The ability to dish up tasty food used to be the sole quality expected of chefs in the Food & Beverage industry. But judges for this year's Singapore National Restaurant Skills Competition (SNRSC), now into its second year, are looking beyond taste to 
He said, “Restaurant practitioners, besides knowledge of food preparation and service, should try to gain more knowledge and skills in other disciplines to complement the overall dining experience. They need to keep abreast of developments in farming and fishing, and hone their presentation skills and salesmanship.”
“A professional chef or server needs to love his job and be passionate about the people dining at their restaurants . There are too many part timers who are not trained to handle picky and demanding guests,” said Chef Teo. As for beginners in the kitchen, they should “have the right attitude and be very passionate and fanatic about cooking good food.” He said, “Basic cooking skills, knowledge of various cutting methods, basic cooking techniques and finally knowing the names of basic fruits , vegetables and different types of meat, fish and seafood are the foundation of a successful career as a chef.”
The competition's emphasis on service and skills dovetails nicely with the thrust of the Singapore Workforce Skills Qualifications System (WSQ) for Food and Beverage, spearheaded by the F&B Industry Skills and Training Council (ISTC), together with the Singapore Workforce Development Agency (WDA). The F&B WSQ covers four sectors, namely, Culinary Arts, Pastry & Bakery, F&B Service and Beverage Service. Over 250 competency standards under the F&B WSQ have been developed to assess and nationally certify workers in the competency areas in their job.
Service with a smile – and more!
These days, simply delivering service with a smile is not good enough. “A lot of service personnel only learn to serve and forget to learn basic dining etiquette, which helps in understanding the logic behind service sequence and the placement of dining wares,” said Mr Yuen. He names Iggy's at Hilton Hotel as an example of a restaurant whose staff demonstrate a high level of service and skills.
He said, “The owner is a Shatec graduate in hospitality service and is passionate about service and wine pairing. Internationally acclaimed chef Justin Quek and his Sky on 57 is another great restaurant setting high levels of service and skill standards. He has trained all servers to have a good knowledge of every dish the restaurant serves and is able to explain to guests the ingredients and the uniqueness of the dishes.”
Room for improvement
Overall, he feels the restaurant industry in Singapore has room to improve “as most servers are just 'doing their job'. They do not provide good service by looking into every detail and anticipating the guests’ needs. What service staff lack today is passion and we should promote it by recognising the good service of people with great passion, either through competitions or awards,” said Mr Yuen.
To solve these problems, Chef Teo recommends maintaining a healthy balance between experienced and inexperienced staff. “This way, the former could mentor the latter and overall food and service quality need not suffer,” he said.
About the Singapore National Restaurant Skills Competition
Organised by the Food and Beverage Managers' Association and the Singapore Workforce Development Agency, the SNRSC will test the speed, product knowledge, professionalism and skills of the participants in a variety of tasks.
The competition aims to raise service standards in Singapore. This comes on the heels of recent announcements such as the $905-million Tourism Development Fund, which will support training under the Tourism Capability Development Scheme to spur productivity and enhance service delivery.