Name: The Staff Operations Manual
Author: Srđan Mihailović

Which rules it follows

One manual. Two rulebooks.

Every rule in the book carries a label, so you always know where it comes from and how binding it is. The European rules are the same ones as in the European edition of this collection. The American rules are marked USA — and where a rule is not set nationally, the book says so instead of pretending otherwise.

The label	What it means in the book
EU	European Union rules, quoted from the regulation itself — the same text and the same numbers as in the European edition.
USA	United States rules. Where a rule is set by the states, the book says so and tells you to check your own state or local health department.
FDA Food Code	Named for what it is: a model code, not federal law. It applies where your state or locality has adopted it, and the book says that every time it cites it.
Good practice	Not law anywhere — guidance, a professional body or house practice. Labelled separately so nobody mistakes it for a rule.
Temperatures	Always in °C with °F in parentheses, so the same page works on both sides of the Atlantic.

The restaurant in the examples is Acacia — a fictional restaurant, the same one as in the other books in this collection. No country is named in the examples; the people and events are made up to make the rules concrete.

What the book covers

Fifteen chapters. Thirty-three procedures. Twenty-eight forms.

The book is written as a 30-day onboarding plan: what a new hire is given on day one, what they read in the first week, and what is signed after thirty days. Every chapter ends with a summary, a self-check and its sources. Procedures sit in the chapters, right after the section they belong to; all the forms are together in Appendix A, one per A4 page.

The fifteen chapters, with the procedures and forms in each
No.	Chapter	Procedures	Forms
Part I · Welcome to the team
01	How to use this manual	—	1.1 Read and understood
02	Day one, week one, the first 30 days	P 2.1	2.1 Onboarding plan · 30 days · 2.2 Day-one checklist · 2.3 The 30-day review
03	Roles and who decides what	—	3.1 Who is who and who decides — authority map
04	House rules	P 4.1 · P 4.2	4.1 Shift swap
Part II · Safety first
05	Personal hygiene and health	P 5.1 – P 5.3	5.1 Symptom report before your shift · 5.2 Returning to work after illness
06	Food safety at your station	P 6.1 – P 6.5	6.1 Receiving deliveries · 6.2 Fridge and freezer temperatures · 6.3 Cooling cooked food
07	Allergens	P 7.1 – P 7.3	7.1 Dish allergen card · 7.2 Allergen order trail
08	Workplace safety	P 8.1 – P 8.4	8.1 Injury or near-miss report · 8.2 Monthly first aid and extinguisher check
Part III · The kitchen
09	Opening and prep	P 9.1 · P 9.2	9.1 Kitchen opening checklist · 9.2 Station prep list
10	The line during service	P 10.1 · P 10.2	10.1 Waste log
11	Cleaning, dish room and closing	P 11.1 · P 11.2	11.1 Cleaning plan · 11.2 Kitchen closing checklist
Part IV · Dining room and bar
12	Steps of service	P 12.1 – P 12.3	12.1 Dining room opening checklist · 12.2 Dining room closing checklist
13	The bar	P 13.1 · P 13.2	13.1 Bar check
14	The register, money and the guest who complains	P 14.1 · P 14.2	14.1 Register handover · 14.2 Guest complaint log
Part V · The team’s rhythm
15	Briefings, handovers, checklists and moving up	P 15.1 · P 15.2	15.1 Pre-shift briefing · 15.2 Shift handover · 15.3 Monthly review

15 chapters · 33 procedures · 28 formsAppendices A–E

Appendices A–E

A · All forms — all 28 forms from the book, by chapter, each on its own A4 page
B · Limits for this restaurant — temperatures and times in one place: EU law, the US Food Code column, good practice and a column for your own HACCP plan
C · Important numbers and responsible people — filled in by the owner or a manager before a new hire starts
D · Glossary — the words you hear from your first day, and where each one is explained in full
E · Sources and regulations in one place — every source in the book, grouped, with the chapters that use it

The same shape on every page

In this chapter — what is coming, before you start reading
At Acacia — the same fictional restaurant, from the first page to the last
For the owner and manager — the decisions that are not the employee’s to make
Watch out and Check yourself — the mistake that is actually made, and a yes/no check
In short and Sources for this chapter — the chapter in a few lines, then where every claim comes from
Procedures all read the same way: who · when · what you need · steps · never · if something goes wrong

Look inside

Written for the pass and the wall, not for the shelf.

