Professor Mark Ashton

Food production may be defined as that phase of the food flow (i.e. from the purchasing of the foods to service to the customer) mainly concerned with the processing of raw, semi-prepared, or prepared foodstuffs. The resulting product may be in a ready-to-serve state, for example in the conventional method (cook-serve); or it may undergo some form of preservation, for example cook-chill or cook-freeze, before being served to the customer. Beverage production may be defined as the processing of the raw, semi-prepared or prepared beverage product, so that it is in a ready-to-serve state before being served to the customer. For example, a raw beverage product such as tea would need to be fully processed before being served, a semi-prepared product such as a cordial would require only partial preparation, and a bottled fruit juice or bottle of wine may be termed a fully prepared beverage product.

It has been suggested that whenever you turn on your television you are never more than half an hour away from a programme about food and cookery, indeed there are channels dedicated solely to cookery programmes. The newspapers, especially the Sunday editions, run regular articles about the expansion plans of new theme restaurants or multimillion-pound take-over deals, as well as regular restaurant and hotel reviews and articles about cooking food at home. Cookery books, often tied to TV series, regularly top the best-seller lists. Chefs are a key part of the cult of celebrity. There has been an explosion on social media of blogs on food of all types, reviews of eating experiences as they happen and multiple photographs of the food on the plate. What this means is that the food and beverage manager faces an increasingly informed and potentially sophisticated customer with broader tastes and experiences than ever before.

This introductory textbook provides a thorough guide to the management of food and beverage outlets, from their day-to-day running through to the wider concerns of the hospitality industry. It explores the broad range of subject areas that encompass the food and beverage market and its main sectors - fast food and casual dining, hotels and quality restaurants, events, and industrial and welfare catering. Additionally, this revised seventh edition offers: New data and international case studies covering the latest industry developments across a wide range of businesses. Enhanced coverage of financial aspects, including forecasting and menu pricing with respective costing examples. New coverage of contemporary trends including environmental, social, and ethical trends and the effects of artificial intelligence in multiple food and beverage areas. Revised Instructor and Student Resources, complete with new case studies, PowerPoint slides, and refreshed teaching resources. Fully updated and enhanced to reflect an increasingly complex industry, this textbook is aimed at students and academics of hospitality management and catering administration, as well as active practitioners and managers within the food and beverage sector.

Today's sheer diversity of food and beverage outlets makes classification challenging. While some, like fast-food chains and fine dining establishments, are distinct, others, such as school canteens operated by contract caterers, straddle categories. As trends evolve, so too does the landscape of food service operations. This chapter explores the various sub-sectors of the restaurant and events markets, drawing from real-world insights, practitioner expertise, and current academic definitions. Each subsection examines key policies, operational structures, financial frameworks, and technological integrations. Where data allows, we explore average spend per head, production capabilities, and customer capacity. The COVID-19 pandemic reshaped the food and beverage sector in profound and lasting ways. For direct market operations, particularly restaurants, bars, and events, the disruption was not only operational but also cultural and technological.

This chapter highlights a selection of trends affecting food and beverage managers. While necessarily selective, it offers an initial insight into some of the emerging issues shaping the industry. The significance of these trends will vary across different sectors and countries, but the chapter provides a solid foundation for understanding the basics and points you toward resources for exploring specific topics in greater depth. We focus on key issues across four main areas: trends in consumer behaviour, sustainability, business ethics, and technology. Within those areas we explore trends such as: innovations in revenue management, the rise of plant-based foods, digital transformation, sustainability initiatives, personalised nutrition, functional foods, innovative beverages, self-service kiosks, changing consumer mindsets, and the importance of transparency in food sourcing.

The menu is the primary selling tool of any establishment that offers food and beverage for sale. For the customer it identifies the items that are available, shows prices and any other charges, and - together with other external features - may characterise the style of food service offered. The menu has a contractual obligation to present honest and accurate information to the customer. From the establishment's perspective, the menu should meet the objectives of the marketing policy, the catering policy, and the financial policy. The marketing policy should guide the catering policy so that the products on offer and the style of operation best meet the needs of the target market. The catering policy is concerned with the size and style of menu to be offered together with an appropriate style of service; this will impact on space requirements, level and type of equipment purchased, and the level of skill and number of staff required.

