Cost Control Measures in Food and Beverage Management: An Interview with the Owner of Donatella Alfresco

This article features an interview with the owner of Donatella Alfresco, an Italian pizza and pasta restaurant in Gold Coast, Queensland, Australia. The interview discusses the cost control measures used by the restaurant, including the use of a Point of Sale (POS) system, social media marketing, and inventory control. The owner emphasizes the importance of cost control in ensuring the long-term success of the business.

Running head: FOOD AND BEVERAGE MANAGMENT
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author note

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Table of Contents
Analysis of the interview findings:............................................................................................2
Evaluation of the findings:.........................................................................................................3
Appendices:................................................................................................................................4
Interview:...............................................................................................................................4
References..................................................................................................................................7

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Analysis of the interview findings:
Food business has remained a hot favourite among the customers. The appetite for
food is very difficult to subjugate, as a result of which, it still has remained one of the most
lucrative business profession. Be it ethnic, fast food, fast casual, premium dining, barbeque or
any other kind of restaurant, the business of preparing top notch quality of food and serving it
to people has remained, one of the most pursued business proposals of recent times. To be
successful in this genre of business, it is very important to keep yourselves updated as this
business works in a very dynamic environment, where the owners always have to be on their
toes. In this regard, the importance of the owner and the head chef becomes imperative in
ensuring the success of the business. In this era of intense competition, it becomes very
important for the owners and the chefs to ensure that top notch quality of goods are provided
and at the same time, the business earns sufficient profit in order to produce goods at a very
reasonable costs. This requires efficient cost control, which ultimately makes the difference
in ensuring long term success.
A brief information of the Owner:
An interview was conducted with the owner of one of the most talked about Italian pizza and
pasta restaurant based in the town of Southport in Gold Coast, in Queensland, Australia, Mr
Antoine Ibrahim. He is one of the most accomplished chefs in the city Queensland. He has a
flair for preparing quality pasta and pizzas. He has some avid followers, who follow his
recipes and food, some of them even come back to taste the food of their beloved chef, while
visiting Gold Coast. It is one of the most important and most loved restaurants in the area of
Gold coast, because of its exotic pizza and pasta related dishes
(Donatellasalfresco.com.au.2018).

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Mr Ibrahim has stated that Donatella uses a succession of different measures in keeping
control over both the back office as well as the front office costs. Point of Sale (POS) is one
of the most modern systems which are being increasingly used by Mr Ibrahim’s Donatella, at
Gold Coast. On a closer look and analysis, it was seen that the POS system helps in various
kinds of ways to the Pizza and pasta outlet of Donatella (Tripadvisor.in 2018). It helps in
many ways, right from time reduction , management and in this way helps in reducing the
costs, for example, when the orders are taken, all of them are simultaneously to both the Pasta
as well as the Pizza section, separately and saves a lot of time. All of the daily routine works
involving writing orders, or reading them, all these are done by the POS systems, which
reduce the human errors and saves money spent on extra man power (Khan, 2014). It also
helps in reducing the risk of thefts, by keeping track of every single order of the customers.
Mr Ibrahim makes use of the Social Media, on an increasing basis, which helps in reducing
marketing costs by a large margin, thus adding to the profitability. He believes in the theory
of team work and believes that if costs are to be reduced, be it front office or back office
ones, involvement of each and every employee is essential (Tanwar, 2013). All of the
employees have been given clear instructions about the objectives of the business and cost
control occupies a significant part in this (Forbes, 2018).
Inventory control is another measure used by Donatella. All the different stocks of the raw
materials, food items, other necessary ingredients, all kinds of information about their
purchase, storage, prices along with their re-order quantity are kept by Mr Ibrahim’s assistant
(Mok, Sparks and Kadampully, 2013). His assistant keeps a close liaison with the Head Chef
and consequently reports every detail to Mr Ibrahim.

