Just as I suspected, there's a treasure trove of free information on the net about how to be the ultimate fine-dining waitress. And holy moly, I found the secret mother lode.
It didn't take long for me to find that Amazon and other sites sell to high-end restaurant owners a $125 video for training their wait staff. It's called "The Perfect Server." Now, when I worked at an education research center, we did lots of studies on the power of video for learning. And I'm talking this was even back in the days of the laserdisc. There's "good video" for learning and "bad video" for learning (i.e., talking heads), but there's no doubt about the potential benefits of video on learning, and this video looks professionally designed. It even uses the very effective technique that learning scientists call "contrasting cases," so you can see both a bad example of how someone might do something and a good example.
I wanted this video.
I searched around for used copies, but they weren't any cheaper. I was just about to plunk down the money, when I found it: a free segment of the video on Answers.com. I assumed this was just a teaser segment, so that you'd watch it and then want to buy the DVD to see the rest. But at the end of the segment, up popped links to "related videos," and lo and behold, there were lots of other "Perfect Server" segments listed. I counted up the minutes listed for each segment, compared it to the entire video run time.....and it's the same! The entire thing 90+ minute video is on there for free!
At first I worried that maybe these were pirated segments, and I shouldn't watch them. But then I realized that since there's an ad running at the beginning of each one, the publisher is making money off them and likely posted them there in individual segments for another revenue stream, without undercutting sales of the DVD to restaurant owners who would still want an easier ad-free way to set up training sessions.
For me, it's just what I need. I'll watch each segment, take notes, put together a study/curriculum manual, just like I've done for clients. Maybe even design some self-assessments. Here are the segments I've watched so far:
Beverages
Taking an Order Part 1
Taking an Order Part 2
The "Beverages" part was ten minutes and I probably spent at least an hour taking notes and looking up related information, since that's going to be one of my weakest skill areas to start with, where I have perhaps the most to learn. Alcohol and I have never gotten along very well, and I can probably count on two hands the number of mixed drinks I've ever ordered. On the rare occasions I drink wine, I've always had someone else do the ordering. I just wasn't that interested -- but now all that has changed. Who knew there were so many different kinds of vodka? And who names a drink a "Duck Fart?"
The most interesting thing so far from the psychological angle? I learned that professional waitresses know each table of diners has a "leader," and you should try to identify that leader in the first few seconds of your interaction. For example, as you approach a table where the hostess has seated a group and given them menus, there could be one woman who is the first to close her menu and make eye contact with you. Bingo, that's the leader. If you pay attention to the leader for most of your cues, spoken and unspoken, you'll be able to set just the right pace and be most likely to fill all the guests' needs.
Fascinating stuff.
I also discovered a blog called "Mom PhD," by an academic trying to balance the demands of a university career and motherhood. Been there. In one post she talks about how she made more money as a student working 25 hours a week as a waitress than she did as an assistant professor. She also writes that she was terrified of getting her PhD and still being a waitress. Said she would have felt like a failure.
Not me. It's my new goal.
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