Food Beverage Ops interview prep.

Behavioural questions to expect

1. Walk me through your CV.
2. Walk me through your most impressive outlet reposition, banquet program rebuild, or F+B commercial decision.
3. Tell me about a weakness, a failure, or feedback you've received and worked on.
4. Why an F+B Director seat — and why hotel F+B specifically?
5. Why the sector — what's your point of view on this asset type's F+B profile?
6. Why the firm?
7. When a guest is choosing between dining at the firm's signature outlet and a top competitor in the sector, what's the F+B-level reason she ends up booking the firm?
8. If you had a USALI F+B P+L, a covers report, and a banquet pace for the firm, walk me through how you'd diagnose F+B health in the first 90 days.

Technical concepts to master

• USALI — the F+B department P+L structure every F+B Director must read fluently

  F+B Department Revenue (top of the F+B P+L) · F+B Cost of Sales (food cost + beverage cost) · F+B Labour and Departmental Expenses · F+B Department Profit (the Director's accountability line)

• Banquet and catering — the largest single F+B revenue line at full-service properties

  BEO (Banquet Event Order) and pricing discipline · F+B-per-group-room-night and group displacement · Banquet labour productivity · Catering sales partnership

• Beverage program — wine, cocktail, and bar economics

  Beverage cost by category · Wine list engineering · Cocktail program and bar economics · Pour discipline and theft control

• Food safety — the non-negotiable F+B baseline

  TCS foods and the temperature danger zone · Allergen control and the Big 9 · HACCP at scale — outlet plus banquet plus in-room dining · Liquor liability and responsible-service discipline

• Outlet operating models — operated, leased, signature-chef, concept-license

  Operated outlets · Leased outlets · Signature-chef partnerships · Concept-license and franchise outlets

Practical drills

• Your full-service property runs F+B at 35% of total revenue ($14M F+B revenue against $40M total). F+B prime cost is at 72% (food cost 30%, beverage cost 26%, labour 36%). A group sales lead has a 600-room-night group asking for $85 F+B-per-group-room-night against the property standard of $110. The group dates would displace 4 nights of standard transient outlet dinner business of ~200 covers per night at $75 average check. Walk me through: (a) the F+B contribution math on the group ask; (b) the impact on F+B prime cost if you take the group at the asked rate; (c) the labour flex you'd recommend to defend prime cost.
• You are taking over F+B at the firm. Last year F+B contribution was 28% of total revenue (vs. brand-comparable 35%), F+B prime cost 76% (vs. brand-comparable 70%), signature outlet capture at dinner 8% (vs. brand-comparable 18%), banquet revenue per group room night $90 (vs. brand-comparable $130), outlet GSS 7.2 (vs. brand target 8.5). Walk me through your 12-month F+B repositioning plan.
• It's 7:45pm on a Saturday. Your Banquet Captain calls — the 320-cover wedding plated dinner in the Grand Ballroom is starting service and you've just discovered the protein for half the covers was held in a cold-hold unit that failed at some point this afternoon; the unit is reading 52°F. The bride and groom and 318 of their guests are seated; the first course has just been cleared. Walk me through your next 60 minutes.

Smart-question anchors

• F+B portfolio strategy — operated vs. leased vs. signature-chef vs. concept-license decisions, recent or planned outlet repositions, and the F+B-as-amenity vs. F+B-as-profit-driver lens
• Banquet and catering — capacity, group-segment mix, F+B-per-group-room-night targets, and the partnership cadence between F+B and Sales
• Beverage program — wine and cocktail program direction, sommelier and Beverage Manager bench, beverage cost discipline, and any signature beverage moves
• Executive Chef partnership and signature-chef strategy — Chef tenure, menu development cadence, and any branded-restaurant partnership economics
• F+B prime cost discipline and labour productivity — covers per labour hour, banquet hours per cover, and the labour-model investment {firm_name} has made

Sourced from

STR (CoStar Hospitality) — F+B benchmarking and USALI-aligned operating metrics · Hotel Sales and Marketing Association International (HSMAI) — total revenue management resources · Cornell Centre for Hospitality Research — F+B operating benchmarks · National Restaurant Association + FDA Food Code + ServSafe manager curriculum · Hotels Magazine, Hotel Management, Skift — F+B operator commentary · Glassdoor and hospitality-careers F+B Director interview threads