Professional Practice in Restaurant Business: A Mentoring Experience

Running head: PROFESSIONAL PRACTICE
Professional practice
Name of the student:
Name of the university:
Author note

1PROFESSIONAL PRACTICE
Introduction
From the logbook entry, it is evident that the day- to- day tasks were carried out in an
organized manner. I have conducted the tasks in order to focus on my end of placement
documents. The record of my activities as per the date and time will help me in writing a report
and highlight my skills. This report will be helpful in shedding light on the purpose and pattern
of mentoring relationships. In the course of this report, ethical parameters will be considered
along with the strengths and weaknesses of mentoring.
Reflection
I started with the tasks in the last days of March 2018, which were of 4 hours duration as
30 March was my first working day. My journey started with a formal introduction with the staff
members about the workplace and work structure. It was an ice breaking session for me where
the mentor handed me the weekly roaster. As I worked only for the last two days in the month of
March, therefore I could not feel much pressure. I have learnt the use of ordering machine for
taking orders and helping my colleagues to determine the daily work.
In the month of April, I have worked for 10 days but not on a daily basis. It was in this
month that I understood the importance of mentoring and its effect on the work structure. As I
got a roaster from my mentor, I could chalk out different activities according to their priority. My
mentor helped me in understanding the pattern of taking orders from customers and taught me
the art of effective communication. He also taught me certain easy ways of checking on the
bookings, which in turn, helped me in coordinating with my colleagues. In this regard, the
practice theory can be used which helped me to gather individual knowledge, values and

2PROFESSIONAL PRACTICE
experience. This particular theory has focused on the helping of the mentee by the mentor
to become better in his own field.
As I was an apprentice in the workplace therefore, I was not fast paced and faced
difficulty in coping with the regular tasks. My mentor stood by me all throughout so that I can
get used to the speed of work in different circumstances. He helped me in increasing the
efficiency of my work by proper guidance. In this way, I could prepare myself to help my
colleagues with lunch preparation and setting the table. I learnt that hygiene and cleanliness
should be of top priority in creating impression among the customers. A perfect mentoring was,
thus helpful in building up friendly relation with my co- workers.
With more passing days, my shift timing increased to 21 hours and 25 hours. I learnt
from my mentor that in a restaurant business cleaning is the most important thing. This is
because no customer will pay money for eating on a dirty table. Therefore, I helped my colleague
and sometimes on my own cleaned the tables to give them a polished and clean look. Cleanliness
was the ultimate motto of my workplace and I strictly adhered to that. My mentor was very clear
in teaching me all the necessary things such as making a list of stock with the help of the chef,
which will be required in the restaurant.
Initially I was a poor performer in dealing with the customers and I could not treat them
politely. It was considered as a breach of the ethical parameters of the restaurant and my mentor
advised to rectify my behavior. He taught me to deal with the customers on ethical and moral
grounds, as they believed that guests are god. Until that day, I could only look into the
strengths of mentoring but at that point, I felt that it was his weakness. On the very first day,
he should have told me and made me aware about the ways the customers should be treated. I