Glossary

Hospo words: C

118 terms you'll hear on shift.

Cabaret style: Round tables with seats around only part of each, so everyone faces the stage.
Cabin crew: The flight attendants who serve and look after passengers.
Call: A specific spirit brand requested by the guest.
Calorie labelling: The rule in England requiring large food businesses to display calories on menus.
Calvados: Apple and sometimes pear brandy from Normandy, aged in oak.
Campers: Guests who linger at a table long after finishing, slowing turns.
Canapé: A small, one or two bite savoury served on a tray at a reception.
Capacity: The maximum number of people legally allowed inside, set by fire risk assessment, and counted at the door.
Captain: A senior server who leads a section, takes orders and directs runners and junior waiters, common in fine dining.
Card guarantee: Card details held to charge for no-shows.
Card terminal: The device that takes card payments, often integrated with the POS.
Carpaccio: Very thin slices of raw beef, or other ingredients, typically dressed with oil and Parmesan.
Carryover cooking: The rise in core temperature that continues after meat leaves the heat. Chefs pull roasts a few degrees early to allow for it.
Carte: The main menu of individually priced dishes.
Cash bar: A bar where guests buy their own drinks, as opposed to an open bar paid for by the host.
Cash flow: The timing of money in and out. Many profitable hospitality businesses fail on cash flow.
Cash margin: The money made on an item after cost, as opposed to percentage margin; matters more for high-priced items.
Cash-up: Counting takings at the end of the shift.
Cask: A container for real ale that conditions in the cellar.
Cask conditioning: The secondary fermentation that happens in a cask in the cellar, producing natural, gentle carbonation.
Cask Marque: An accreditation scheme in which assessors check the temperature, appearance, aroma and taste of a pub's cask ales.
Cask strength: Spirit bottled straight from the cask without dilution to a standard strength.
CCP: Critical control point in HACCP.
Cellar: Where kegs and casks are stored.
Cellar book: The record of wine stock in the cellar, its bin locations and movements.
Cellar temperature: The cool range, usually around 11 to 13C, at which cask ale is kept and served.
Ceviche: Raw fish cured in citrus juice, from Peru and Latin America.
Challenge 25: Policy of asking for ID from anyone who looks under 25.
Chamber vacuum sealer: A professional vacuum packer that seals bags inside a chamber, allowing liquids to be packed.
Channel manager: Software syncing hotel rates to OTAs.
Channelling: When water finds weak spots through the coffee bed during extraction, giving uneven, sour and bitter shots.
Charcuterie: Cured, cooked and preserved meats such as hams, salami and pâté.
Chargeback: When a card payment is reversed by the card issuer after a dispute.
Chargrill: A grill with bars over a heat source that brands food with char lines.
Charmat method: Sparkling wine made with its second fermentation in a pressurised tank, as with most Prosecco; fresher and fruitier.
Check: An order slip, or the bill in some places.
Check back: A visit shortly after food arrives, usually within two bites or two minutes, to ask if everything is as expected.
Check-in: Guest arrival process.
Check-out: Guest departure process.
Cheese course: A selection of cheeses served after mains, before or instead of dessert.
Chef de partie: Chef running a section such as sauce or fish.
Chef de rang: A station waiter in the classical brigade, responsible for a group of tables and assisted by a commis de rang.
Chef's table: A table in or near the kitchen.
Chiffonade: Fine ribbons of herbs or leaves.
Chill filtration: Chilling whisky and filtering out compounds that cause cloudiness when cold or diluted. Some drinkers prefer non-chill-filtered for texture.
Chinois: A fine conical sieve used to strain stocks and sauces to a perfectly smooth finish. Also called a china cap in some kitchens.
Clarification: Making a cloudy cocktail clear, for example by milk washing, centrifuge or agar, so it can be served still and bright.
Clarified butter: Butter with the milk solids and water removed, leaving pure fat that tolerates higher heat. Ghee is a cooked, nuttier version.
Classroom style: Rows of tables with chairs facing forward, used for training and note-taking.
Claw grip: Holding food with fingertips curled under and knuckles guiding the blade, so the knife cannot reach the fingers.
Clearing from the right: The convention of serving drinks and clearing plates from the guest's right. Food in plated service often goes down from the right too, though houses vary.
Cleaver: A heavy rectangular blade for chopping through bone and cartilage. Chinese cleavers are lighter and used for general prep.
Clicker: A handheld counter used by door staff to track the number of people inside.
Clopen: Closing late and opening early the next day.
Closing down: Cleaning and shutting at the end of the night.
Clostridium perfringens: A bacterium linked to large batches of meat cooled slowly, causing food poisoning.
Closure order: A court order closing premises because of disorder or nuisance.
Club premises certificate: Authorisation for qualifying members' clubs to supply alcohol without a premises licence.
Coat check: A cloakroom service, often a modest earner, that needs secure tickets and a clear liability policy.
