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For more than 40 years, ServSafe
®
training programs have delivered the knowledge, leadership and protection that have earned the trust and confidence of restaurateurs and business leaders everywhere. MRA proudly announces additional ServSafe courses have been added to our schedule for 2016. In addition, on February 10 and September 14 we will offer a ServSafe Manager course taught in Spanish.
ServSafe Manager
is the only food safety program with roots in the foodservice industry. It can be trusted to help you protect customer health, improve employee performance and preserve your business reputation. The program blends the latest FDA Food Code, food safety research and years of food sanitation training experience. Foodservice managers
learn to implement essential food safety practices and create a culture of food safety. All content and materials are based on actual job tasks identified by foodservice industry experts.
In 2016 for the first time, MRA will offer regularly-scheduled classes in ServSafe Food Handler and ServSafe Alcohol.
ServSafe Food Handler
includes five sections: Basic Food Safety, Personal Hygiene, Cross-contamination and Allergens, Time & Temperature, and Cleaning & Sanitation.
Whether you are an employee seeking your Food Handler Card or an operation seeking a compliant solution for your employees, Food Handler has a product that's right for you.
ServSafe Alcohol
prepares bartenders, servers, hosts, bussers, valets, bouncers and all front-of-house staff to effectively and safely handle difficult situations in your operation. Alcohol service involves many risks. Failure to act responsibly could result in fines, imprisonment, losing your liquor license, increased insurance costs, or losing your business. Prepare yourself to handle these risks with responsible alcohol training from a trusted and experienced source, the National Restaurant Association.
MRA members receive a substantial discount on all of the above courses.
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Food delivery service is a big thing that's about to get even bigger.
Nearly every city, in the U.S. and Canada, has several food-ordering apps and numerous existing services - like Seamless and Postmates - that specialize in quickly bringing meals from restaurant to customer.
Now the big boys are moving into this lucrative business.
Amazon, for one, is
adding restaurant delivery to its rapidly expanding array of on demand services. After a trial run in Seattle, Amazon recently announced that Prime Now-based food delivery will soon expand to 20 major metropolitan areas across the U.S.
Amazon, however, is not the only big player with eyes on food delivery.
Uber, the well-known ridesharing company recently launched its first standalone app that's unrelated to getting a ride. Christened UberEATS, this is a new food-ordering app initially available in Toronto. With UberEATS, you'll be able to order food the same way you order an Uber ride with the added benefit of tracking its progress from the moment you order it to its arrival at your door.
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The National Restaurant Association has been surveying professional chef members of the American Culinary Federation for a decade to identify hot trends on restaurant menus. Results of the What's Hot chef survey over time reveal that true trends keep evolving, while others are cooling off.
When asked in the
What's Hot in 2016 survey which current culinary trend has grown the most over the past 10 years, 44 percent said local sourcing, followed by gluten-free cuisine (21 percent), and environmental sustainability (13 percent).
Looking forward, 41 percent of the chefs believe environmental sustainability will be the hottest trend over the next decade, followed by local sourcing (21 percent) and nutrition (14 percent). Only 7 percent believe gluten-free cuisine will remain a hot trend.
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Any time you place technology in front of a restaurant guest, you can potentially disrupt their dining experience. If you opt to implement tableside technology, think about how you can leverage it to increase customer and employee satisfaction. At the 2015
Restaurant Innovation Summit, Lisa Landsman, head of industry - restaurants at Google; Raymond Howard, cofounder of Ziosk; and Chris DeFrain, chief financial officer of Red Robin Gourmet Burgers and Brews - Lehigh Valley Restaurant Group, discussed the perks and considerations associated with tableside tech:
- Server availability. By allowing guests to order and/or pay at the table electronically, servers may not need to leave their sections as frequently and can hone in on providing fantastic service; on the flipside, customers aren't left in limbo waiting for their server to annotate order add-ons and run credit cards.Before rolling out tableside technology at a restaurant, train employees on the functions and perks of the devices so they understand their roles. According to DeFrain, Red Robin - Lehigh Valley has experienced a more than 10 percent increase on appetizers and desserts with the devices, and, likewise, server tips can be positively affected.
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Sharpen your responsible alcohol
service skills with the latest version of our "
Serving it Up with ServSafe
" game. Compete against your friends in timed quizzes, and earn bragging rights with our leaderboard.
Participate in our Facebook game and weekly social media quizzes to test your ability to assess tricky situations, recognize fake IDs and determine when enough is enough. You might not have to break up any reindeer games, cut off Mrs. Claus or show a snowman to the door, but you could win a prize!
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Although the topline retail numbers have been lackluster in recent months, the positive trends in restaurant sales indicate consumers haven't completely closed up their pocketbooks, but instead appear to be picking their spots more carefully, according to the NRA's Chief Economist Bruce Grindy. His
Economist's Notebook commentary and analysis appears regularly on Restaurant.org and
Restaurant TrendMapper.
Restaurants have been one of the consistent bright spots during a period of lackluster consumer spending in recent months, according to an analysis of preliminary data from the
U.S. Census Bureau. Eating and drinking place sales totaled $53.0 billion on a seasonally-adjusted basis in November, which represented a strong 0.7 percent increase over October's sales volume of $52.6 billion.
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St. Joseph/Northwest Missouri
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