This article is legislative in nature. Its purpose is to outline a future direction for food and beverage management research and is permised on the assumption that such direction is lacking. To justify the premise it is necessary to make a preliminary detour to consider the nature and role of food and beverage management education and practice within hospitality management education and practice more generally.This will assist in understanding the key argument of the article, namely that there is very little in the way of research into food and beverage management perse, and that to establish an effective research agenda requires understanding of a wider food and beverage literature.