Cobbler shaker: A three-part shaker with a built-in strainer and cap. Common in Japan and at home; slower in a busy bar.
Cold brew: Coffee steeped in cold water for many hours, giving a smooth, low-acid concentrate.
Cold holding: Keeping chilled food at 8C or below by law, though best practice is 5C or below.
Colour-coded boards: Chopping boards in set colours for different foods to prevent cross-contamination. The common UK scheme is red raw meat, blue raw fish, yellow cooked meat, green salad and fruit, brown vegetables, white bakery and dairy.
Column still: A continuous still that produces a lighter, purer spirit at high strength, used for vodka, grain whisky and many rums.
Combi oven: An oven using steam and convection.
Commis: Junior chef learning in a section.
Commis de rang: A junior waiter who supports the chef de rang, running food and clearing.
Comp: Giving an item or meal free of charge.
Concasse: Tomato that has been blanched, peeled, deseeded and diced, used as a fresh garnish or sauce base.
Concession: An outlet operated by a contractor in a venue such as an airport or stadium.
Concierge: Staff helping guests with arrangements.
Confit: Meat, usually duck or pork, cooked slowly submerged in its own fat at low temperature, then stored in that fat. The term now also covers vegetables cooked gently in oil.
Consommé: A crystal-clear soup made by simmering stock with a raft of egg white and minced meat that traps impurities as it sets.
Contact time: How long a disinfectant must stay on a surface to work.
Contactless: Card or phone payments by tapping, standard in UK hospitality.
Contract catering: Running food services for a client such as an office, hospital or school.
Contribution: What each sale contributes to covering fixed costs and profit after its variable costs.
Convection oven: An oven with a fan to circulate hot air, cooking evenly and quickly.
Cook to 75C: A common UK guideline for reheating or cooking food so the core reaches a safe temperature, with time and temperature combinations accepted.
Cooling within 90 minutes: A common guideline for cooling cooked food quickly to fridge temperature to limit bacterial growth.
Coravin: A device for pouring wine without removing the cork.
Core temperature: The temperature at the centre of the thickest part of food, checked with a probe.
Cork taint: A musty, damp-cardboard fault caused by the chemical TCA, usually from contaminated cork. It mutes fruit even at faint levels.
Corkage: Fee for bringing your own wine.
Corkage (events): A charge per bottle when clients supply their own drinks at a venue.
Corked: Wine tainted by cork.
Corner: Called when turning a blind corner, often carrying hot or sharp items.
Cortado: Espresso cut with a similar amount of warm milk, little or no foam.
COSHH: Rules on hazardous substances.
Costing: Working out the cost of a dish.
Coupe: A shallow, stemmed glass used for drinks served up; less prone to spills than a V-shaped martini glass.
Coupler: The fitting that connects a gas and beer line to a keg; different brewers use different coupler types.
Cover: Both a guest and the place setting laid for them. Laying covers means setting places with cutlery and glassware.
Cover charge: Charge per guest.
Cover for: Taking someone else's shift.
Covers: The number of guests served.
Covers forecast: Expected number of guests.
Covers per hour: A measure of kitchen or floor throughput.
Craft keg: Unpasteurised, often unfiltered beer served from keg, associated with independent brewers.
Cream tea: Tea served with scones, clotted cream and jam. Devon and Cornwall famously disagree about the order of cream and jam.
Crema: The golden foam on top of an espresso, formed from oils and carbon dioxide.
Crème anglaise: A pouring custard thickened only with egg yolks, cooked gently to about 82C so it coats the spoon without scrambling.
Crème chantilly: Cream whipped with sugar and often vanilla to soft peaks.
Crème diplomat: Crème pâtissière lightened with whipped cream, sometimes set with gelatine.
Crème pâtissière: Pastry cream, a thick custard of milk, yolks, sugar and starch used to fill éclairs and tarts.
CRM: Customer relationship management.
Cross-contact: Allergen transfer between foods.
Cross-contamination: Transfer of harmful bacteria from one food, surface or person to another, particularly raw to ready-to-eat food.
Cru: French for growth: a named vineyard or estate with an official quality status, as in Grand Cru or Premier Cru.
Crudo: Italian for raw: thinly sliced raw fish or meat, dressed simply.
Cruise hospitality: Hotel and restaurant service at sea, with very high volumes and long contracts.
Crumbing down: Clearing crumbs from the tablecloth between courses with a crumber or folded napkin, usually before dessert.
Crushed: Very busy; also slammed.
Cumulative impact: A council policy area where there are already many licensed venues, making new licences harder to obtain.
Cupping: The standard method of tasting and grading coffee, by steeping grounds in bowls and slurping from spoons.
Cut: Sending staff home early.
Cuts: Dividing distillate into heads, hearts and tails. Only the hearts are kept as spirit; the rest is redistilled or discarded.
CVA: Company Voluntary Arrangement, an insolvency process letting a company renegotiate debts and leases with creditors' approval.

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