How to Foster a Positive Working Relationship Between Front and Back of House

I remember getting my first kitchen job. I was a tall, shy, underconfident and awkward 16-year-old kid with weird hair and not a single marketable skill. My parents forced me to get a job if I wanted to drive the car they had provided for me, but I had a terrible time with it.

After a dozen applications, failed interviews and otherwise spirit-crushing encounters with managers of retail stores, movie theaters and restaurants of all manners, my father called in a favor from a friend, and helped me to get in the door at his kitchen. I started as a dishwasher. I'd go in three nights a week, where I quietly endured what has to be one of the most thankless and degrading jobs I've ever had. Every night I'd crawl home after midnight soaking wet, smelling like Italian dressing and garlic, and too tired to do anything but go straight to bed. The worst part about it was that a few of my fellow classmates worked there too.

The only difference was that they were busboys and hostesses. It was there that I was first introduced to the vast rift separating front-of-house employees from the kitchen help. This wasn't a white chef coat place, and it would be 15 years before "Top Chef" would be on TV, so there was no chance that my role in the restaurant would get any respect.

I was, for the two years I worked through the kitchen, barely worth talking to by the service staff, who made more money, worked fewer hours, and didn't go home dead-tired smelling like salad dressing.

Camaraderie and cooperation between both sides of the house is necessary for a smooth operation with good morale. Here are some reasons why this relationship can sour, and how to restore team spirit.

Eventually, when I graduated to finer restaurants that were chef-owned and kitchen-driven, I had my chance at redemption. Here the tables were ironically turned around, so I made sure that the waiters who now scurried at the sight of the chef or sous-chef and cowered when we yelled at them got their comeuppance for their predecessors' treatment of me years earlier. I think I'm pretty much over this now, and once I had the experience of working in a restaurant where the front and back of house function as a team without animosity and contempt, I realized how important solid communication is between the two houses.

Oil and Water

Quite simply, animosity between front-of-house and back-of-house staff is poisonous to employee morale, and a detriment to productivity. If the waiters are screaming orders at indignant cooks, or cooks are flying off the handle at poorly written tickets, even behind kitchen doors (soundproof as you hope they are…), it makes its way to the table and affects the diners' overall experience.