Each procedure fits on one page, so it can be printed and put up where the work happens. Each form fits on one A4 page, so it can be filled in with a pen during the shift. Click a page to see it full size.

Chapter 5 opening page, Personal hygiene and health: a dark page with the chapter contents and the number to remember, 48 hours — **Chapter 5 · Personal hygiene and health**Every chapter opens the same way: what is coming, and the one number to remember.

Procedure P 5.2, A cut during your shift: who, when, what you need, the steps, what you never do and what to do if something goes wrong — **P 5.2 · A cut during your shift**A procedure on one page: who, when, what you need, the steps, and what never to do.

Figure 6.1, The numbers you measure: a thermometer with chilling, storage and hot-holding temperatures in degrees Celsius and Fahrenheit, each marked with the rule it comes from — **Figure 6.1 · The numbers you measure**Chilling, storage and hot holding — in °C and °F, each number with the rule behind it.

Page from Chapter 12 with the framed story At Acacia, Day 18, Four tables, under the rule about a guest waiting for a table — **At Acacia · Day 18**The same fictional restaurant and the same team, from the first page to the last.

Form 8.2, Monthly first aid and extinguisher check, with a month-by-month grid to fill in — **Form 8.2 · First aid and extinguishers**One of the 28 forms: a single A4 page, filled in with a pen, month by month.

What comes with the book

The book, and everything you need to run it.

One download, ten folders. The forms to print and to fill in on screen, the workbooks that do the counting, the Word templates you write your own house rules into, the posters for the wall and short videos that show how each workbook works.

01

The book

The Staff Operations Manual, 2026 edition, PDF, 261 pages: five parts, 15 chapters, appendices A–E and 28 forms, every rule labelled EU, USA or good practice.

02

Printable forms

All 28 forms from Appendix A, Form 1.1 to Form 15.3, each on its own A4 page, with a cover and a page list.

03

Fillable forms

The same forms as a PDF you fill in on screen, in A4 and in US Letter.

04

Six Excel workbooks

Onboarding and training · temperatures and deliveries · allergens · cleaning, opening and closing · waste · the shift (briefing, handover, register, monthly review). White cells with blue text are yours to fill in; shaded cells calculate themselves.

05

The Acacia workbook

The first 30 days at Acacia, day by day: what happened and which form was filled in. At the end, a blank sheet for your own first 30 days.

06

Three Word templates

House rules · authority map (Form 3.1) · onboarding plan and job descriptions by role. Edit them in Word for your own premises and print them.

07

AI prompts

Ready-made prompts for adapting the manual to your own premises, chapter by chapter. AI proposes, a human approves. In PDF and Word.

08

Monthly review kit

The monthly review of the manual and of training: the agenda, what gets checked, the change log and the version table. In PDF and Word.

09

Six A3 wall posters

Handwashing · the 14 allergens · burns and cuts · fryer oil fire · the steps of service · temperatures. Separately and in one combined PDF.

10

Seven video guides

Short videos with subtitles and no sound, one for each Excel workbook, plus a PDF with the list and a description.

The workbooks run in Microsoft Excel (2019 or newer), in the free Google Sheets and in LibreOffice; every sheet is set up to print on A4. Each one has an Instructions sheet, blank working sheets and an “Example — Acacia” sheet. A “Start here” PDF comes with the download: what is in each folder, and in what order a new hire and an owner should use it.

