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What is is like to work
at The Wolseley?
Click on the links below to view more details:
A day in the life of a Senior Waiter
A day in the life of a Junior Waiter
A day in the life of a Barista
A day in the life of an Assistant Maitre d' Hotel
A day in the life of a Chef de Partie
A day in the life of a Pastry Chef
A day in the life of a Bartender
I have been working at The Wolseley as a Senior Waiter for 8 months and am currently developing and enhancing my skills as part of our training team, training new employees in how to reach the exacting standards we expect as a Senior Waiter.
Even though you are likely to come to the role of Senior Waiter with years of previous experience, The Wolseley has its own unique way of doing everything. There is a set standard for everything we do from how to greet a customer, right the way through to how to bid them farewell. You have to know your menu inside out, and must expect to be tested on it regularly, and you have to know about your customers, who they are, what they do, their likes and their dislikes. This is waiting as you have never known it before!
The Wolseley is open from breakfast through to dinner and the place never stops, there is no such thing as a quiet period and your energy and attention to detail have to be your biggest priorities. We have a diverse array of customers flooding through our doors, and in one day can serve over a 1000 people. Our focus is on making every experience a great dining experience whether it is for Breakfast, Lunch, Afternoon Tea, Dinner or just a piece of cake and a cup of coffee. Our reward? We are well paid, we make great friends, we work in a great atmosphere and the handshake and smile of appreciation when our customers leave is what hospitality is all about!
Apsara Ahmad (31)
As a Junior Waiter, you can work a variety of shifts, 6am until 4pm, 8am until 5pm or 5pm until 1am.
The role of a Junior Waiter is to support the Senior Waiters. We lay the tables, we prepare all the bread and butter, we run the food to the stations so the Seniors can serve it, we serve the coffees, we clear the stations of dirty crockery and glasses and if someone needs something – we get it!
Our team are only about 10 strong, so we work hard to support the 26 Senior Waiters. We have to be quick, we have to follow instructions and we have to prioritise what jobs are most important. It is not a difficult job to do, but you have to be prepared for long and physical hours carrying heavy trays at shoulder height across a packed restaurant floor, and clearing bus trays laden with crockery.
There is nothing I can say that I don’t like about my job, I like the people in my team and in the other departments, I love being busy all the time, and I stay with this company because it is like a family. We are treated fairly and we get help to develop our skills through regular training and internal promotion.
Chinzo Chuluunbaatar (31)
Being a Barista at the Wolseley is unlike any experience I have ever had. It is an early start as you walk through the doors with the first rays of the morning sun at around 6am. The shifts either run from 6am til 4pm, 8am til 6pm and 4pm til 1am. This Mayfair building, looks as spectacular as usual with its high vaulted ceilings and marble floors.
Baristas at the Wolseley are specialists, working only on the production of top quality, high volume coffees and teas from morning until night. We take pride in our work, and are lucky to work with the best equipment, from antique milk jugs to Musetti three gang machines. To say you have to be mad about coffee and everything that goes with it, is an understatement.
At 7am the doors open, ready for the customers seeking their first hot drink of the day. By 8 o’clock the restaurant is full, the atmosphere buzzing like that of a Viennese grand café with the aroma of freshly ground coffee and home made cakes and pastries wafting from the Viennoiserie.
Being a Barista at The Wolseley is a physically and emotionally demanding job. In those 4 hour breakfasts, we would have made a good two to three hundred hot beverages, used up to 5 kilograms of Musetti coffee, 30 litres of whole milk and around 1kg of loose tea. What’s more, as the first few customers drift in for lunch, we have to be ready to start this process all over again!
To be a Barista at the Wolseley you need to have a passion for tea and coffee and know your hot drinks inside out, a superior attention to detail, patience, a good sense of humour, stamina and a willingness to learn everything about this ancient drink.
Michael Kinahan (24)
With minutes to spare, I leave the mayhem of London rush hour to face the fast paced world of The Wolseley. Whether I start in the morning, the afternoon or the evening the same sight greets me every day. Out of the frying pan and into the fire in seconds. As I approach the front desk, having changed into my suit, I’m met with the usual questions which start my brain thinking fast. You have to know what is going on in London, who is in town, what shows are playing at which theatre and whose exhibition is opening where. Reading a Broadsheet newspaper every day is an essential requirement of your role.