In preparing for the seventh edition of this book, I repeated the walk I had taken for the sixth edition from Waterloo Station to Hixter Bankside to see how the food service sector had changed in the intervening six years. As before, I travelled by train from Guildford, where the University of Surrey is based, to Waterloo Station and then walked from there - a walk of about fifteen minutes covering a distance of less than a mile. Given the fast pace of the food service sector and the impact of both the pandemic and the war in Ukraine on the hospitality industry, I expected to find some significant changes, starting with the most obvious that Hixter Bankside had closed and been replaced by Brix.

Achieving, maintaining, and improving an adequate level of profit are essential for all businesses to survive - particularly with increasing levels of competition tempting customers not only to change from their usual type of restaurant but also from the many other types of leisure businesses, all chasing the same customers' restricted amount of disposable income. Food and beverage control may be defined as the guidance and regulation of the costs and revenue of operating the day-to-day operational activity in a food and drink service establishment. A successful holistic food and beverage control approach is imperative for any type of food and drink service operation regardless of its size. The cost of food and beverage materials alone can range from 25% to up to 50% depending on the type of operation.

Food and beverage operations largely follow a basic input, process, output model. The inputs are the food and beverage ingredients and materials; the process includes storing, preparation, cooking, etc.; and the outputs are meals and beverages to be sold via the service concept. Conceptually, food and beverage operations start with an idea for a theme or a desired style of restaurant. This will inform the first practical influence on the operation, the menu. Other influences will include the available space, the layout of the premises, the service style, and, if part of a group, the number and the geographical locations. If the restaurant is located in a multi-operational site (for example, a hotel, a food court, a hospital, or a shopping mall), then other influences may affect the operational style and indeed the concept.

Marketing in food and beverage operations is both essential and uniquely challenging. Managers must not only promote the tangible aspects of their offerings, such as meals, drinks, and portion sizes, but also the intangible elements, including the dining experience, ambience, and service quality. Because customers are physically present during the service, they effectively become part of the product, which adds complexity to marketing strategies. Customer expectations and experiences can vary widely, making it difficult to maintain absolute consistency in product quality and service. Furthermore, the perishable nature of food and beverages and the finite number of seats in a restaurant or café make effective marketing critical for maximising revenue and minimising waste.

Managing people forms a major part of most managers' roles, and the aim of this chapter is to provide a clear overview of the key staffing issues they must understand. Employment in the UK hospitality sector is subject to a range of regulations, both at the national (UK) and, at least currently, European level. Because employment legislation is regularly updated, managers must stay informed about changes that may affect their operations. In day-to-day practice, managers are primarily concerned with recruiting, motivating, developing, deploying, and retaining staff - and ideally will face only minor disciplinary issues. However, it is inevitable that managers will occasionally encounter more serious disciplinary or grievance cases. While this chapter provides an outline of such procedures, managers should always seek professional advice before taking formal action on serious matters.

Starting a new food and beverage business is a complex and often daunting task for any manager or entrepreneur. While the allure of launching a unique dining concept can be strong, the reality is that the UK hospitality sector continues to face high volatility. In 2024 alone, there were 4,085 new hospitality venues opened and 4,078 closures, reflecting a near 1:1 ratio (AlixPartners, 2024). Despite steady entrepreneurial interest, survival rates remain sobering. Recent data shows that around 60% of new restaurants close within their first year, and up to 80% shut down within five years of opening (BigHospitality, 2024). The Office for National Statistics (ONS) also reports that only 37-44% of new hotel and catering businesses survive beyond five years (ONS, 2023).

The provision of food and beverages away from home forms a substantial part of the activities of the hospitality industry and, indeed, of the national economy. Like the industry of which it is a major part, food and beverage operations are characterised by their diversity. Outlets include private and public sector establishments and range from small, independently owned and operated units to large multi-national corporations managing global brands, and from prison catering to catering in the most luxurious hotels in the world. It is, however, very difficult to get hold of consistent statistics about the hospitality industry and food and beverage operations, as there is no single definition of what the boundaries of the various industry sectors and sub-sectors are and therefore what should and should not be included.