Price

One book, one price, the whole team.

Bought once. The licence covers your business and your team: print it, change it and use it as you like, on every one of your premises.

E-book · 2026 edition

The Staff Operations Manual

261 pages, PDF, with every tool that goes with it.

~~€39~~€27.30−30% for early buyers · one-time payment

Get the book

What you get

The book, 2026 edition, PDF, 261 pages
33 procedures, each on one page
28 forms to print on A4
The same forms to fill in on screen, in A4 and US Letter
Six Excel workbooks and the Acacia workbook
Three Word templates: house rules, authority map, onboarding plan
AI prompts and the monthly review kit, in PDF and Word
Six A3 wall posters, separately and in one PDF
Seven video guides for the workbooks, with subtitles and no sound
A licence for your business and your team, on every one of your premises

Checkout is through Gumroad: once you pay, the download link arrives in your inbox right away. Gumroad opens soon — until then, this page is a preview of the book.

Who it is for

For the team that does the work. And the person who answers for it.

This book is for you if

you are starting a new job in a kitchen, dining room, bar or dish room and want to know how it is done here, not guess
you run a restaurant and every new hire is trained from scratch, differently each time
you are a head chef, dining room manager or shift lead and you mentor new people
you want one book the whole team reads, with the forms it is actually filled in on
you work under EU rules, under US rules, or you hire people who have worked under both

What this book does not do

it is not a legal document and it does not replace a lawyer or an inspector — rules differ from country to country, and they change
it does not replace the text of a regulation: it quotes the sources and names them, so you can read the current text yourself
it is not a HACCP plan — that is a separate book, HACCP Code
it does not give you US law state by state: where a rule is set by the states, it says so and sends you to your own state or local health department
it does not fill itself in — the owner or a manager writes in the house rules, the limits and the authority map before a new hire starts
it is not a cookbook, and it is not a training certificate

About the author

Srđan Mihailović

More than thirty years in hospitality: in top hotel kitchens and restaurants and on cruise ships. He has worked and lived on four continents and knows both sides of the business — the one at the stove and the one at the owner’s desk.

He is the founder and owner of Gostíno.ai, an agency that helps hospitality businesses run their work with digital tools.

The same job is bound by the same problems everywhere.

Questions

Before you choose

What format is the book?

A 261-page PDF, A4, 2026 edition. It reads on a phone, tablet or computer. The forms print on A4; the fill-in forms for the computer come in A4 and US Letter.

What language is it in?

American English. Temperatures are given in °C with °F in parentheses, so the same page works in a European and in an American kitchen.

Does it apply where I work?

The book covers European Union and United States rules. Each rule carries a label — EU, USA or good practice — and where an American rule is set by the states, the book says so and sends you to your own state or local health department. The FDA Food Code is named for what it is: a model code that applies where your state or locality has adopted it, not federal law. If you work somewhere else, check what applies where you are.

Is Acacia a real restaurant?

No. Acacia is a fictional restaurant, the same one as in the other books in this collection. The people and events are made up to make the rules concrete, and the examples show the method — they do not promise a result.

Can I change it for my own restaurant?

Yes, that is what it is built for. The house rules, the authority map and the onboarding plan come as Word templates you write your own into, and the AI prompts show how to adapt the manual chapter by chapter — AI proposes, a human approves. The Word templates are not legal documents; check them before you hand them to the team.

Do I need Excel?

No. The workbooks run in Microsoft Excel 2019 or newer, in the free Google Sheets and in LibreOffice. Shaded cells are locked so a formula is not deleted by accident, and the lock has no password.

Does the whole team need a copy?

No. The licence covers your business and your team: print it, change it and use it freely on every one of your premises. It may not be resold or shared outside your business.

How do I get the book after I buy it?

Checkout is through Gumroad: once you pay, the download link arrives in your inbox right away. Gumroad opens soon — until then, this page is a preview of the book.

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