining, and usually priced accordingly.

    Quick service restaurants – is a specific type of restaurant that serves fast food cuisine and has minimal table service. The food served in fast-food restaurants is typically part of a “meat-sweet diet”, offered from a limited menu, cooked in bulk in advance and kept hot, finished and packaged to order, and usually available for take away, though seating may be provided.

    Theme restaurants – restaurants in which the idea for the restaurant takes priority over everything else. It influences the architecture, food, music, and overall “feel” of the restaurant. The food usually takes a backseat to the presentation of the theme.

    Upscale/fine dining restaurants – also referred to as white-tablecloth restaurants, are typically higher-end and fancier restaurants. As opposed to casual eateries, cafes or family-style restaurants, fine dining caters to an upscale clientele and provides the highest quality of food.

     

    Section 1, Chapter 2

    Revenue – The income returned by an investment

    Upselling – To persuade a customer to buy more than he or she had intended.

    Loyalty programs – a structured and long-term marketing effort that provides incentives to repeat customers who demonstrate loyal buying behavior.

    Expense -A spending or consuming, often a disbursement of funds.

    Controllable expenses – variable costs such as raw materials, labor, and other overheads deemed controllable by management.

    Non-controllable expenses -An expense that cannot be unilaterally changed by an individual, department or business.

    Profit -Total income or cash flow minus expenditures.

    Profit and Loss Statement – a financial report that provides a summary of a company’s revenues, expenses, and profits/losses over a period of.

    Budget – The amount of money or resources earmarked for a particular institution, activity or time-frame.

    Cost percentage – Beginning Inventory + Purchases – Ending Inventory / Food Sales

    Ideal expense – revenue minus profit

    Performance to budget – budgeted expense or revenue

     

    Section 1, Chapter 3

    Sales history – Summarized data of a company’s revenue from the sales of a product (goods or services) for a given time period (months or years).

    Customer count or covers – The number of customer checkout transactions for a day or week.

    Guest check average – a calculation of the average transaction amount.

    Food cost percent – cost of goods sold / total sales for a certain time period.

    Popularity index – the ratio of portion sales for a given menu item to total portion sales for all menu items.

    Beverage cost percent – calculated by adding up the cost of the product used and dividing it by the cost of the product sold.

    Labor Cost percent – labor cost divided by total operating cost.

    Over/Under-pouring – using less or more alcohol than a drink recipe specifies.

    Emergency stock – quantity of a material, parts, or supplies that must be kept on hand at all times to provide for an effective response to an emergency.

    Table turns – the number of parties served divided by the number of tables.

     

    Section 2, Chapter 4

    Dietary Guidelines for Americans – government advice that emphasizes the importance of creating a healthy eating pattern to maintain health and reduce the risk of disease.

    Cycle menu – a set of menus that repeat over a given amount of time mostly used for non-commercial food-service operations.

    Daily (or single-use) menu – menus that are changed on a daily basis or used as a one-time-only event.

    Static menu – a menu that stays the same every day.

    Theme menu – a menu for a specific type of cuisine or dining experience that is enhanced by concept, decor, architecture and other techniques.

    Sociocultural factors – customs, lifestyles, and values that characterize a society.

    Aesthetics – the study or philosophy of beauty.

    Cross-utilization – using an ingredient, sauce, or condiment that is usually used for one or two specific dishes for another dish or two where, perhaps, they are not expected, or are not usually used.

    “Truth in menu” – creating a menu that doesn’t misrepresent your cuisine or misleads the public in terms of quantity, quality, price, brand names, production identification, points of origin, merchandising terms, food preparation, verbal and visual presentation, and dietary & nutritional concerns

    Menu labeling –  government-required disclosure of certain nutrition information for standard menu items in certain restaurants and retail food establishments.

    Menu psychology –  creating a menu to maximize the restaurant’s profitability by subconsciously encouraging customers to buy what you want them to buy, and discouraging purchase of items you don’t want them to buy.

     

    Section 2, Chapter 5

    HACCP – Hazard Analysis Critical Control Points – a point or procedure in a specific FOOD system where the loss of control may result in an unacceptable health RISK.

    TCS foods (time temperature control for safety) – a FOOD that requires time/temperature control for safety (TCS) to limit pathogenic microorganism growth or toxin formation.

    Critical control points (CCPs) – a point or procedure in a specific FOOD system where the loss of control may result in an unacceptable health RISK.

    Critical limits – the maximum or minimum values to which a physical, biological, or chemical parameter must be controlled at a CRITICAL CONTROL POINT to minimize the RISK that the identified FOOD safety HAZARD may occur.

     

    Section 2, Chapter 7

    Portion cost – the cost of the ingredients (and sometimes labor) found in a standard recipe divided by the number of portions produced by the recipe.

