Glossary
Hospo words: S
99 terms you'll hear on shift.
- Sabayon
- Egg yolks whisked over heat with sugar and wine until thick and airy. The Italian zabaglione is the same idea.
- Safe space
- A quiet, staffed area where vulnerable guests can recover, wait for friends or call a taxi.
- Salamander
- An overhead grill.
- Sales per labour hour
- Revenue divided by hours worked, a measure of staff productivity.
- Salmonella
- A bacterium often linked to eggs and poultry that causes food poisoning.
- Santoku
- A Japanese all-purpose knife with a flat edge and sheep's-foot tip, popular for slicing and dicing vegetables.
- Saucier
- Chef responsible for sauces and often meat.
- Scoring
- Slashing the surface of dough with a blade or lame before baking so it expands in a controlled way.
- Scotch egg
- A boiled egg wrapped in sausagemeat, crumbed and fried; a pub snack staple.
- Scrumpy
- Rough, traditional farmhouse cider, typically still, cloudy and strong, especially from the West Country.
- Sear
- Cooking the surface of meat or fish over high heat to build a browned crust through the Maillard reaction. It does not seal in juices, despite the old saying.
- Search policy
- The written rules for searching guests on entry, often a condition of the premises licence.
- Season to taste
- The instruction to adjust salt and acidity by tasting at the end. Good kitchens taste every component before it goes to the pass.
- Seat numbers
- A numbering system for positions at each table, usually clockwise from a fixed point, so runners place each dish correctly without auctioning.
- Seating plan
- The plan showing who sits where at an event, finalised with the client before the day.
- Second sitting
- A later booking slot.
- Secret shopper
- Same as a mystery diner.
- Section
- The tables a server is responsible for.
- Section 19
- A police closure notice under the Criminal Justice and Police Act 2001 used against premises selling alcohol without the right authority.
- Semi-variable costs
- Costs with fixed and variable parts, such as utilities and labour scheduled around demand.
- Send it
- Instruction to take dishes out.
- Service
- A meal period when guests are served.
- Service charge
- An added charge for service.
- Service please
- Call that dishes are ready.
- Serviced apartment
- A furnished flat let short or medium term with hotel-style services, popular for longer business stays.
- Sessionable
- A beer low enough in strength and easy enough to drink several in a sitting, usually under about 4.5 percent ABV.
- SFBB
- Safer Food, Better Business, a food safety management pack.
- Shake
- Mixing a drink with ice in a shaker.
- Shelf life
- How long food stays safe and good to eat in set conditions.
- Shift drink
- A drink given to staff at the end of a shift.
- Shive
- The wooden or plastic bung in the top of a cask through which the spile is inserted.
- Short let
- A property rented for short stays, sometimes regulated by councils.
- Short measure
- Serving less than the legal measure.
- Shot of the day
- A featured shot sold at a set price to push volume.
- Shrinkage
- Stock loss through theft or error.
- Shrub
- A drinking vinegar of fruit, sugar and vinegar, used to bring acidity and fruit to cocktails and alcohol-free drinks.
- SIA
- Security Industry Authority, which licenses door staff.
- Side work
- Cleaning and prep tasks outside service.
- Signature dish
- The dish a restaurant or chef is best known for.
- Silver service
- Serving food from platters at the table.
- Silverskin
- The tough, shiny membrane on cuts like fillet and loin that does not break down in cooking and is trimmed off.
- Simple syrup
- Sugar dissolved in water, usually 1:1 or 2:1 rich syrup, the basic sweetener behind the bar.
- Single cask
- Whisky or rum bottled from one individual cask rather than a vatting, so each release varies.
- Single malt
- Scotch made from malted barley at a single distillery in pot stills.
- Single origin
- Coffee from one country, region or farm, rather than a blend.
- Slammed
- Extremely busy.
- Slip cloth
- A smaller cloth laid over the main tablecloth so it can be changed between sittings without stripping the table.
- Small brewers relief
- A UK duty relief scheme that reduces beer duty for smaller producers, tapering as output rises.
