XXVI. Speak on the following issues, using the active vocabulary of the unit.

1. Food service is a good example of a sector that’s grown as a result of changes in our lifestyle: people used to eat most of their meals at home, going out to restaurants only on special occasions. But with the increase in the number of two-income families, there was less time to prepare meals. People started buying more convenience foods like frozen dinners, or taking fast-foods home with them. They also began to eat out more often. Most people eat out, or buy prepared foods, at least once a week. The result of this change in habits has been rapid growth in the food services industry.

2. Most of the people working in accommodation and food service sector are in sales and service occupations: they’re chefs, cooks, bartenders, servers, cleaners, porters and other workers in similar types of jobs. Workers in the accommodation industry, with average earnings of $323 per week, fare better than those in the food services industry, where earnings average $215 per week. However, workers in the food services industry work shorter hours (23 per week) than those in the accommodation services (28 hours) industry. Food service workers in restaurants generally can also supplement their wages with tips.

3. Part-time employment is more common than full-time employment in this sector. For example, 44% of chefs, 66% of cooks and 79% of food and beverage servers worked part-time in 1994. However, those with administrative positions are probably more likely to have full-time employment. Women outnumber men 3 to 2 in the accommodation and food services sector.

4. Standard hotel procedures must include services, attitudes and amenities that are very appealing to the hotel’s guests. Services are kind of obvious but attitudes are a little tougher. Rather than exclusively hiring experienced servers look for people with a positive, cheerful outgoing attitude that either have experience or are trainable. A cheerful good attitude will over-come a lot of service and even quality problems, assuming they are short term! Your servers must enjoy their patrons, thank them for coming, ask them if they will be in tomorrow, how their room is, etc. In short they must care. It will help the Food and Beverage outlets and the hotel in general.

XXVII. 1) Read the following quotations about English food. Discuss in class

How you understand them.

Find out information which can prove your opinion. Present it in

Class.

3) Compare English food with Russian /some other country’s one.

1. “On the Continent people have good food; in England people have good table manners.”

George Mikes, writer and humorist.

2. “If the English can survive their food, they can survive anything! ”

George Bernard Shaw, writer.

3. “Even today, well-brought up English girls are taught to boil all vegetables for at least a month and a half, just in case one of the dinner guests comes without his teeth! ”

Calvin Trillin, American writer.