    As purchased

    Edible portion – Used in food composition tables to indicate that the data refer to the part of the ingredient that is usually eaten—e.g. excluding skin or pips of fruit and vegetables, bones in meat and fish.

    Yield – how much you will have of a finished or processed product; for example, a tomato soup recipe may yield 4 gallons or 15 L, and a muffin recipe may yield 24 muffins.

    Yield percentage – the edible portion expressed as a percent of the entire ingredient i.e. piece of fruit, portion of meat, etc.

    Waste – the inedible portion of an ingredient, e.g..g. the skin or pips of fruit and vegetables, bones in meat and fish.

    Waste percentage – waste expressed as a percent of the entire ingredient

    Edible portion cost (“true cost”) – the price per pound of the edible portion of an ingredient, after the waste is removed.

     

    Section 2, Chapter 8

    Price/value relationship – the price of an item compared to its perceived value, e.g. a meal versus a meal with live music.

    Ambiance – the character and atmosphere of a place.

    Menu mix – planning a menu by considering factors such as cross-utilization of products, balance, variety, customer preferences and trends, as well as management factors.

    Blended pricing – a menu where the low and high food cost items work together to help you reach your target food cost.

    Food cost percent – cost of goods sold / total sales for a certain time period.

    Mark up factor – the amount you add to the cost of your product to determine the selling price.

    Contribution margin –  the selling price per unit minus the variable cost per unit.

    Plate cost – found by dividing the total food cost by the number of customers served.

    Bundling – combining a group of menu items, typically an entrée, side and beverage, and selling the items together for one price, sometimes called a combo meal.

    Coupons – a small piece of paper that allows one to get a service or product for free or at a lower price, intended to increase the number of customers, thus increasing overall revenue.

    Value pricing – reducing the price of a few popular menu items to encourage customers to visit the operation for these great values, thus increasing the total number of customers for the operation.

     

    Section 2, Chapter 9

    Menu analysis – used to determine how often each item on the menu is sold.

    Contribution margin –  the selling price per unit minus the variable cost per unit.

    Profitability – affording profits: yielding advantageous returns or results

    Popularity – the quality or state of being popular

     

    Section 3, Chapter 10

    Inventory – an itemized list of current assets.

    Receiving – acquiring incoming inventory.

    Invoice – an itemized list of the goods or products delivered to a food preparation premise.

    Requisition – an internal form used to track inventory when it leaves the storeroom.

    Perpetual inventory – a running balance of what is on hand.

    Physical inventory – an inventory that requires all items in storage to be counted periodically at least monthly.

    Par stock – the quantity of a product that should ideally be on hand at a given time.

    Inventory price extension – the values (the unit cost and total value of each item in storage) of the inventory items added together to give the total dollar value of the inventory.

    Point-of-Sale (POS) system –  the place where a customer executes the payment for goods or services. POS terminals and systems are used to process card payments and add sales tax.

    Holding cost – the costs of storing the material (electricity, insurance, security, data processing, handling), financial costs that reflect the money that is tied up in inventory and costs related to deterioration and damage.

    Ordering cost – costs associated with ordering and receiving inventory. These costs consist of salaries of the purchasing and accounting departments, wages in the receiving area, and transportation.

    Shortage cost – occurs when the demand exceeds the supply.

    Inventory turnover – the number of times your restaurant sold its total average inventory during a period of time.

    Procurement –  the act of obtaining or getting possession of an item

    Purchasing – the determination of needs of the restaurant and the placement of the orders with suppliers.

    Buying – the decisions regarding where to place orders on the basis of quality, price, and service. The foodservice manager or director usually assumes responsibility for deciding on the suppliers from which to purchase food and supplies.

    Ordering – the determination of the quality and quantity of food and supplies required to satisfy menu requirements, at a price within budgetary guidelines. Ordering is usually a supervisory function, and a foodservice supervisor is often given responsibility for ordering.

    Cherry-picking – the practice of buying each item from whichever supplier has the lowest cost, no matter the size of the overall order.

    Vendor – a company that supplies inventory for your restaurant, both ingredients and equipment.

    Distributor – someone that markets a commodity. A merchant middleman who sells chiefly to retailers, other merchants, or industrial, institutional, and commercial users mainly for resale or business use

    Broker – one who acts as an intermediary: such as an agent who negotiates contracts of purchase and sale of commodities.

    Manufacturer – a company that makes a product from raw materials by hand or by machinery.

    Specifications – a detailed precise list of something which can contain type, grade, amount/weight/count, thickness, age, packaging, condition, etc.

    Contract Buying –  a hired managed service that orders inventory for a restaurant.