This chapter explores the indirect food and beverage market, focusing on sectors often served by contract food service companies. These include corporate dining (business and industry), education, healthcare, travel, public services, and correctional institutions. Although many of these services are outsourced, in-house catering still exists in certain organisations. For clarity, the market is divided into sub-sectors to highlight the unique characteristics, operational practices, and emerging trends of each. In particular, the chapter covers technological innovations, marketing strategies, financial implications, and service delivery models. Notably, some sectors, such as cruise catering, have experienced significant growth with continued upward projections. The term contract food service has evolved significantly. Once associated primarily with non-profit and institutional settings like schools and hospitals, the scope has broadened to include diverse, often commercial ventures.

Theories of service firm life cycle do not explain what happens to a hotel at the end of the decline stage. Although market exit is one of the possible outcomes of business decline, it is under-researched. Yet, such research is critical for understanding the options available to a hotel in a time of crisis. By interviewing senior managers with the experience of failed hotels (n =17), this study revisits a taxonomy of market exits to reconceptualize the decline stage of a hotel 's life cycle. The study shows that, on some occasions, market exits can affect hotels positively rather than negatively, thus leading to business regeneration. Investors/owners play a central role in market exits and their cognition determines how market exit impacts the business future. The study positions turnaround not as a market exit, but as a strategy which can lead a hotel to it or away from it.

The hospitality industry, encompassing operations from hotels and resorts to restaurants and event venues, faces increasing pressure to integrate sustainability into its core business practices. The rapid proliferation of artificial intelligence (AI) offers potential to make the industry more sustainable, but this potential remains empirically underexplored. This study bridges this knowledge gap by introducing the convergence innovation framework, a concept defining the fusion of distinct domains to create novel solutions, to examine the integration of AI within hospitality operations for enhanced sustainability across environmental, social, and economic dimensions. Through semi-structured interviews with 35 senior industry professionals in the United Kingdom and Spain, the study reveals that, beyond well-known efficiency gains, AI can mitigate environmental impact through proactive optimisation of energy and water consumption, dynamic waste minimisation systems, and intelligent building management that adapts to real-time conditions. AI can improve social sustainability by personalising guest experiences tailored to eco-friendly preferences and enhancing staff well-being through optimised operational tasks. Economically, AI holds opportunities for precision in supply chain management and demand forecasting, leading to waste reduction and cost savings. These findings offer empirically grounded insights for hospitality organisations to strategically capitalise on the convergence of AI and sustainability, promoting resilience and competitive advantage in a rapidly evolving hospitality market.

AI-powered devices, for example, service robots, are expected to revolutionize hospitality. As a result, research on service robots has surged in the context of hospitality. While prior studies have explored customer and employee attitudes toward using or abandoning robots in different contexts, for example, health care, there is a dearth of research into strategic decision-makers’ views on deciding to continue using or abandoning service robots in hospitality settings after their introduction. To that end, we adopt the Technology-Organization-Environment (TOE) framework through a phenomenon-driven bottom-up approach to explore why strategic decision-makers plan to (dis)continue using service robots in hospitality after their introduction. In practice, semistructured interviews were conducted with robot suppliers (n = 8) and strategic decision-makers (n = 10) to explore the planned (dis)continuance of service robot usage. Six key factors related to planned (dis)continuance of service robots in hospitality settings were found, revolving around drivers and barriers of robot adoption (e.g., availability of off-the-shelf robot solutions; operational complexity), the strategic focus of the company (e.g., vision and mission), the user experience (e.g., robots’ persona), technical aspects (e.g., sensors and interoperability), and economic aspects (e.g., managing cashflow). Extending the Technology-Organization-Environment framework, we derive implications for hospitality management theory and practice by developing a novel model for planned (dis)continuance of service robot usage, thus adding to the broader body of work on robot usage continuance in operational settings.

The increasing adoption of Algorithmic Management in the hospitality sector presents a number of challenges and opportunities. Emergent research has considered the impacts on operational staff. However, the implications for frontline managers, who have to negotiate between the interests of multiple stakeholders and organisational pressures, are less well understood. This paper examines key factors that will affect the comprehension and enactment of managerial roles within algorithmically managed hotels, drawing on a three-stage Delphi study with hotel managers and academic experts, built on the Competing Values Framework. The findings stress that Algorithmic Management’s impact on productivity and process standardisation will intensify work demands, and risk stifling employee motivation and collaboration. Hence, managers must evolve from controllers to supportive actors, improving understanding, facilitating employee empowerment and aiding transparency in algorithmic decisions. We conceptualise these functions as communication, performance, social and creative facilitation. The findings are used to theorise how emerging socio-technological arrangements will transform line management, driving the expansion of translational work and the emergence of what we call ‘algorithmic coaching’.