- Small plates
- A menu style of smaller dishes ordered several at a time.
- Smart room
- A hotel room with connected controls for lighting, heating and entertainment.
- Smoke-free legislation
- UK law banning smoking in enclosed workplaces and public places.
- Smoking area
- The outdoor space where guests can smoke, which must meet smoke-free legislation rules on enclosure.
- Soft opening
- A trial opening before launch.
- Solera
- A system of fractional blending in stacked casks, used for sherry, some rums and brandies.
- Sommelier
- Wine specialist.
- Sour
- Beer deliberately soured by bacteria or wild yeast, from Belgian lambics to kettle-soured modern styles.
- Sous chef
- Second in command in the kitchen.
- Sous vide
- Cooking vacuum-packed food in a precise water bath.
- Sparkler
- A nozzle on a handpull that forces beer through small holes to create a tight, creamy head, favoured in the north of England.
- Spatchcock
- Removing a bird's backbone and pressing it flat so it cooks quickly and evenly.
- Spec
- A recipe specification.
- Specialty coffee
- Coffee scoring high on a recognised cupping scale, sourced and roasted with care for quality and traceability.
- Speed rail
- The rack of most-used bottles at the bartender's station.
- Spend per head
- Average revenue per guest, calculated by dividing sales by covers. A key lever alongside volume.
- Spiking
- Adding substances to drinks or people without consent.
- Spile
- A peg used to vent cask ale.
- Spirit-forward
- A cocktail built mainly on spirit, with little or no juice, such as a Martini or Old Fashioned. These are stirred, not shaken.
- Split shift
- Working lunch and dinner with an unpaid break between.
- Splitting the bill
- Dividing a table's bill between guests by item or equally. POS systems handle it, but it slows table turns at peak.
- Staff food
- Same as family meal.
- Stage
- An unpaid or paid trial in a kitchen, pronounced 'stahzh'.
- Stars, ploughhorses, puzzles, dogs
- The classic menu engineering grid: high profit and popular, popular but low profit, profitable but unpopular, and neither.
- Station
- A work area in the kitchen or bar.
- Statutory sick pay
- The minimum sick pay UK employers must pay eligible employees.
- Stay-over
- A room occupied by a guest continuing their stay, needing a service clean rather than a full departure clean.
- Staycation
- A holiday taken in one's own country.
- Steam wand
- The pipe on an espresso machine that steams and textures milk.
- Steep time
- How long tea is left to brew. Green teas need cooler water and shorter steeps than black teas.
- Steps of service
- The sequence of service tasks.
- Stick blender
- A handheld immersion blender for puréeing soups and sauces in the pot.
- Stiffed
- Left no tip.
- Stir
- Mixing with ice in a mixing glass.
- Stock management software
- Software for tracking stock, orders and wastage, often linked to POS for theoretical usage.
- Stockpot burner
- A low, powerful burner for heavy stock pots.
- Stocktake
- Counting inventory.
- Sub-primal
- A cut taken from a primal and broken down into joints or steaks, such as the striploin from the short loin.
- Sulphites
- Sulphur dioxide used to protect wine from oxidation and microbes. Must be declared on labels above 10mg per litre and is one of the 14 allergens.
- Sunday roast
- The traditional British Sunday meal of roast meat, roast potatoes, Yorkshire pudding, vegetables and gravy; a major pub trading day.
- Supreme
- A chicken breast with the wing bone attached and trimmed. In citrus, a segment cut free of all pith and membrane.
- Sur lie
- Wine aged on its lees before bottling, as in Muscadet sur lie.
- Sweat
- Cooking vegetables gently in fat over low heat, often covered, so they soften and release moisture without browning.
- Sweethearting
- Giving free items to friends.
- Swiss meringue
- Egg whites and sugar warmed together over a bain-marie before whisking, giving a dense, smooth meringue.
- Swizzle
- Mixing a drink with crushed ice by spinning a swizzle stick between the palms, frosting the glass.
- Synchronised service
- In banqueting, service in which waiters serve a table together and put down plates at the same moment.
Hospodality