Bar and catering supervisors
Bar and catering supervisors oversee operations and directly supervise and coordinate the activities of those working in the catering industry, in bars, restaurants and other establishments.
- Employees (UK)
- 31k
- Median annual pay
- £22,552
- Exposure score ?
- 0.1/10 Minimal 0.2/10 Minimal strict reading, with tools is 0.2/10 with-tools reading, strict is 0.1/10
- Wage exposure
- £7m £14m
Higher exposure than 12% of the 379 UK occupations we scored.
What this score means.
Most of this role's work is still hard for AI: physical presence, practised skill, judgement in context and direct care, the things that do not turn into text.
If you are in this role
Nothing here is under pressure today, but the frontier moves. Learn enough to direct AI at the paperwork around the job. People in hands-on roles who can do that become unusually useful inside their organisations.
Most of this role's work is still hard for AI: physical presence, practised skill, judgement in context and direct care, the things that do not turn into text.
If you are in this role
Nothing here is under pressure today, but the frontier moves. Learn enough to direct AI at the paperwork around the job. People in hands-on roles who can do that become unusually useful inside their organisations.
Where the work usually starts.
This role's strict reading is low because its top tasks are judgement, not drafting. The three highest-stakes tasks below are still usually where the work starts. Switch to With tools to see what AI plus the right context can take on.
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Clean and sanitize work areas, equipment, utensils, dishes, or silverware.
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Assist cooks and kitchen staff with various tasks as needed, and provide cooks with needed items.
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Distribute food to waiters and waitresses to serve to customers.
For this role the labels do not surface obvious candidates, so the work would start with the highest-stakes tasks below and find the AI angle in conversation.
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Clean and sanitize work areas, equipment, utensils, dishes, or silverware.
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Assist cooks and kitchen staff with various tasks as needed, and provide cooks with needed items.
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Distribute food to waiters and waitresses to serve to customers.
Every role has three or four places like these. Finding them takes an hour. Turning them into a workflow your team actually uses takes a few days.
Every task in the role.
Every O*NET task for this occupation, split by what AI can do unaided and what still needs a person. Importance is O*NET's 1 to 5 rating of how central each task is.
Tasks via O*NET "Food Preparation Workers" (35-2021.00).
What AI can already do
1 of 31 tasks, unaided
Keep records of the quantities of food used.
What still needs a person
30 of 31 tasks
Clean and sanitize work areas, equipment, utensils, dishes, or silverware.
Assist cooks and kitchen staff with various tasks as needed, and provide cooks with needed items.
Distribute food to waiters and waitresses to serve to customers.
Take and record temperature of food and food storage areas, such as refrigerators and freezers.
Carry food supplies, equipment, and utensils to and from storage and work areas.
Remove trash and clean kitchen garbage containers.
Store food in designated containers and storage areas to prevent spoilage.
Weigh or measure ingredients.
Operate cash register, handle money, and give correct change.
Vacuum dining area and sweep and mop kitchen floor.
Inform supervisors when equipment is not working properly and when food and supplies are getting low, and order needed items.
Wash, peel, and cut various foods, such as fruits and vegetables, to prepare for cooking or serving.
Prepare a variety of foods, such as meats, vegetables, or desserts, according to customers' orders or supervisors' instructions, following approved procedures.
Distribute menus to hospital patients, collect diet sheets, and deliver food trays and snacks to nursing units or directly to patients.
Package take-out foods or serve food to customers.
Assemble meal trays with foods in accordance with patients' diets.
Stock cupboards and refrigerators, and tend salad bars and buffet meals.
Use manual or electric appliances to clean, peel, slice, and trim foods.
Load dishes, glasses, and tableware into dishwashing machines.
Portion and wrap food, or place it directly on plates for service to patrons.
Cut, slice or grind meat, poultry, and seafood to prepare for cooking.
Add cutlery, napkins, food, and other items to trays on assembly lines in hospitals, cafeterias, airline kitchens, and similar establishments.
