When I started in this industry, the hardest part was not the cooking — it was learning the language of the business. Break-even point, working capital, prime cost, soft opening… terms that show up in any serious conversation about a restaurant and that, if you do not master them, leave you out of the most important decisions.
This glossary was born from years of work as a restaurant consultant: from meetings with owners who were billing well but did not know whether they were making money, from talented chefs who could not understand why their restaurant was not surviving, and from entrepreneurs opening without knowing the basic terminology of the sector.
Here you will find over 290 definitions organized into 14 areas, written in plain language and applied to the reality of a hospitality business. It is not an academic dictionary. It is the guide I wish I had when I started.
