Food service director vs director of food and beverage

The differences between food service directors and directors of food and beverage can be seen in a few details. Each job has different responsibilities and duties. It typically takes 2-4 years to become both a food service director and a director of food and beverage. Additionally, a director of food and beverage has an average salary of $88,654, which is higher than the $53,939 average annual salary of a food service director.

The top three skills for a food service director include customer service, culinary and servsafe. The most important skills for a director of food and beverage are wine, customer service, and culinary.

Food service director vs director of food and beverage overview

	Food Service Director	Director Of Food And Beverage
Yearly salary	$53,939	$88,654
Hourly rate	$25.93	$42.62
Growth rate	10%	10%
Number of jobs	136,337	130,685
Job satisfaction	-	-
Most common degree	Bachelor's Degree, 48%	Bachelor's Degree, 60%
Average age	39	39
Years of experience	4	4

What does a food service director do?

A food service director is responsible for managing the foodservice operations, achieving the customers' highest satisfaction by supervising the kitchen personnel, monitoring the food distribution, and responding to the guests' inquiries and concerns. Foodservice directors manage the food inventories, ensuring the adequacy of all the ingredients and materials, and keeping the storage safe and clean all the time by enforcing strict sanitary and hygienic procedures. A food service director must be updated with the current food industry trends to update the menu regularly and meet the guests' demands.

What does a director of food and beverage do?

A director of food and beverage is responsible for ensuring the quality of foods and services to maintain the guests' overall satisfaction on their dining experience. Food and beverage directors manage menu selections, analyzing current food trends to meet guests' demands. They also handle budget allocation, negotiating with reliable suppliers for high-quality materials and ingredients for minimal costs. A director of food and beverage must have excellent leadership and communication skills, observe strict sanitary standards and hygienic regulations for adherence of all personnel during operations.

Food service director vs director of food and beverage salary

Food service directors and directors of food and beverage have different pay scales, as shown below.

	Food Service Director	Director Of Food And Beverage
Average salary	$53,939	$88,654
Salary range	Between $35,000 And $82,000	Between $63,000 And $124,000
Highest paying City	San Francisco, CA	San Francisco, CA
Highest paying state	California	Nevada
Best paying company	Baptist Health Care	MUFG EMEA
Best paying industry	Health Care	Real Estate

Differences between food service director and director of food and beverage education

There are a few differences between a food service director and a director of food and beverage in terms of educational background:

	Food Service Director	Director Of Food And Beverage
Most common degree	Bachelor's Degree, 48%	Bachelor's Degree, 60%
Most common major	Culinary Arts	Business
Most common college	Cornell University	Cornell University

Food service director vs director of food and beverage demographics

Here are the differences between food service directors' and directors of food and beverage' demographics:

	Food Service Director	Director Of Food And Beverage
Average age	39	39
Gender ratio	Male, 58.1% Female, 41.9%	Male, 80.9% Female, 19.1%
Race ratio	Black or African American, 10.8% Unknown, 5.4% Hispanic or Latino, 15.4% Asian, 7.3% White, 60.3% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.7%	Black or African American, 10.7% Unknown, 5.9% Hispanic or Latino, 17.3% Asian, 8.5% White, 57.0% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.6%
LGBT Percentage	10%	10%

Differences between food service director and director of food and beverage duties and responsibilities

Food service director example responsibilities.

Train and manage countless dishwashers, cooks, servers, and other managers to achieve significant improvements in their productivity.
Manage both front of the house (FOH) and back of the house (BOH) operations.
Manage a team of 12 managers and 160 FTE.
Achieve highest level of compliance with CMS and Steritech audits.
Manage departmental budget and payroll for 111 FTE's, service and production of ~ 1200 meals/day.
Manage food services at 142 bed sub-acute rehabilitation and skil nursing facility with a staff of 43 FTE's.

Director of food and beverage example responsibilities.

Achieve established individual catering sales goals and assist team in achieving departmental booking goals.
Lead the implementation of a POS system that integrate mission-critical corporate data to achieve improve planning and management.
Lead development of catering programs for Marriott's full service brands.
Create reports, budgets and revenue forecast in Delphi in order to maintain and manage an efficient department.
Used Marriott computer applications to manage and administer events.
Manage and monitor daily operational duties of full service dining room for patients including creating and maintaining department budget.

Food service director vs director of food and beverage skills

Common food service director skills

Customer Service, 13%
Culinary, 9%
ServSafe, 8%
Food Preparation, 6%
Good Judgment, 5%
Cost Control, 4%

Common director of food and beverage skills

Wine, 10%
Customer Service, 7%
Culinary, 5%
BARS, 5%
Beverage Operations, 5%
Guest Service, 4%

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Food Service Director vs Director Of Food And Beverage

Updated January 8, 2025

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