Purpose The use of artificial intelligence (AI) in the workplace is on the rise. To help advance research in this area, the authors synthesise the academic research and develop research propositions on the antecedents and consequences of AI adoption and application in the workplace to guide future research. The authors also present AI research in the socio-technical system context to provide a springboard for new research to fill the knowledge gap of the adoption and application of AI in the workplace. Design/methodology/approach This paper summarises the existing literature and builds a theoretically grounded conceptual framework on the socio-technical system theory that captures the essence of the impact of AI in the workplace. Findings The antecedents of AI adoption and application include personnel subsystem, technical subsystem, organisational structure subsystem and environmental factors. The consequences of AI adoption and application include individual, organisational and employment-related outcomes. Practical implications A research agenda is provided to identify and discuss future research that comprises not only insightful theoretical contributions but also practical implications. A greater understanding of AI adoption from socio-technical system perspective will enable managers and practitioners to develop effective AI adoption strategies, enhance employees' work experience and achieve competitive advantage for organisations. Originality/value Drawing on the socio-technical system theory, the proposed conceptual framework provides a comprehensive understanding of the antecedents and consequences of AI adoption and application in the work environment. The authors discuss the main contributions to theory and practice, along with potential future research directions of AI in the workplace related to three key themes at the individual, organisational and employment level.

The rapid growth of B Corp certified organisations in the UK hospitality sector calls for a better understanding of their potential to influence the supply and demand sides of the market. It also requires an outline of a dedicated research agenda which will inform the design and implementation of future studies concerned with the impact of the B Corp certification on hospitality operations and strategies. This viewpoint reviews B Corp as an emerging trend in the UK hospitality sector. It discusses the collective potential of B Corps to disrupt the hospitality market and enable its progress towards more inclusive, resilient and environmentally sustainable business models and practices. The viewpoint proposes a research agenda underpinned by four perspectives which can inform the emerging academic and industry discourse on the policy, management and wider societal and environmental implications of the B Corp movement in the hospitality sector of the UK and beyond.

Throughout their career, chefs develop practices for food waste mitigation, but little is known about how these practices occur and evolve. This study draws upon the social practice theory, social leaning theory and ecological systems theory to explore the lifelong experiences of food waste and its management among 44 chefs in England, Indonesia, Poland, and Russia. The study highlights the multiple environments in which chefs develop the practice of food waste management. The main points for intervention within a lifelong experience of chefs where they start recognising the significance of food waste and develop skills for its mitigation are identified. The study showcases family and senior chefs/supervisors as the key actors of learning who shape the meanings of food waste among chefs and provide them with competencies towards its management. The role of education providers in preparing chefs for dealing with food waste in professional kitchens is established as limited. •Chefs develop the practice of food waste management throughout their lifelong experience and career.•Meanings of food waste management are mostly formed in childhood.•Competencies and materiality are mostly formed early in professional career.•Parents, senior chefs and supervisors are the key actors of learning.•Education providers play a limited role in shaping chefs’ food waste management practices.

Governments across the world have imposed strict rules on social distancing to curb the spread of Covid-19. In particular, restaurants have been impacted by government-mandated lockdowns. This study adopts a mixed methods approach to explore how Finnish high-profile restaurants used Instagram as a means for service innovation and diffusion during nine weeks of government-mandated lockdown. Comparatively analysing 1,119 Instagram posts across two time-stamps (2019 and 2020) and across 45 restaurants, as well as conducting five semi-structured interviews with restaurant managers, it is found that while the overall number of Instagram posts and likes on posts stayed relatively similar to the year prior, the number of comments increased significantly, suggesting a move towards a more didactic and dyadic form of Instagram communication. In addition, four digital service innovation strategies are identified: launching new service offerings and introducing new elements to existing service offerings, fostering social relationship with customers, exploring novel streams of revenue, and reinvigorating the brand’s image. Implications to service innovation theory and practice are discussed, along with suggestions for future research.