The lead Maitre d’ is off allocating the next service and I am left to look after the current guests. A trip upstairs to answer the phone might appear as a respite until a VIP needs a table for 3 in half an hour, or a well known businessman needs a table for 6 tomorrow night at 8pm. What a to do.
Then service starts The Lead looks frantic as we start with 2 tables unallocated in the middle of the shift, “We’ll play it by ear”, I hear as we hope for the best. Tables start to arrive, some booked, some not, all in a hurry and often wanting the impossible. It is hard to sometimes have to disappoint people, but we are always busy and tables get booked up a long way in advance. We try where we can to offer them an alternative.
The best way to describe our work is to imagine a huge 4-dimensional, moving jigsaw, where all the pieces are changing shape and picture constantly. It’s a tough job for anyone trying to prioritise what needs to be done first, but nothing beats the rush as you shuffle everything around again and a table leaves early and another one doesn’t want to leave at all.
The lead maitre d’hotel needs you to be quick, whatever you’re doing, as soon as you’ve been told to do something, something else needs to be done. From greeting guests, to answering phones, to taking customers to their tables and checking their coats. To the untrained eye it looks like chaos. Eventually, towards the end you can see the light at the end of the tunnel. Everyone is sat and ordered before the chef says “No more!”
The first guests leave and you immediately get feedback, hopefully the sort you want to hear. It’s a real high to know that you’ve managed to feed over 1000 people today and they’re all happy.
Matt Silcock (29)
Being in the position of Chef de Partie means that you should have enough experience to be able to run a section and know everything involved in that section. You have a number of responsibilities and you must try your best to achieve them at all times. This could involve preparing the mis-en-place for the next service and making sure it’s done to the requirements of the chef, running a service that is smooth and efficient without any mistakes, ordering the produce for the next day and keeping a clean section at all times.
It is pretty much the same routine everyday and you have to be disciplined to work as a chef. Arrive at work between 7 and 8am. I arrive as breakfast is in full swing, but the breakfast chefs have everything in hand and full English breakfasts and Eggs Benedict are flying out over the Pass.
The first thing I do is to check the mis-en-place sheet and look for jobs that are urgent, I have to make sure my section is as prepared as possible for what is bound to be a huge lunch.
Stocks and sauces are put on and then it’s on with a big push to have everything ready by lunch. It’s very important to be set in time otherwise the whole service could go wrong.
During service I will be controlling everything in the section making sure the food is cooked correctly and communicating with the other sections to ensure things run smoothly.
Once the service is finished we clean down, but it doesn’t stop there, The Wolseley is an all day operation so afternoon tea kicks in to full swing directly after lunch. During this time, we are all trying to prepare for dinner and sometimes tempers can get strained. Serving so many people in one day means that in between services the food orders have to be placed for the next day too.
Being a Chef de Partie at The Wolseley has its pressures because of the expectations, so you must work 100% to make sure these are eased. We have a good reputation and can’t afford to have a bad day in the kitchen. It can be both frustrating and enjoyable, frustrating because the constant flow of orders sometimes makes you feel like you are on a production line, but enjoyable when everything goes well and when you go home.
Commitment and determination are the key to mastering this or any other position at the Wolseley, if you do not have these you are done for.
Reece Taylor (26)
Like London, The Wolseley never sleeps. By the time I arrive in the morning, the Tourier chef who has been in since 3am, has freshly baked all the breads and Vienoisserie for the day and is working towards lunch for that day and tomorrow’s requirements.
Lunch looms fast so the race is on to complete the cakes and slices for the varied displays which will viewed by hungry customers.
In pastry, two people work towards lunch service and by 11:30 all cakes and biscuits are completed to be displayed upstairs.
Sauces, tarts, crumbles and ice creams have to be ready for lunch. Daily, I temper chocolate to produce the chocolates that accompany every single coffee ordered, other shapes are also made for use on cakes and biscuits and piped Wolseley logos for The Wolseley chocolate délice.
Lunch service is signalled by the rapid checks requesting bread sticks. Pastry watches as the rest of the kitchen gets busy, knowing that it will hit us imminently. But when it does we are ready, preparation is all.
For us, lunch isn’t even finished before afternoon tea begins and the evening shift arrive to prepare for dinner.
Unlike many restaurants, as an employee, you walk into work and out of work through the same door as the customers. It is a gentle reminder of the world above the kitchen, the grand arches and the hum of voices that incapsulate The Wolseley.
