by Hendy Hermawan, September 16, 2020

Change in the F&B Industry

This quarter has been a whirlwind for everyone. With the whole pandemic happening, we are learning to make changes and adapting to this new world we live in—both in our personal and professional lives. A prevalent point of this issue and change needed is the food and beverage industry. The food and beverage industry has a responsibility to be able to serve their products to be safely consumed by the masses. This leads to several changes that had to happen in one of my stages this quarter.

I had the opportunity to have a stage in North Pond, which is located inside Lincoln Park. During my brief time there, I got to observe in person how the F&B industry had to change. Masks had to be continuously worn, and work stations needed to be spaced out. The rate of washing hands went up. Glove usage increased not only to ready-to-eat foods but also to mise en place and tests needed to be done before I could even stage there. In front of the house, the same rules were also applied, with spaced out tables, masks are only taken off when eating and waiters being more mindful when serving and taking orders.

This is all in an effort to say that even though change is happening, this does not mean it has to come in the sacrifice of quality as all the foods served were still very much up to standards. We are finding new ways to deliver up to the expectations and even trying to go above it even with restrictions in place.