The kitchen is a gendered realm dominated by masculine culture, but some female chefs challenge this norm by introducing soft skills. This paper conceptualizes the multilayered cultural realm of food waste management in professional kitchens and pinpoints the critical role of individual gender traits of chefs in food prevention and reduction (‘preduction’). The paper outlines directions for future research on the gender-related position of chefs.

Purpose The rapid growth in volume and value of on-demand restaurant food delivery, accelerated by the COVID-19 pandemic, is causing a paradigm shift in the food service sector. However, there is a lack of hospitality management research into this emerging phenomenon. To address this gap, this paper defines and develops a novel conceptual model and typology and proposes a research agenda for ghost production in the context of food service. Design/methodology/approach This paper uses the Servuction model to explore, define and model the radical separation between food service production sites, points of sale and consumer interaction from the perspective of on-demand restaurant food delivery. A novel typology is developed and illustrated with eight industry examples from the UK and an accompanying cost benefit analysis. Future research priorities are identified. Findings In the hospitality literature, little attention has been paid to changes on-demand restaurant food delivery brings to production and business models of food service organisations, resulting in significant gaps between food service practice and theory. The knock-on effects to stakeholders include increased convenience for customers, uncertain employment status of riders and, for restaurants, striking a balance between capturing new markets and losing control of the customer. Additionally, for aggregators, there is a lack of profitability in existing models, despite holding the balance of power (and data). Originality/value The concept of “ghost production” and its associated typology is novel and offers a contribution to hospitality management literature by defining the term, scope and scale of this new phenomenon. Practical implications are proposed.

Purpose – Although virtual worlds, such as the Metaverse, can disrupt the hospitality sector, few empirical investigations have critically evaluated the scope and scale of this disruption from an industry perspective. This study aims to rectify this knowledge gap by exploring the opportunities and challenges of the Metaverse as seen by hospitality professionals. Design/methodology/approach – This is a Delphi study conducted with UK-based senior hospitality industry practitioners experienced in designing and implementing digital innovations within their organisations. Findings – The Metaverse is most likely to be adopted by hospitality organisations willing and able to take risks, such as large and/or chain-affiliated enterprises. The Metaverse will not replace traditional hospitality services but supplement and enhance them with new layers of service. The main applications are in the context of events and experiences. The Metaverse will also provide the " try before you buy " option, revealing the opportunities to design digital twins of physical businesses. Young and technology-savvy individuals are most likely to first adopt the Metaverse. The key challenges of the adoption are attributed to the technological unpreparedness of hospitality organisations; market immaturity; inflated customer expectations; a skills gap among hospitality employees; and regulatory issues. These challenges require the engagement of various stakeholders to create an operational and monitoring framework for hospitality organisations to embrace the Metaverse. Practical implications – This study highlights how the Metaverse can disrupt the hospitality industry at the level of strategic planning and business operations. Originality/value – To the best of the authors' knowledge, this is one of the first empirical investigations of the potential of the Metaverse from the viewpoint of hospitality industry practitioners.

Purpose Virtual spaces, commonly referred to as the Metaverse, are predicted to disrupt consumption patterns in tourism, hospitality and events (THE) by shifting some user experiences to a virtual world. Scholarly investigations are necessitated to aid in an understanding of virtual spaces and the implications of their consumption for THE industries. This viewpoint outlines a provisional research agenda on virtual spaces. Design/methodology/approach To inform its arguments, this viewpoint draws upon academic and grey literature surrounding the emerging topic of the Metaverse in THE industries. Findings The research agenda should consider four perspectives representing different actors of THE value chain, i.e. developers/suppliers, THE business professionals, customers and policymakers. The research agenda should also incorporate the wider spillover effects of consumption of virtual spaces which may stretch well beyond THE industries. Originality/value This viewpoint outlines some research directions which may aid different actors of THE value chain alongside academics in better understanding the emerging phenomenon of virtual spaces and comprehend the opportunities and challenges associated with their uptake by THE industries.

This investigation reviews the University of Surrey’s School of Hospitality and Tourism Management (SHTM) attendance policy, requiring students to meet the Senior Personal Tutor (SPT) to determine reasons for absences and to provide support for the student. Research was conducted to achieve four objectives; to understand student and staff attitudes toward the attendance policy, to identify reasons for student absence, to evaluate the effectiveness of registers as a tool for wellbeing intervention and to evaluate the impact of the policy on staff wellbeing. A qualitative approach assessed staff and student views of the policy and findings connect student absences with staff and student wellbeing, indicating that attendance monitoring can improve a student’s sense of belonging. The study provides a framework for using learning analytics to support student and staff wellbeing, draws attention to the role of the SPT and contributes to literature connecting student attendance with staff and student wellbeing.