    Par levels – the amount you should have on hand to get through to the next order of inventory.

    Amount on hand – current amount of goods/inventory.

    Line item bid award – choosing and purchasing from the supplier with the lowest price.

    Market basket bid award – an approach to buying which groups similar items, or items that would logically be purchased from a single supplier, such as produce.

    Purchase order – a formal document that is used by an employee to request that something is purchased by a company.

     

    Section 3, Chapter 11

    Production schedule – a list of menu items with the foodservice staff and equipment assigned to each item, along with the time of day assigned for producing the menu item.

    Forecasting -the ability to accurately predict sales and expenses.

    Activity analysis – watching activity on several (2 to 3) occasions to obtain an average time for the activity, or using a committee of two or three employees, such as cooks and supervisors or managers, to determine the time required for specific activities based on their experience.

    Batch cooking – entails pre-prepping smaller batches of a recipe and cooking as needed. An example would be cutting all the vegetables and preparing the stir fry sauce for 100 servings of stir fry, then cooking just 12-15 servings of the stir fry at a time during the service period.

    Carryover – leftovers or overproduction.

    Portion control – planned portion sizes for orders which help meet customer expectations, assure that the recipe will yield the planned portions and that the portion cost established for the recipe stays in the expected range.

    Overcooking – cooking an order too long shrinks its size, and the yield of a recipe is reduced. This results in fewer servings available for sale and a higher food cost per serving.

    Waste – poor preparation techniques that cause the yield to be smaller. For example, if the beef roast is supposed to yield an 80% edible portion and the cook trims and/or cuts incorrectly so that the edible portion yield is only 75%, that 5% loss is waste and does not generate revenue for the operation.

     

    Section 4, Chapter 12

    Food & Beverage Cost of Goods Sold – the dollar amount spent on items actually used to provide the menu items sold to the guests.

    Food & Beverage Cost of Goods Consumed (used) – the cost of products that were used to produce items that were not associated with corresponding sales

    Beginning Inventory – the dollar value of the food and beverage items held in storage at the beginning of an accounting period.

    Ending Inventory – the dollar value of the food and beverage items held in storage at the end of an accounting period.

    Credits and transfers – inventory items that are not directly used to generate sales

    Food to beverage or beverage to food – food items called for in drink recipes and beverage called for in food recipes

    Standard food & beverage cost – the number of items sold (from a sales report) by the cost from the relevant standardized recipes

    Attainable food & beverage cost – an “ideal” cost figure derived from the standardized recipes

    Direct purchases – the amount for the ingredients, mostly fresh products, that are delivered and directly transformed every day

    Requisition voucher – a form that is filled out for every item removed from storage

    Adjustments – include credits for returned products or discounts, price adjustments from the purveyor/supplier, employee and complimentary meals, transfers in or out

    Operational efficiency ratio – a measure of the extent to which the actual and standard (Ideal) costs differ. It is expressed as the ratio of Actual Cost to Standard Cost.

    Variance – the difference between the standard and actual cost

    Section 4, Chapter 13

    Fringe benefits – extra benefits supplementing an employee’s salary, for example, a company car, subsidized meals, health insurance, etc.

    Overtime – time in addition to what is normal, as time worked beyond one’s scheduled working hours

    Minimum staff – the least number of staff members to adequately perform a business’s needs

    Variable labor/payroll cost – costs that change based on the volume of the business. Food costs are the most obvious example of variable costs.

    Fixed labor/payroll cost – the costs of running the operation that do not vary depending on the volume of business. For many businesses, the cost of the building, heating, lighting, insurance, and other similar costs are fixed.

    Productivity – the amount of output gained from a given amount of input. For instance, it could be the amount of food produced and served for each labor hour worked.

    Employee turnover – the act of replacing an employee with a new employee.

    Section 4, Chapter 14

    Other Expenses – all expenses that do not directly relate to Cost of Goods Sold and Employee Payroll & Benefits.

    Uniform System of Accounts for Restaurants – a standardized account classification system that is used by most restaurant operators

    Statement of Profit and Loss or “Income Statement” – a definition or formula of revenue advocated by the Uniform System

    Controllable versus Non-Controllable Expenses– managerially decided versus fixed expenses

    Controllable Profit – revenue after subtracting cost of sales, payroll, employee benefits and controllable expenses

    Fixed versus Variable expenses – depends on how the expense varies as the activity level of an operation fluctuates

    Budget – the amount of money or resources earmarked for a particular institution, activity or time-frame.

    1. Back to top
    • Was this article helpful?

    Recommended articles

    1. Article type
      Section or Page
      Number of Print Columns
      Three
      Show TOC
      no
    2. Tags
      This page has no tags.