The glamour may have diminished somewhat from the role of the waiter or waitress, but nowadays fewer and fewer people in western Europe aspire to be part of the front of house staff. In a survey conducted by Square Meal magazine revealed that half of the complaints that they received last year were to do with poor service, a rise of 7% on 2006.

Waiting Tables not Interesting
The status of waiters and maitre d's is in sharp decline and with this, the quality of service is declining too. In recent years, western Europe has seen an influx of job-seekers from eastern Europe who are filling the many open positions waiting tables. It appears the likes of the English and the French just aren't interested anymore.

Although many restaurateurs are thankful for the increased manpower brought on by immigration, there is a definite concern for the quality of service, mainly because a waiter's language skills should be excellent.

Le Gavroche see Language Problem
Silvano Giraldin is maitre d' at Le Gavroche in Mayfair, London. His view of the situation was not positive: "My profession is at a miserable point. We can't get English people to wait – one out of 20 people in my brigade is British. We can hardly get French people to wait. So, of course, we have to import from eastern Europe and, of course, there is a language problem."

It has become apparent that westerners no longer view waiting tables as a career, but as a job to take up for a year or two before finding something better, and essentially, higher paid.

Waiters Low Paid
However, there are great differences from country to country, as in London a waiter will often start by receiving the minimum wage of £5.52 per hour and then rely on customer gratuity to make a living, in Rome waiters are usually salaried, often earning 1,300 euros per month from the start.

In Italy, the waiting profession is taken more seriously than in the UK. Tabrizio Cicchetti, owner of La Pratolina in Rome, stated that it's all about the money, "In the UK, it's different. A waiter is paid for his service. If he works five hours, he's paid five hours. Here it's different. It's a salary."