Thursday, 13 November 2014

How Does Fine Dining Differ From Casual Dining?

In my previous blog post I explained what Fine Dining was. Now I hope to explain what makes fine dining different from casual dining. One main difference is that fine dining restaurants provide services that casual dining restaurants would not. An example of this would be providing silver service or similar high-end services.. This makes the fine dining sector different from casual dining As it shows a skill set that is incredibly unlikely to be found elsewhere.

There are many other differences between the two such as the quality and type of service, and price as well as staff knowledge and quality. These are incredibly important to fine dining as the quality and type of service they offer are what gives them their higher-end reputation. This is important as we as customers expect a fine dining company to provide us with an exceptionally high standard of service to live up to the title of “fine-dining.”

Another Difference is the prices fine dining restaurants charge. Fine dining restaurants generally price their food differently from casual dining Restaurants. This is mainly because as fine dining is more of a luxury experience, they try to use the highest quality ingredients which obviously cost a lot more than the ingredients used in casual dining restaurants meaning the menu prices increase. Fine dining restaurants also charge more as they need an incredibly highly skilled workforce to prepare and cook their customers food.


Finally fine dining restaurants are made different from casual dining by the staff members in the restaurant. This refers to both the knowledge possessed by and the quality of staff members. The knowledge possessed by the staff in a fine dining restaurant may be different from the knowledge possessed by the staff in a casual dining restaurant. As in a fine dining restaurant staff are expected to know more advanced techniques or methods in terms of both the kitchen and front of house than the staff in say a smaller more casual dining restaurant. The staff quality also makes fine dining different as it is essential to have a top quality workforce in a fine-dining restaurant.

Tuesday, 21 October 2014

What is fine dining?

Hello, My name is Jennifer Houston and over the next few months I will be writing all about The Fine Dining aspect of the hospitality industry. I am currently studying International Hospitality Management at university and hope to use this blog to help people of all backgrounds to greater understand what fine dining is and how it impacts the hospitality industry as a whole. I will also write about how different fine dining is compared to casual dining.

Fine dining in my opinion is a restaurant that provides food,beverages and services of an exceptionally high quality or standard to members of the public.The food served in a fine dining restaurant is usually served to their customers in a formal but professional way. An example of a fine dining restaurant would be Heston Blumenthal's restaurant The Fat Duck.

Fine dining restaurants as you may expect charge quite Extortionate amounts of money for their services. This is mainly due to the fact that they try to use the highest quality ingredients which obviously cost a lot more than the ingredients casual dining restaurants would use. Another factor contributing to the price of fine dining restaurants would be that the customer is paying to have an incredibly highly skilled workforce prepare and cook their food to an incredibly high expected standard of quality.

Most but not all of the higher quality fine dining restaurants may be awarded a certain award called a michelin star rating. This award serves as a benchmark or goal for the restaurant and its competition to try and meet. However it is the chef who works in the restaurant not the actual restaurant who is awarded the star rating. This means if the chef leaves the restaurant the restaurant no Longer possesses that star rating. The maximum number of stars that can be awarded are three stars. There are only 4 restaurants in the UK that currently possess 3 michelin stars these are ;

  • The Fat Duck in Bray
  • The Waterside Inn also in Bray
  • Gordon Ramsay's restaurant in Chelsea
  • Alain Ducasse at The Dorchester in Mayfair