Emma Williamson (29)
The Wolseley bar is very flexible, not many bars have their staff starting at 6am in the morning. With this variety in skills and service its not like the usual bar tendering performed. Breakfast, lunch, afternoon tea and dinner it all occurs in the bar. Everything available in the main restaurant is also available in the bar.
Over our first couple of years we have discovered the popularity of our three bar tables overlooking Piccadilly. The view is superb. To ensure our customers are not disappointed when deciding to dine at one of our tables, it is essential that our staff do not disappoint. Therefore our team have to have great knowledge of food and beverage, just as much as the full time waiters do.
All members of our bars team have had years of waiting experience. Our bar team therefore make sure that our customers receive the service and expectation they would receive in the main room. Coffee, cocktails, wines, spirits and food are all areas which are studied in depth by each member of staff in order that our product knowledge is to The Wolseley’s expectation.
The Wolseley bar is open from 7 am where customers start coming in for a quick bowl of birchermuesli or a full English breakfast. Some of our breakfast regulars prefer to stand at the bar and enjoy our selection of pastries followed by an espresso or cappuccino.
After numerous business meetings the bar will start getting ready for a fast lunch service which runs from 12-3pm. The bar is generally a holding bar for those waiting for a table, so it can get pressurised. The bar will see a number of faces in a short space of time but it is our responsibility to ensure they have a pleasant experience before they are taken through to the main room.
Afternoon tea will run daily through the week from 3-5.30pm and just like all the services we do, it is available in the bar. The weekend is extremely popular for afternoon teas of cakes, traditional sandwiches and scones and seems very appealing to the visitors of London. Numerous coffees and teas are on the menu at the Wolseley therefore a helping hand is sometimes required.
A la Carte runs from 5.30pm - midnight with the All day menu available too, the bar is usually involved in all the action. Many people arrive early for their tables as they might plan to have a drink in the bar before their reservation. The bar staff are here for advice on selecting a wine they are not familiar with, or maybe a cocktail they have never tried. Advice and recommendations are made here and we try to make the customers experience of the Wolseley as memorable as possible.
Joe Swiers (24)
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What is is like to work
at The Wolseley?
Click on the links below to view more details:
A day in the life of a Senior Waiter
A day in the life of a Junior Waiter
A day in the life of a Barista
A day in the life of an Assistant Maitre d' Hotel
A day in the life of a Chef de Partie
A day in the life of a Pastry Chef
A day in the life of a Bartender
I have been working at The Wolseley as a Senior Waiter for 8 months and am currently developing and enhancing my skills as part of our training team, training new employees in how to reach the exacting standards we expect as a Senior Waiter.
Even though you are likely to come to the role of Senior Waiter with years of previous experience, The Wolseley has its own unique way of doing everything. There is a set standard for everything we do from how to greet a customer, right the way through to how to bid them farewell. You have to know your menu inside out, and must expect to be tested on it regularly, and you have to know about your customers, who they are, what they do, their likes and their dislikes. This is waiting as you have never known it before!
The Wolseley is open from breakfast through to dinner and the place never stops, there is no such thing as a quiet period and your energy and attention to detail have to be your biggest priorities. We have a diverse array of customers flooding through our doors, and in one day can serve over a 1000 people. Our focus is on making every experience a great dining experience whether it is for Breakfast, Lunch, Afternoon Tea, Dinner or just a piece of cake and a cup of coffee. Our reward? We are well paid, we make great friends, we work in a great atmosphere and the handshake and smile of appreciation when our customers leave is what hospitality is all about!
Apsara Ahmad (31)
As a Junior Waiter, you can work a variety of shifts, 6am until 4pm, 8am until 5pm or 5pm until 1am.
The role of a Junior Waiter is to support the Senior Waiters. We lay the tables, we prepare all the bread and butter, we run the food to the stations so the Seniors can serve it, we serve the coffees, we clear the stations of dirty crockery and glasses and if someone needs something – we get it!
Our team are only about 10 strong, so we work hard to support the 26 Senior Waiters. We have to be quick, we have to follow instructions and we have to prioritise what jobs are most important. It is not a difficult job to do, but you have to be prepared for long and physical hours carrying heavy trays at shoulder height across a packed restaurant floor, and clearing bus trays laden with crockery.