Place food trays over food warmers for immediate service, or store them in refrigerated storage cabinets.
Butcher and clean fowl, fish, poultry, and shellfish to prepare for cooking or serving.
Prepare and serve a variety of beverages, such as coffee, tea, and soft drinks.
Mix ingredients for green salads, molded fruit salads, vegetable salads, and pasta salads.
Receive and store food supplies, equipment, and utensils in refrigerators, cupboards, and other storage areas.
Stir and strain soups and sauces.
Make special dressings and sauces as condiments for sandwiches.
Scrape leftovers from dishes into garbage containers.
Tasks via O*NET "Food Preparation Workers" (35-2021.00).
What AI can already do
2 of 31 tasks, with tools
Inform supervisors when equipment is not working properly and when food and supplies are getting low, and order needed items.
Keep records of the quantities of food used.
What still needs a person
29 of 31 tasks
Clean and sanitize work areas, equipment, utensils, dishes, or silverware.
Assist cooks and kitchen staff with various tasks as needed, and provide cooks with needed items.
Distribute food to waiters and waitresses to serve to customers.
Take and record temperature of food and food storage areas, such as refrigerators and freezers.
Carry food supplies, equipment, and utensils to and from storage and work areas.
Remove trash and clean kitchen garbage containers.
Store food in designated containers and storage areas to prevent spoilage.
Weigh or measure ingredients.
Operate cash register, handle money, and give correct change.
Vacuum dining area and sweep and mop kitchen floor.
Wash, peel, and cut various foods, such as fruits and vegetables, to prepare for cooking or serving.
Prepare a variety of foods, such as meats, vegetables, or desserts, according to customers' orders or supervisors' instructions, following approved procedures.
Distribute menus to hospital patients, collect diet sheets, and deliver food trays and snacks to nursing units or directly to patients.
Package take-out foods or serve food to customers.
Assemble meal trays with foods in accordance with patients' diets.
Stock cupboards and refrigerators, and tend salad bars and buffet meals.
Use manual or electric appliances to clean, peel, slice, and trim foods.
Load dishes, glasses, and tableware into dishwashing machines.
Portion and wrap food, or place it directly on plates for service to patrons.
Cut, slice or grind meat, poultry, and seafood to prepare for cooking.
Add cutlery, napkins, food, and other items to trays on assembly lines in hospitals, cafeterias, airline kitchens, and similar establishments.
Place food trays over food warmers for immediate service, or store them in refrigerated storage cabinets.
Butcher and clean fowl, fish, poultry, and shellfish to prepare for cooking or serving.
Prepare and serve a variety of beverages, such as coffee, tea, and soft drinks.
Mix ingredients for green salads, molded fruit salads, vegetable salads, and pasta salads.
Receive and store food supplies, equipment, and utensils in refrigerators, cupboards, and other storage areas.
Stir and strain soups and sauces.
Make special dressings and sauces as condiments for sandwiches.
Scrape leftovers from dishes into garbage containers.
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Related occupations.
Other roles in Elementary occupations, and roles close by exposure.
What it means for your sector.
This role's score comes from Eloundou et al's 2023 task labels, weighted by O*NET importance within each O*NET-SOC code, then bridged to UK SOC 2020 through ISCO-08 (the ONS coding index) and US SOC 2010 (the BLS crosswalk). Employment and median pay come from ONS ASHE Table 14.7a, 2025 provisional, which covers employees only.
Back to the mapMethodologySources (PDF)Built 29 April 2026
Pictures
- "Census pantograph and 1930s keypunches" by U.S. Census Bureau employees, public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
- "Shepard Barclay, St. Louis lawyer, in his office" by Missouri Historical Society via DPLA, no known copyright restrictions, via Wikimedia Commons
- "Accountant's Office LCCN2016824374" by National Photo Company Collection, public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
- "Employment service in Oulu in the spring 1931" by Finnish Heritage Agency (Museovirasto), CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons