If you’re an owner or a manager you’ll know how stressful it can be to oversee staff, customers and the financial side of things all at the same time. Here are three ways to control your outgoings without compromising the quality of your product.
Weigh In
A simple way to keep an eye on spending is to set strict portion sizes, especially for expensive ingredients such as protein. That way, with a good inventory system, you’ll be able to work out exactly how many portions are available without any wasted product.
Controlling a dish’s size has the added bonus of making a dish more consistent. Customers who fall in love with the salmon en croute, for example, will know exactly what they’re getting every time they visit.
Keep a Balance
We all want our customers to have a wide variety of menu options available to them, and websites such as StarChefs are great places to find inspiration for new menu items. You can also use this variety to your advantage to cut costs by filling your menu with a mix of high and low cost dishes. It’s no surprise that a carbohydrate-heavy dish will be cheaper than one that is mostly protein.
Tastes vary, and customers don’t always choose high cost items. For one thing, the difference in ingredient price is likely to be reflected in the menu price, and some customers will happily choose a lower cost menu item to save money.
Ask your Front of House team to help you by recommending lower cost dishes, or explaining low cost specials.
Storing Produce
There is no point buying great ingredients if you aren’t going to store them well. For foods that don’t need to be in a cooler keeping them on Boltless Shelving in order of date will help you not throw food away which costs money in the long run. To get your shelving head over to www.rackzone.ie/shelving/industrial-residential-shelving Vegetables, for example, should be kept at between 34°- 40°F (1°-4°C) to ensure they have as long a shelf life as possible. By neglecting fridges and freezers you could find yourself spending hundreds every year on wasted vegetables.
Make sure your commercial fridge is energy efficient and keeping a steady temperature. Most retailers sell appliances with glass or plastic doors to help keep an eye on stock.. This allows for easy inventory taking, and ensures that no food is forgotten about and wasted.
By making just a few small changes to your catering process, you can boost your profit significantly, without increasing prices.