There is nothing I can say that I don’t like about my job, I like the people in my team and in the other departments, I love being busy all the time, and I stay with this company because it is like a family. We are treated fairly and we get help to develop our skills through regular training and internal promotion.
Chinzo Chuluunbaatar (31)
Being a Barista at the Wolseley is unlike any experience I have ever had. It is an early start as you walk through the doors with the first rays of the morning sun at around 6am. The shifts either run from 6am til 4pm, 8am til 6pm and 4pm til 1am. This Mayfair building, looks as spectacular as usual with its high vaulted ceilings and marble floors.
Baristas at the Wolseley are specialists, working only on the production of top quality, high volume coffees and teas from morning until night. We take pride in our work, and are lucky to work with the best equipment, from antique milk jugs to Musetti three gang machines. To say you have to be mad about coffee and everything that goes with it, is an understatement.
At 7am the doors open, ready for the customers seeking their first hot drink of the day. By 8 o’clock the restaurant is full, the atmosphere buzzing like that of a Viennese grand café with the aroma of freshly ground coffee and home made cakes and pastries wafting from the Viennoiserie.
Being a Barista at The Wolseley is a physically and emotionally demanding job. In those 4 hour breakfasts, we would have made a good two to three hundred hot beverages, used up to 5 kilograms of Musetti coffee, 30 litres of whole milk and around 1kg of loose tea. What’s more, as the first few customers drift in for lunch, we have to be ready to start this process all over again!
To be a Barista at the Wolseley you need to have a passion for tea and coffee and know your hot drinks inside out, a superior attention to detail, patience, a good sense of humour, stamina and a willingness to learn everything about this ancient drink.
Michael Kinahan (24)
With minutes to spare, I leave the mayhem of London rush hour to face the fast paced world of The Wolseley. Whether I start in the morning, the afternoon or the evening the same sight greets me every day. Out of the frying pan and into the fire in seconds. As I approach the front desk, having changed into my suit, I’m met with the usual questions which start my brain thinking fast. You have to know what is going on in London, who is in town, what shows are playing at which theatre and whose exhibition is opening where. Reading a Broadsheet newspaper every day is an essential requirement of your role.
The lead Maitre d’ is off allocating the next service and I am left to look after the current guests. A trip upstairs to answer the phone might appear as a respite until a VIP needs a table for 3 in half an hour, or a well known businessman needs a table for 6 tomorrow night at 8pm. What a to do.
Then service starts The Lead looks frantic as we start with 2 tables unallocated in the middle of the shift, “We’ll play it by ear”, I hear as we hope for the best. Tables start to arrive, some booked, some not, all in a hurry and often wanting the impossible. It is hard to sometimes have to disappoint people, but we are always busy and tables get booked up a long way in advance. We try where we can to offer them an alternative.
The best way to describe our work is to imagine a huge 4-dimensional, moving jigsaw, where all the pieces are changing shape and picture constantly. It’s a tough job for anyone trying to prioritise what needs to be done first, but nothing beats the rush as you shuffle everything around again and a table leaves early and another one doesn’t want to leave at all.
The lead maitre d’hotel needs you to be quick, whatever you’re doing, as soon as you’ve been told to do something, something else needs to be done. From greeting guests, to answering phones, to taking customers to their tables and checking their coats. To the untrained eye it looks like chaos. Eventually, towards the end you can see the light at the end of the tunnel. Everyone is sat and ordered before the chef says “No more!”
The first guests leave and you immediately get feedback, hopefully the sort you want to hear. It’s a real high to know that you’ve managed to feed over 1000 people today and they’re all happy.
Matt Silcock (29)
Being in the position of Chef de Partie means that you should have enough experience to be able to run a section and know everything involved in that section. You have a number of responsibilities and you must try your best to achieve them at all times. This could involve preparing the mis-en-place for the next service and making sure it’s done to the requirements of the chef, running a service that is smooth and efficient without any mistakes, ordering the produce for the next day and keeping a clean section at all times.
It is pretty much the same routine everyday and you have to be disciplined to work as a chef. Arrive at work between 7 and 8am. I arrive as breakfast is in full swing, but the breakfast chefs have everything in hand and full English breakfasts and Eggs Benedict are flying out over the Pass.
The first thing I do is to check the mis-en-place sheet and look for jobs that are urgent, I have to make sure my section is as prepared as possible for what is bound to be a huge lunch.
