I’ve spent the past 30-plus years in the food and beverage industry. That sounds so weird to say.

On this crazy journey, I have seen and heard almost everything, and there’s not much that surprises me anymore. One constant for me (besides taxes) in my career is that there has always been a rivalry between the front of house (FOH) and back of the house (BOH) teams.

The beginning of my career was like a scene from “The Bear.” Every other word was the F-bomb; the BOH team made fun of the service staff for not knowing the menu, and the FOH blamed the chefs for overcooking the food. There was no united team, and there were no offers to help each other. It was US vs. THEM. This was the culture embraced by the industry leaders of the time. I had a chef tell me as a young line cook, “If the servers come behind the line, it is okay to burn them.” Today, we would be in HR so fast our heads would spin—if we weren’t immediately fired.

Years ago, I developed a different philosophy: The front of house staff are the ambassadors of the kitchen. They represent the blood, sweat, and tears the chefs put into our craft. As a chef, I would spend time with all new servers to make sure they understood the menu before they went onto the floor. The servers need to know the food and the passion that goes into every dish.

As Food & Beverage Director of Superstition Mountain Golf & Country Club (Gold Canyon, Ariz.), I can honestly say that we do not have a bitter rivalry between the front and back of the house at our club. We work with a group of professionals in a culture that fosters teamwork. I do, however, sometimes have a team that is focused on their individual role and not the bigger picture. So, how do I teach my team that they are part of the whole? How about a reversal dinner? The cooks will be the servers, and the servers will be the cooks… and each will (hopefully) gain a new respect for the other.

When I first proposed the idea to the F&B managers, they looked at me like I was crazy. We then had a good laugh thinking about the polished server sweating in the kitchen behind the line and the hardened line cook on the dining room floor opening a bottle of wine tableside. As a management team, we saw the potential to strengthen our culture and improve our communication, so we made it happen. You can imagine the looks on the team’s faces as I explained that we would be asking for volunteers to work a dinner shift that would be way outside their comfort zone. Our chef was to be in the kitchen and on the line with his front of house-turned back of house team. Meanwhile, our banquet and event managers were on the dining room floor, keeping an eye on the bar and service. The next step was finding members who would be understanding of our concept and had the courage to be our test subjects.

That’s right. We didn’t make this a private staff dinner. We made it real with actual members.

That said, my goal was to control the environment as much as possible, so I personally had conversations with select members to get them on board, essentially hand-picking the guests. Each conversation started with, “You may want to plan to eat before or after you come in for dinner.” The expectations were set that the normally high culinary and service standards might dip a little. I found 25 willing members who would be seated between 5 and 5:30 p.m. The chef worked from the existing menu, and we served a condensed version of our normal dishes.

We ended up with six BOH and eight FOH volunteer staff members to execute the evening. All staff working in the kitchen knew what station they were working before that night and what would be expected of them. The FOH managers made seating arrangements, menus, and knew who would be working in which positions.

At our staff meeting at 3 p.m., specific roles and responsibilities were defined, and we used three words to describe our night: PATIENCE, GRACE, and FUN. We made sure that everyone knew this was to be a lighthearted evening where we would have fun and learn a few things at the same time. The chef took his team to the kitchen, showed them around, and explained their roles. We had FOH staff manning the sauté, grill, and salad stations, and working as dishwashers.

The chef even had enough volunteer team members to staff the back line and prep station. The team member on the prep line was given a recipe and created a family meal for everyone to enjoy at the end of the evening. As an added bonus, and a very realistic touch, our major purveyor delivered food, and the team had to put away the order when they arrived at the kitchen. The chef was on the line throughout the course of the night to ensure proper seasoning and cooking temperatures.

Our front of the house managers took their team around the dining room to show them table numbers, seat positions, and where everything was located. We even discussed member dining tendencies and preferences to uphold the usual service standard at the club. Before dinner service started, the team member who would be with our vegan member knew what to offer her, the server with the member who didn’t drink was ready with our mocktail list, and the manager on duty knew table numbers, seating positions, and when people were coming in. We tried to create an evening that was as realistic as possible, with members sitting both in the dining room and in the bar. I did throw the team a curveball with a walk-in two-top. The only person who knew they were coming was me. The manager on duty had to figure out who would serve them and where they should sit.

We used menus without pricing and let the members know that they would be responsible for their alcohol purchases only.

My role for the night was to be a firefighter and go wherever I was needed. Luckily, there were no literal or figurative fires. Every member I spoke with walked away happy and surprised that we had a versatile staff who could pull off this type of night. The food and service were well above what they expected based on the role reversal circumstances.

As managers, we all looked at each other and took a collective sigh of relief when it was all over. The night was not without errors: a mocktail made with alcohol, a steak over-seasoned, food brought to the wrong table, a table of four served bread for eight people, and an entrée delivered while salads were still being eaten. But, all in all, it was a successful night. Once the dust settled, the kitchen cleaned, and the tables reset, we sat down as a team and had a family meal. For me, the best part of the night was hearing the dialogue from the staff about their experience.

Some of the best comments include:

• “I am so sweaty I can’t wait to take a shower.”
• “The dish station is clean; that pot is soaking overnight.”
• “Chef: We don’t have a medium plus. Server: But that is how the member ordered it.”
• “I had two tables sat at the same time. That is tough. Maybe I won’t yell for them in the future if they don’t pick up their food right away.”
• “It is humid in the dish station.”
• “What does this say on the ticket?”
• “There is a lot more to this job than I realized, a lot of steps to remember.”
• “You have to use a tray all the time?”

We learned what we set out to learn: that having the right attitude and an appreciation for our fellow coworkers and the jobs they do is a huge part of our success. We learned that communication is the key to our business, and we learned as managers that sometimes we have to slow down and take the time to teach. The last thing we learned was that we can laugh as a team, with and at each other.