Introduction to Food Service Industry

Introduction to Food Service Industry

A food service institution is one which plans, prepares and serves food in quan-tities far greater than those characteristic of usual home meals. The growth of food service industry from ancient times like the very simple “inns” or “chathrams” has evolved into a major industry in India. Food service industry or hospitality industry is growing tremendously world-wide due to the 3’T’s namely, Tourism, Travel and Trade.

A food service operation provides food and beverages basically along with accommodation or lodging facilities for a price. So this industry comes under the service category where the customer is offered not only hospitality but a whole-some dining experience.

Definition: Food Service Management is a process of managing the food ser-vice operation, a place where a traveller can get food and accommodation. Food and drinks provided in a good ambience, aesthetically for a cost-effective price to the satisfaction of a customer is the basic objective of a food service operation. Safe and tasty food with quality served in a hygienic environment is important.

Today, a number of food and bever-age operations have come up but the beginnings of food service was very small. The root of food service was very much in Indian customs, habits and characteristics of civilization. In medieval times quantity food production was followed in religious orders, royal households and places of education where it was traditional in India for students to live with the teacher or Guru for their education. Historically, the evolution of public eating places was stim-ulated by people’s desire to travel and explore, initially for spiritual enrichment for which people went on pilgrimages to holy places, followed by other goals like education, work, health, sports and leisure. Slowly from there the food service industry has scaled up to great heights today with sophistication. The first Indian hotel founded was TajMahal Palace, a hotel in Mumbai (formerly called Bombay)­ overlooking the Arabian Sea.