Stocks and sauces are put on and then it’s on with a big push to have everything ready by lunch. It’s very important to be set in time otherwise the whole service could go wrong.
During service I will be controlling everything in the section making sure the food is cooked correctly and communicating with the other sections to ensure things run smoothly.
Once the service is finished we clean down, but it doesn’t stop there, The Wolseley is an all day operation so afternoon tea kicks in to full swing directly after lunch. During this time, we are all trying to prepare for dinner and sometimes tempers can get strained. Serving so many people in one day means that in between services the food orders have to be placed for the next day too.
Being a Chef de Partie at The Wolseley has its pressures because of the expectations, so you must work 100% to make sure these are eased. We have a good reputation and can’t afford to have a bad day in the kitchen. It can be both frustrating and enjoyable, frustrating because the constant flow of orders sometimes makes you feel like you are on a production line, but enjoyable when everything goes well and when you go home.
Commitment and determination are the key to mastering this or any other position at the Wolseley, if you do not have these you are done for.
Reece Taylor (26)
Like London, The Wolseley never sleeps. By the time I arrive in the morning, the Tourier chef who has been in since 3am, has freshly baked all the breads and Vienoisserie for the day and is working towards lunch for that day and tomorrow’s requirements.
Lunch looms fast so the race is on to complete the cakes and slices for the varied displays which will viewed by hungry customers.
In pastry, two people work towards lunch service and by 11:30 all cakes and biscuits are completed to be displayed upstairs.
Sauces, tarts, crumbles and ice creams have to be ready for lunch. Daily, I temper chocolate to produce the chocolates that accompany every single coffee ordered, other shapes are also made for use on cakes and biscuits and piped Wolseley logos for The Wolseley chocolate délice.
Lunch service is signalled by the rapid checks requesting bread sticks. Pastry watches as the rest of the kitchen gets busy, knowing that it will hit us imminently. But when it does we are ready, preparation is all.
For us, lunch isn’t even finished before afternoon tea begins and the evening shift arrive to prepare for dinner.
Unlike many restaurants, as an employee, you walk into work and out of work through the same door as the customers. It is a gentle reminder of the world above the kitchen, the grand arches and the hum of voices that incapsulate The Wolseley.
Emma Williamson (29)
The Wolseley bar is very flexible, not many bars have their staff starting at 6am in the morning. With this variety in skills and service its not like the usual bar tendering performed. Breakfast, lunch, afternoon tea and dinner it all occurs in the bar. Everything available in the main restaurant is also available in the bar.
Over our first couple of years we have discovered the popularity of our three bar tables overlooking Piccadilly. The view is superb. To ensure our customers are not disappointed when deciding to dine at one of our tables, it is essential that our staff do not disappoint. Therefore our team have to have great knowledge of food and beverage, just as much as the full time waiters do.
All members of our bars team have had years of waiting experience. Our bar team therefore make sure that our customers receive the service and expectation they would receive in the main room. Coffee, cocktails, wines, spirits and food are all areas which are studied in depth by each member of staff in order that our product knowledge is to The Wolseley’s expectation.
The Wolseley bar is open from 7 am where customers start coming in for a quick bowl of birchermuesli or a full English breakfast. Some of our breakfast regulars prefer to stand at the bar and enjoy our selection of pastries followed by an espresso or cappuccino.
After numerous business meetings the bar will start getting ready for a fast lunch service which runs from 12-3pm. The bar is generally a holding bar for those waiting for a table, so it can get pressurised. The bar will see a number of faces in a short space of time but it is our responsibility to ensure they have a pleasant experience before they are taken through to the main room.
Afternoon tea will run daily through the week from 3-5.30pm and just like all the services we do, it is available in the bar. The weekend is extremely popular for afternoon teas of cakes, traditional sandwiches and scones and seems very appealing to the visitors of London. Numerous coffees and teas are on the menu at the Wolseley therefore a helping hand is sometimes required.
A la Carte runs from 5.30pm - midnight with the All day menu available too, the bar is usually involved in all the action. Many people arrive early for their tables as they might plan to have a drink in the bar before their reservation. The bar staff are here for advice on selecting a wine they are not familiar with, or maybe a cocktail they have never tried. Advice and recommendations are made here and we try to make the customers experience of the Wolseley as memorable as possible.
Joe Swiers (24)
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