Many hotel organizations were helping their employees remain engaged in the workplace during the pandemic. From the perspective of social exchange theory, the antecedents and outcome of this engagement were explored in two studies. A qualitative interview investigation of U.K. hotel employee engagement as reported by Senior Managers (n = 9) was carried out in Study 1 from which a theoretical model to investigate the antecedents and outcome of this engagement was developed, and tested with U.K. hotel employees (n = 163) in Study 2, with both studies conducted sequentially during the pandemic. Study 1 found that the emergence of new methods and styles of communication, the provision of and increased access to training, and employees’ adaptation to changes positively facilitated employee engagement through the pandemic. Results of Study 2 suggested that employee resilience, perceived communication quality, and workplace health and safety training are positively related to employee engagement, which in turn improves employee performance. This research enhances the theoretical understanding of the personal factor (i.e., employee resilience) and situational factors (i.e., perceived communication quality, and workplace health and safety training) that help enhance employee engagement and ultimately improve performance. The practical implications of the study propose means of effective communication with employees, mechanisms to bolster employee resilience and proactive health and safety training and reinduction of employees ahead of their return to work with guests during times of extreme turbulence.

COVID-19 lockdown measures have forced hospitality operators to re-configure their dynamic capabilities through innovating operational practices and pivoting traditional business models. The high-end food service sector has undergone a particularly drastic shift towards a new normal. This qualitative study explores factors facilitating innovation at 16 high-end food service organizations in Finland and the UK through semi-structured expert interviews. Three key themes facilitating innovation during COVID-19 lockdowns are identified: 1) Combining high-tech and high-touch through new ways of producing and providing technology-driven service offerings, 2) Prosocial engagement, i.e. working together with multiple stakeholders to bring added value to all parties, not just the business, and 3) Reactivity, i.e. pushing the traditional boundaries of the sector through quick decision-making and constant iteration and refining of processes and procedures. Drawing our empirical findings together, innovation during COVID-19 lockdowns in high-end food service is conceptualized into three phases: React, Refine, and Reflect.

This study explores how female chefs in professional kitchens manage food waste in their predominantly masculine occupational culture. By adopting the Process-Person-Context-Time (PPCT) model and applying the method of in-depth, semi-structured interviews (n = 20), the study reveals the complex interplay of personal, organisational, and contextual influences on how female chefs in Turkey and England manage food waste. The study highlights the significance of proximal processes, and organisational and occupational socialization in shaping food waste management practices of female chefs. The study underscores the importance of gender dynamics, organizational size, and occupational culture in these practices. The need for integrating resourcefulness training in preparation for future generations of chefs is highlighted. The findings enable a better understanding of how professional kitchens can be advanced towards the fulfilment of such sustainable development goals as gender equality and resource efficiency. The study emphasizes the need to consider a broader cultural context in future research on sustainability in tourism and hospitality. It suggests a comparative gender analysis to examine the unique challenges that female chefs encounter in food waste management.

Purpose – Using the Delphi technique, this paper aims to investigate how human resource experts perceive service robots will impact leadership and human resource management in the hospitality industry. Design/methodology/approach – A three-stage Delphi study with hotel industry human resource experts was conducted to identify the key trends and major challenges that will emerge in the next ten years and how leaders should deal with the challenges brought about by service robot technologies. Findings – Results show that while service robots are anticipated to increase efficiency and productivity of hotel activities, they may also pose challenges such as high costs, skill deficits, and significant changes to the organizational structure and culture of hotels. Therefore, the anticipated applications and integration of robotic technology will require leaders of the future to carefully consider the balance between the roles of service robots and human employees in the guest experience, and to nurture a work environment that embraces open-mindedness and change. Originality/value – This is the first type of study to examine hospitality leadership and human resource management in the context of robotized hotels. This study has taken an important step to understand the leadership role in robotized hotels from a human resource perspective, and brings clarity as to how robotic technology can influence leadership in the future workplace.