A FRENCH RESTAURANT

Evening Post, Volume CVII, Issue 22, 26 January 1924, Page 16

A FRENCH RESTAURANT

THE "TRONC" SYSTEM OF TIPS,

The theft from one of the leading London Hotels of a cash-box containing tips to the value of £178 serves to show (writes a correspondent of the " Manchester Guardian ") what large sums accumulate for distribution under the " trono" system. Still, there are a good many to share in the distribution, for the hierarchy of a fashionable restaurant is complicated. In a French restaurant first comes the manager, then • the maitrea d'hotel, whose numbers vary according to' the size of tha establishment. The maitie d'hotel, who has charge of from eight to ten tables, re- I ceives the guests and takes down their orders. Below. him_is the chef de rang, the waiter who actually waits on you; he has three or four tables to took after, I and is instructed never to leave them ] so long as,a customer remains. Beneath him is the commis, the young waiter who brings the dishes from the kitchen ahd helps in small ways. Then there are wine butlers, who rank with the maitres d'hotel, and have their commis. I And there are other commis, the latest joined, whose only duty is to remove dirty plates and so forth. When the bill is paid and the tip is left on the plate, the amount of tha tip, is written on the bill, then wrapped in it and dropped in the " tronc," which in a good restaurant is entirely under the control of the waiters, a maitre d'hotel, a chef de rang, and a commis being, on the committee, which meets every morning, goes through the previous day's collection, and apportions the money. Each waiter, according to his degree, is given so many.shares or fractions of a share, these fractions being in eighths. Supposing there be £50 in the " tronc " to be divided into fifty shares, the maitre d'hotel, who draws five shares, would receive £5, and the commis, who has five-eighths of a share, 12s 6d. When fairly worked this system Js a good example of collectivism in practice. It is to the interests of every- ' one, from the maitre d'hotel down to the 15-year-old commis, t 0 make the restaurant popular.