“4. My role as a server is essential to the guest experience.”

There are many ways to enjoy a meal. You can cook it yourself at home. You can visit a friend and let them cook, or eat a meal cooked for you by a loved one. You can visit any number of different types of restaurants where food is simply provided for you to consume on your own, such as fast food establishments or buffets. You can purchase food in various stages of preparation to consume on your own, such as convenience stores or vending machines.

However, if you want to eat well, and easily, with little effort and great reward, you may make the choice to let someone serve you. That person might be your spouse, cooking up a nice dinner after you’ve had a hard day at work. It might be a grandparent, hosting a holiday meal. Or it might be a stranger who’s chosen to accept the title of “server” as their chosen profession.

A good professional server enhances every aspect of the meal and allows you to focus on your enjoyment. He or she brings knowledge, to guide you through the process of selecting your food. A server handles the labor of placing the food before you, and cleaning up after you. The server communicates to the chefs and cooks any requests you may have to enhance your meal, specific to your preferences, and takes responsibility for your health and well-being when you make him/her aware of your allergies, or other dietary restrictions. In some cases, a server even moves beyond the meal to interact with you on a social level, providing good conversation, and a degree of entertainment, as the circumstances present themselves. Great servers elevate the meal to an experience, and help make it memorable.

Without these services provided by another human being, be it a loved one, friend, or stranger, every meal would be one of life’s many labors, a chore of daily self preservation, like sleeping, or bathing. At best, each meal we would make for ourselves would be enjoyed alone and forgotten.

When a person makes themselves available to serve you, they are giving moments of their lives to help you enjoy some of your own . More often than not, when a meal is enjoyed and remembered, a server of some sort was involved. The next time you choose to be the guest of an establishment and enjoy the attention of a server, try to remember how precious their time is, and how much they care about yours. Enjoy!