'Family Meal' Means Something A Bit Different In The Restaurant Industry

The term "family meal" may conjure images of your own family spending time together around the dinner table. However, in the restaurant industry, family meal is a meal served to (and often prepared by) staff ahead of service. After about 20 years in the food and beverage industry, I've seen family meals come in all shapes and sizes, but it's typically practiced more at upscale restaurants, especially if they're chef-driven. So you won't usually see it done in fast food or at corporate chains like Applebee's or McDonald's, although most still offer employee discounts or shift meals.

Unless you've worked in a restaurant before, shows like "The Bear" may be your introduction to industry slang terms like family meal and "in the weeds" (while we seasoned pros have flashbacks that have us hollering "corner" and "behind" while making breakfast at home the following day). While restaurants have historically served staff meals, mainly to keep workers going through long, grueling shifts, the practice has evolved and gained new respect in recent years among a younger generation of chefs and restauranteurs. 

Many restaurants are now placing more importance on family meal. French chef Eric Ripert created a new position for someone solely responsible for preparing the family meal at Le Bernardin (via The New York Times). These days, family meal does more than just feed everyone — it allows the "work family" to bond, even bringing the front-of-house (dining room staff) and back-of-house (kitchen staff) together.

Some restaurants see the value in family meal, while others don't bother with it at all. One restaurant I worked for saw it as a chance for sous chefs to show off their culinary skills, creativity, and heritage. But another, labeled one of the best restaurants in the city, only fed us Papa John's on Sundays when most staff barely got a break — if at all — between the often-unloved brunch shift and dinner. We also had to regularly throw away perfectly good plates of food, with an overhanging threat of termination for any staff caught eating it. While this restaurant might have had its reasons, the memories of 15-hour shifts on my feet with only a few bites of cold pizza as sustenance are just one argument for embracing family meal and treating hard-working staff like, well, family.

Aside from being a morale booster and job perk, a thoughtfully prepared family meal shows appreciation for workers, which builds loyalty and reduces turnover. It's also an opportunity to reduce food waste. Have ingredients that need to be used or less-than-perfect produce? The staff will happily eat it. Cooks can also use the family meal as a practice run for new ideas or menu features. Lastly, it's the perfect chance to foster camaraderie among the team. It's been said time and again that food is a great equalizer. As Anthony Bourdain pointed out, "You learn a lot about someone when you share a meal together."