Glossary
Banquet Server Terms & Vocabulary
15 essential banquet server terms with plain-English definitions: the vocabulary you’ll hear in training and on day one.
Key banquet server vocabulary
These 15 terms come up constantly in banquet server training, on the job and in interviews. Knowing them helps you follow instructions, document accurately and sound prepared.
- Back of house
- Kitchen areas.
- BEO
- Banquet event order.
- Buffet
- Self-service line.
- Captain
- Leads servers.
- Charger
- Decorative base plate.
- Course
- Part of a meal.
- Cover
- One guest served.
- French service
- Served from platters at the table.
- Front of house
- Customer areas.
- Head table
- Honored guests’ table.
- Plated service
- Served individually.
- Reset
- Preparing for the next event.
- Section
- Assigned tables.
- Service charge
- Fee often shared with staff.
- Turn
- Seating a table again.
Practice these terms
Test yourself with the free Banquet Server practice test: it includes vocabulary questions built from this list. For a complete course, see Banquet Server training.
Browse terms from every career in our career glossary.