What Qualifications Do You Need to Be a Waiter at a High-End Restaurant?

What qualifications do you need to be a waiter at a high-end restaurant? originally appeared on Quora- the place to gain and share knowledge, empowering people to learn from others and better understand the world.

Answer by Maxwell Arnold, former sous chef, restaurant manager, waiter, and busboy, on Quora:

“But… but… waitering is an unskilled job! What qualifications could you possibly need?”

Quite a few, actually. As a veteran of the restaurant industry, a former hiring manager, and a regular patron of some high-end restaurants, I can tell you that there’s a core bundle of qualifications that one needs to have, in order to be a waiter at a high-end restaurant. Here’s five of them, to give you an idea…

1. Looks - You have to be good-looking, and conventionally attractive. It’s an absolute must, when it comes to working in a high-end restaurant. I know, I know… “that’s not fair to everyone”, and “that can be considered discrimination”. Yeah… nobody cares. People don’t go to high-end restaurants to be politically correct. They go there to enjoy the best, and be surrounded by the best. That’s the best decor, the best flatware/glassware, the best service, the best food, and of course… the best looking people. It’s all part of the image. That is a standard, well-established fact of virtually any aspect of the high-end world, whether it’s retail, hotels, car dealerships, or restaurants. It’s just like high school. All the pretty girls hang out together, all the buff/handsome guys hang out together. If you haven’t got that going for you, you’re not getting in. I know that makes me sound like an insensitive jerk… but walk into a high-end restaurant, see how many unattractive people are working there, and then tell me I’m wrong.
2. Clean record - At a high-end restaurant, you’re going to be in a position where you have a lot of valuable goods in your immediate reach, and where you will be privy to a lot of very sensitive information. Valuable goods might include premium wines/liquors, crystal glassware, and expensive food products such as steak and caviar. Sensitive information might include overhearing conversations between lawyers or businesspeople, seeing what famous people are like when they’re drunk, and handling credit cards of high-net-worth individuals. All of these things can be misused if access to them is provided to the wrong person. Therefore, many high-end restaurants require that you undergo a criminal record check. It is not just for the restaurant’s protection, it is also for the comfort of the guests. Am I going to be okay handing my credit card with a $100,000 limit to someone who might be a convicted criminal? As a rule of thumb, you generally need to have a clean criminal record to work in a high-end restaurant. This is a key qualification to have.
3. Education - In theory, you don’t need to have an education to be a server. You also don’t needto have fingers to drive a truck, and you don’t need to have teeth to work as a cashier. But it’s kind of expected. An education is a must for high-end servers, especially in today’s world, which I’ll get to in a second. For high-end restaurants in general, an education is treated as necessary for servers to have, because they will be facing an audience that is mostly educated themselves. Thus, they will feel most comfortable around those that have certain mannerisms, certain ways of speaking, and certain knowledge about certain subjects - all of which are generally had by those who are educated. Of course, if you’re smart, you can fake your way around a lot of conversations, even if you never went to school. But it helps to have an education, especially because it often comes up in conversation (e.g. a customer might ask “So, what did you go to school for?”). Now, in today’s world, with fewer and fewer “real jobs” being available to university graduates, many grads are going into serving in restaurants just to make a living. Thus, it’s increasingly common for servers to have an education, to the point that it’s actually almost expected, even in middle-of-the-road places.
4. Knowledge of food (and wine) - Here’s where you deliver value to the customer. Something I can tell you about restaurant patrons is that most of them know nothing about food. Therefore, they will rely on their server to make informed recommendations about good things to eat. You can’t just say “everything is good, just pick something!”. That’s not what people come to high-end restaurants to hear. You need to be able to speak intelligently about food, because it’s part of the experience. Getting to eat it is one thing. Getting excited to eat it is another. Getting excited to eat the rightthing is what makes the big difference that people are paying for. This goes double for making wine recommendations, because that’s where the really big money comes into play. If you can’t sell (and upsell) expensive wine, you can forget about working in high-end restaurants.Additionally, with your knowledge of food, you’re able to prevent food-related problems from happening. For example, if a customer says they have an allergy to anchovies, and they order a Caesar salad, do you know what to say? The correct answer is “perhaps you would like something else, as Caesar salad dressing has anchovy paste in it”. Didn’t know that? You have to. It’s your job to know that. High-end restaurants are about perfection, and you absolutely must have a deep enough knowledge of food - both to sell it, and to mitigate any issues that might come from a customer not knowing about food themselves. Perfection is not rifling through a customer’s purse for her allergy meds because she’s gone into shock, because of your lack of knowledge about your own product. For all of these reasons, knowing about food - and especially knowing about wine, is a very important qualification for high-end restaurant servers.
5. Experience - This overshadows everything. Contrary to popular opinion, learning to serve is not something that happens overnight, or in a week, or a month, or even a year. I had my first waitering job when I was 19, and I still make mistakes to this day. Experience is important, because it makes you familiar (and more importantly, comfortable) with the flow of service. Specifically, you need to be able to go through the standard motions of service (collecting menus, replacing dirty plates, refilling waters, pouring wine, etc.) without thinking, you need to know the lingo (e.g. “Pick up on table six”, “Hot nut on two”, “We’ve got an eight-top coming in 15 minutes”), and you need to know to do certain things without being asked (e.g. when someone orders a steak, you need to ask them how they want it cooked). Part of the high-end experience is getting high-end service. No owner or manager of a high-end restaurant is going to allow a first-time server to face customers, simply because they’re not going to know what a customer is expecting, which will inevitably lead to problems that will disrupt the customer’s experience. But don’t worry, you’ll pick these things up in other restaurant jobs. Servers usually start out as bussers or food runners, and then get upgraded to serving. Once in a serving position, it will usually take a matter of years before you’re considered to be experienced enough to work in a high-end restaurant.Also with experience comes references. High-end restaurants will usually ask for references from past restaurant employers who can speak positively of your skills and work habits. Without this, you’ll have a very difficult time getting through the door. If you think you’re good, prove it somewhere else, and then apply at a high-end restaurant. This is not an area where chances are taken.

The high-end restaurant world is extremely competitive, where standards are high, and expectations are even higher. You can get into serving at a casual/average restaurant with a pretty face and a good attitude. But high-end restaurants are the big leagues, where those things will only get you an interview.

On the more positive side, serving is loads of fun, and I would very strongly recommend it as something to at least try doing. But if you have no experience with serving, get some. You won’t be able to work in a high-end restaurant without it.

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