10 Tips to be an awesome expo

Expediting in a busy restaurant is arguably the most stressful job in the kitchen. In many ways, it’s much more pressure than working any single station. In fact, because you’re delegating what each station physically does and determining how clear they are, in many ways you are working all of the stations at the same time. With the added pressure of being a liaison to the front of house.

While yes, anyone can technically call tickets out, it does take a great leader to manage an excellent service as an expeditor. Whether this be a chef, manager, or a hired expeditor. The core of what makes a successful expeditor is confidence, resilience, fearlessness and determination.

Alongside the host stand, the pass is the pulse of the restaurant. They determine the efficiency and quality of each seating, and whether your restaurant is as profitable as it could be. After all, the service staff can’t sell it if you can’t serve it within an allotted amount of time. The expo ensures the table turns on time, and the standard of their food. Ultimately, the expeditor is the warrior protecting the brand reputation.

Here are a few important tips to be an awesome expo:

1) Be focused at all times

The most important way to start service, prevent issues and have a strong day overall is to be focused on the task at hand, and with your team. The first step to a terrible service or experiencing costly oversights and mistakes to interject with off-topic chatter. Set the tone with everyone by first being the example.

2) Be in tune with the kitchen and service staff

Being a great expo is much more than calling tickets and waiting for the food to be ready: Actively pay attention to what each person is doing, keeping your eyes in the pans, on the stove, and in many ways, attached to what their hands are doing. Be their eyes. Everything you see is going to determine the time marks and standards you hit. Ditto for the service staff, ask important questions, in advance, if you have them and try to look for oversights on their behalf, because they’re your team too.

3) Consolidate your pick up before you call it

Don’t go back and forth calling tickets and orders in different directions to different people, confusing everyone along the way. While they’re cooking the current fire, write down each station’s pick up, dish by dish, with accurate counts and mods. Try using tally marks next to the dish name to keep count and organizing allergies and special requests under the dish name to keep each stations notes concise. Whatever you choose to do, be organized and early, it saves everyone time.

4) Speak loud and clear, then repeat yourself.

You’re not being a jerk by being loud and clear. Speak up so that everyone can hear you, because many cooks zone in so far, they block everything else out, including your voice. That, and try standing under a loud hood, trying to hear anything. Whatever the reason, be loud and clear. This doesn’t mean scream and yell – it means that your voice should cut through all other noise, and your words should be properly enunciated. Don’t speak in long sentences or ask unnecessary questions, and get to the point. The team shouldn't be thinking about anything besides what they're doing.

***Also don’t assume anyone is going to remember what you said. Service can scramble even the most experienced cooks brain, so do them an advance favor by saying important information multiple times. It might be annoying, but it’s better to have insurance than not.

5) Call station by station and the biggest pick up first

Don’t talk at the room like a cattle auctioneer. Talk directly to each individual person on each station and tell them exactly what you need with numbers in priority. Call them by name, and start with the busiest person so that they have a little more time to get things going. Calling a ticket is also a great time to see if a cook is running out of anything, has any questions, or needs help.

6) Get confirmation from each person after a call

This is big, because many expeditors don’t want to press a busy cook, because they think it’s being annoying, and they trust first. That’s backwards and actually hurts the process, because all cooks in a professional kitchen should understand that it’s industry standard to call back pick ups clearly. This prevents miscommunication, creates clarity, and is a sign of respect to the guest to not make a preventable mistake that causes their food to drag.

7) Coordinate everything to be done at the same time

This is the hard part. Different skillsets, personal speeds, lots of allergies or mods, and all sorts of things can slow down a pickup. But you still must use your voice like a coach to make sure each cook is meeting their time marks. In many cases, if you’re training, this may be a time to jump in to prevent hitting a wall. But otherwise, keep talking and keep delegating, if need be, so that the team learns how to come together and synchronize. They should be directed to talk amongst themselves about specific time marks too.

8) Help cook or plate if you can

This deserves to be in its own category, because many bottlenecks can be averted by having the chef or expo jump in to help get through a push. However, this may not always be possible, and it’s important to discuss these potentials in pre-meals and with the other managers, if the chef is pulled from expo consistently. Some restaurants have chef’s expo and cook as a core function, other restaurants have the chef expo outside the line. But either way, the point here is to be in tune with the speed and efficiency of your team and know when to step in.

9) Call the next fire before you sell the current one

When your team has the food ready, and you have your next fire organized and written down, call the fire before you sell the food. If you’re busy, it may be harder to sell the food, and you don’t want your team wasting time while you split your attention. Keep it simple, call it as early as possible.  

10) Facilitate the ticket to the food runner

On top of running sprints across the dining room with drinks and plates in hand, the service staff are mentally juggling drink orders, food orders, mods, communications, specials, 86’s, complaints, special requests, birthdays, personalities and many other tasks while needing to keep a smile stretched across their faces. If you’re an expo, be clear and concise with them, and know that their brains are in twenty places. This isn’t an excuse for mistakes, but it does highlight their likelihood and the need to prevent them. What’s more. it puts the onus on you to be as clear and effective as possible. The service staff are your team too.

Conclusion

Service can feel like a non-stop blitz without a seasoned expeditor. Like a completely disorienting assault on your restaurant. The expo is a core position that deserves great respect.

For the person in the hot seat, in charge, taking the bull by the horns, it can come with some pain along the way too. But taking control of it, owning it, and getting good at it is how great services are created. Excellent services are an exciting adrenaline rush.