Alex Susskind is a Professor of Food and Beverage Management and is currently serving as the Associate Dean for Academic Affairs. Professor Susskind earned his Ph.D. in Communication from Michigan State University with a specialization in organizational communication and his MBA with a concentration in personnel and human relations. Alex earned his undergraduate degree at Purdue University in Restaurant, Hotel, and Institutional Management and is also a trained chef with a degree in Culinary Arts from The Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, New York. Prior to starting his career in academia, Alex was a chef and restaurant operator for both independent and multi-unit restaurant companies in the Northeastern and Southeastern United States.
Food and Beverage ManagementCornell Certificate Program
Overview and Courses
In this certificate program, you’ll learn key concepts, strategies, and practical skills necessary for managing, owning, and operating a successful restaurant, bar, or other food and beverage business.
Develop confidence in your ability to manage your business’s finances and learn key operational functions like menu design, income statement analysis, pricing, margin analysis, supply chain management, guest service processes, and employee engagement and performance.
Amid the swirl of activity in food and beverage service, financial management is a function that loses priority sometimes, despite its crucial function.
Understanding and managing your food and beverage operation's income statement (profit and loss statement) can lead to better decision making and can position you to succeed. Learn how to get a hold on your organization's finances and make informed decisions based on profit and performance.
Your menu does much more than inform guests about what you offer. It helps to create and communicate your food and beverage operation's identity, and influences your guests' choices.
This course will enable you to evaluate menus and identify changes that will optimize the value and profitability of your food and beverage operation.
Your operation's brand is like a contract with the customer, and the expectation is that value will be delivered in relative accordance with price and quality of service. But keeping food costs down is no easy task. In fact, it's one of the most detail-oriented, scientific processes that go into running a restaurant and there are many challenges with keeping food costs controlled.
In this course, you'll learn to optimize your operation's profits by effectively managing your selection, procurement, receiving, storage, and inventory management processes.
Loyal repeat customers are key to the success of any food and beverage operation. They represent recurring revenue and are a great source for feedback and gauging customer sentiment. They can also be your greatest evangelists, recommending you to friends and colleagues, even giving favorable online reviews.
Through careful design, meticulous attention to service processes, and a way to gauge customer sentiment, you can play to your team's strengths and identify opportunities for improving the guest experience to grow your business.
Your employees are the heart of every food and beverage operation and your most valuable resource, yet so many operators fail to focus attention on employee satisfaction and engagement.
Understanding your role in managing and leading employees can help you to reduce costly turnover, safety incidents, theft, and absenteeism, and can improve your operation's quality, productivity, guest satisfaction, and profitability.
Whether you are a restaurant, coffee house, even a cocktail bar, your beverage program can have a big impact on your profitability, but it comes with a good deal of risk.
Understanding everything that is involved in offering wine, beer, spirits, and nonalcoholic beverages and applying discipline to your product selection, pricing, list design, and rigorous controls can minimize certain risks and position you for financial success.
How It Works
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Faculty Authors
Cheryl Stanley is a lecturer in food and beverage management at the Cornell School of Hotel Administration (SHA). She has been involved with food since the age of ten, when she started her own chocolate business, “Cheryl’s Chocolates.” Following her interest in food, she attended SHA and graduated in 2000.
While at Cornell, Stanley discovered her passion for beverages through the courses Introduction to Wines, Food and Wine Pairing, and Beverage Management. Upon graduation, she continued this enthusiasm for beverages and food service in both hotel and restaurant operations on the west coast, where she worked for the Four Seasons Hotel, Newport Beach, and the Wine Cask in Santa Barbara.
Continuing her entrepreneurial journey, Stanley started her own restaurant consulting company specializing in beverages and service in 2008. During this time, she was also presented an opportunity to become an adjunct instructor at the Culinary Institute of America (CIA), where she taught courses that included gastronomy, food, wine, and (agri)culture. Falling in love with teaching, she decided to pursue her master’s degree in hospitality and retail management from Texas Tech University. Heading back north, Stanley returned to the CIA prior to joining the food and beverage operations area back at her alma mater.
Stanley teaches courses on specific elements within the field of food and beverage operations, including Introduction to Wines, Catering and Special Events, and Beverage Management. She combines theoretical education with practical operational applications.
Certified through multiple wine organizations, Stanley has conducted research on beverage costing in hotels, bars, and restaurants, as well as hospitality education, and has presented at beverage-related conferences. In 2015, she was awarded the Ted Teng ’79 Dean’s Teaching Excellence Award. She is a member of the Society of Wine Educators and the United States Bartenders’ Guild. She is the faculty advisor for Cornell Cuvée, the blind wine tasting competition team, which has won first place at multiple international wine competitions. In 2017 she was selected as one of Wine Enthusiast Magazine’s 40 under 40 Tastemakers.
Key Course Takeaways
- Evaluate and design menus that will improve your customer satisfaction and profitability
- Optimize your selection, procurement, receiving, storage, and inventory management processes
- Define, measure, and improve the guest experience
- Analyze your income statement to make informed decisions and optimize your operational processes
- Reduce costs and improve quality, productivity, guest satisfaction, and profitability
Download a Brochure
Not ready to enroll but want to learn more? Download the certificate brochure to review program details.
What You'll Earn
- Food and Beverage Management Certificate from Cornell Hotel School
- 60 Professional Development Hours (6 CEUs)
Watch the Video
Who Should Enroll
- General managers and line-level employees involved in the operation and financial performance of a restaurant or food and beverage service
- Managed service contractors for stadiums, arenas, hospitals, airlines, franchises, and catering
- Professionals new to the food and beverage industry
- Non-restaurant professionals looking to be conversant in operations of food and beverage providers
- Caterers, restaurateurs, event space managers, property managers, corporate event managers
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Food and Beverage Management
| Select Payment Method | Cost |
|---|---|
| $3,600 | |