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Evaluation of the findings:
After a meticulous analysis of the interview a moderately fine amount of explanations
have been made, and again some of these processes play a very important role in the industry
oh hospitality. All of these steps and processes have now become an inherent part of the
hospitality industry and Donatella is not an exception to it. The POS system has become a
boon to this industry, from reducing human errors, keeping track of orders, estimating
number of customers, preparation of business reports and processing of credit cards have
become quiet expeditious by its usage (Mok, Sparks and Kadampully, 2013). The method of
inventory control has also become very useful as it directly helps in giving a proper shape to
the business’s financial and material and inventory storage structure. It provides a wide range
of advantages to the pasta and pizza business right from cost controlling, efficient inventory
storage, keeping an account of all the sales and purchase actions (Dopson and Hayes,
2015)Involvement of the employees in the entire operation of cost control by giving them
specific job roles, responsibilities, and instructions has been very successful. Specific
instructions which have been given to the employees regarding about the judicious use of the
resources, keeping track of the quality of products has been very successful in increasing
overall productive efficiency and cost reduction.
Appendices:
Interview:
 Which kind of hospitality business entity is Donatella Alfresco?
Donatella is a celebration of two of the most beloved dishes all around the world,
‘Pizza’ and ‘Pasta’. It was my intention to create a restaurant, which would aim to suffice the
taste buds of the customers by providing top quality pasta and pizza, under one single roof.
Pizza and Pasta go well together and are two of the well-loved food by many people around

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the globe. We wanted to create a beautiful fusion of the two popular foods and put it across
the world to see. Our customers have received us with open arms and we are eternally
grateful for that Donatella's Pizza and Pasta serves the best pizza and pasta dishes in the Gold
Coast area. We aim to provide both modern as well as traditional dishes in our menu. As a
result of which, we offer popular pizza flavours like Alfresco Super Supreme, All Meat,
Greek Salad along with our traditional pizza flavours include Pepperoni, Chicken and
Mushroom, Focaccia and Vegetariana.
 Please tell us in a more elaborate way about job role at Donatella Alfresco?
I am the owner of Donatella Alfresco. I look into all the day to day affairs of
the restaurant, right from the delivery of the raw materials of pizza and pasta, keeping
an eye on the kitchen operations and ensuring the overall wellbeing of the clients. I
look after the daily financial accounts of the business and also look after the food
section as well. I want to pass on as much as knowledge to my chefs, here at
Donatella about the creation of Pizza and pasta, as possible. I have always preached
here at Donatella, that cost control and producing the best quality food are two of the
most important objectives of our business. I have delegated both these actions to my
Assistants, although I supervise all the operations on a daily basis.
 How do you ensure cost control at the front of the house?
Cost control in the front of the house is quiet a demanding task and we have to
put our best foot forward while performing this task. Even though, I remain present in
the front as well as the back office section of Donatella, my assistant, keeps a
comprehensive overview of all the front office operations. He overviews the POS
system and its working in cost reduction area. My assistant views and manages our
social media activities, which helps us in minimising marketing costs, along with this,

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our customers are also able to view the various installed sign boards, providing
information about wasting of food items.
 How is the cost controlled at the back of the house?
Costs control in the back office of Dontella is one of the most important
activities, which is performed under my constant supervision. Effective inventory
control is done, by ensuring timely arrival of all raw materials avoiding overcrowding,
which increases costs, efficient waste management and involvement of all the back
office staff into this operation of cost control has reaped huge amount of success in
our day to day business.
 Which financial control methods are preferred by you, in daily business
operation?
As per my belief and professional experience, in the world of business of culinary, I
believe that it is important to record all the profits and losses arising from the business. It
is for this reason; that we have hired some really good accounting professionals who
regularly create and prepare our financial statements and regularly provide us with their
expert guidance in many complex matters. He prepares the cash flow statement for
showing the cash balances at the end and the beginning of the year, along with the income
statement and the balance sheet, for conducting a comprehensive analysis of the financial
performance of the company. This helps me to compare the past performances of
Donatella and its current performances with its rivals, for improving itself in these areas.

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References:
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Donatellasalfresco.com.au. (2018). Donatella's Alfresco Ristorante. [online] Available at:
http://donatellasalfresco.com.au/ [Accessed 8 Jun. 2018].
Dopson, L.R. and Hayes, D.K., 2015. Food and beverage cost control. John Wiley & Sons.
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Kim, S., Koh, Y., Cha, J. and Lee, S., 2015. Effects of social media on firm value for US
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Mok, C., Sparks, B. and Kadampully, J., 2013. Service quality management in hospitality,
tourism, and leisure. Routledge.
Tanwar, R., 2013. Porter’s generic competitive strategies. Journal of business and
management, 15(1), pp.11-17.
Tripadvisor.in. (2018). Donatella's Alfresco Ristorante Pizzeria, Southport - Restaurant
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https://www.tripadvisor.in/Restaurant_Review-g495002-d945912-Reviews-
Donatella_s_Alfresco_Ristorante_Pizzeria-Southport_Gold_Coast_Queensland.html
[Accessed 8 Jun. 2018].