10 Ways to Reduce Food Cost

Ultimately there are only two ways to make a food business more profitable: you can increase sales or reduce cost. In a depressed economic environment increasing sales is challenging. The following tips are proven methods of reducing food cost:

1. Measure It

“You can’t control what you don’t measure”. Regular stock takes provide a basis for the calculation of the “Cost of Goods Sold” (CoGS). CoGS are calculated using the following simple formula.

Opening Value + Purchases – Closing Value = CoGS

The CoGS as a percentage of Sales is a valuable measure for food cost control.

A spreadsheet can be used as a easy and cost effective solution for calculating Opening and Closing stock values and tracking purchases.

2. Shop Around

It is important to build a relationship with your suppliers, howeverit is also healthy to compare prices with competitors to ensure you are getting a good deal. Keeping a finger on the pulse of market prices by regular price comparisons can reduce food cost.

3. In-House Preparation

Preparing food in-house rather than purchasing pre-prepared ingredients can reduce food cost. There are a wide variety of pre-prepared ingredients available, from pre-cut vegetables to pre-made sauces. Typically pre-prepared ingredients are substantially more expensive than their raw ingredients.

There are a number of considerations when comparing pre-prepared with in-house preparation including:

• Labor cost
• Availability of suitably skilled staff
• Quality

An Overview of Different Restaurant Types

author: Monica Parpal 

There are many different restaurant types out there. New restaurants open all the time, and concepts vary from pizza chains to fine sushi restaurants to breakfast cafes and even restaurants that specialize in peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. Despite the broad range of restaurant concepts, most are classified by one of three major restaurant types, including full-service, fast-casual and quick-service. This article details the challenges and opportunities operators face within each restaurant type.

Full-Service Restaurants

Full-service restaurants encapsulate the old-fashioned idea of going out to eat. These restaurants invite guests to be seated at tables, while servers take their full order and serve food and drink. Full-service restaurants are typically either fine dining establishments or casual eateries, and in addition to kitchen staff, they almost always employ hosts or hostesses, servers and bartenders. Two standard types of full-service operations include fine dining and casual dining restaurants, discussed below.

Fine Dining

Fine dining restaurants top the ladder when it comes to service and quality. Fine dining restaurants usually gain perceived value with unique and beautiful décor, renowned chefs and special dishes. Listed below are some of the features, challenges and advantages of running a fine dining restaurant.

• Prices. Prices for entrées are often $20 or more.
• Service style. Service style for fine dining restaurants is top-notch. Well-trained and experienced servers and sommeliers attend guests, providing excellent knowledge of food and wines.
• Atmosphere. The atmosphere in a fine dining establishment is one of the keys to its perceived value. The lights need to soften the mood, the music should reflect the concept yet not overpower the guests' conversations, and the décor should add an elegant and unique perspective. Fine dining establishments strive to create an overall exceptional dining experience for guests.

Restaurant Training Checklists Are Important Tool

quoted from John Foley

Training tools and aids make the difference between education and knowledge. Education, the act of imparting information, isn't difficult for those who are familiar with the subject. Yet, learning the subject may take more than a quick training session.  Knowledge comes from learning and retaining what was taught and is expected to be clutched. Simply, training tools make the difference between learning and forgetting.

Every restaurant staff deserves a variety of tools to help make them successful and to perfect their professionalism. These tools need to be strategically posted throughout the restaurant for the staff to reference, throughout their shift when they are not sure about a certain procedure.

I couldn't help notice the recipe card for one of the company's drinks. The well defined card (pictured, right) outlined the steps to drink perfection. I have always wondered how the baristas can create drinks that are being called out faster than a Gatling gun without missing a beat, pump, or steam wand. The refresher recipe card explains a lot.

Now to create these cards once the game has begun is not an easy task. In the perfect world they would have been developed and filed on your computer for ease of editing. But that most likely was only a dream that ended just after the doors opened.

And, if you do have them placed throughout the restaurant, now is the perfect time to check and edit the cards.

Here are 10 tips on training tools.

1. Plating consistency is imperative. Plating pictures help.  Photos of each plate, including salad, appetizer, entree, or dessert should be placed on a board and labeled near the plating station. Styling the food on the plate exactly the way the chef created it makes this an efficient way to achieve consistency. 
2. Coffee recipes and tea service. Recipes for coffee drinks and the procedure for serving tea – (one bag or a selection; a pot of hot water or just a cup) are all steps that need to b defined. 
3. Dessert plating. use a picture, especially for daily dessert specials. Also define the amount of ice cream and whipped cream to be served. 
4. Opening checklists. Even the smallest restaurant is too large to run without an opening checklist. Laminate them and have the assigned server initial each task. You can divide up the checklist. 
5. Closing checklists. If you are so slow you don't need a closing checklist to close, find a real estate agent. Closing procedures save you money. Turn down the air conditioning, turn off the kitchen fan, turn off the stereo are all music to the accountant's ear. 
6. Server station setups. New servers forget to set up the server station with pens, water pitchers, coffee cups, saucers and other items that break the rhythm of the dining room if they are not around. 
7. Bar setup. Bar customers hate to wait. Describe how many limes, lemons, olives need to be cut diced, sliced, and kept under the bar. Explain fruit and juice rotation. It may sound elementary today, but wait until the bartender doesn't show up, and Steve the server has to stand in for Johnny the bartender. 
8. Cooler map. If nothing else this will alleviate any violations from the health department when the inspector realizes the raw chicken does go on the bottom shelf. With today's computer programs, designing and designating cooler shelf space is a breeze. Define rotation on the sheet and don't forget to post an inventory checklist in the cooler. 
9. Glass stacking. Make sure the bussers and the dish know how many, where they go and ho to check for spots. 
10. Batch and deposit checklist. Your manager is sick. You're on vacation. And the deposits have stopped going into the bank from American Express. Nobody had the batching instructions. Go over the deposit procedures with one or two trusted employees, and leave the instructions in a drawer, just in case. It will make that vacation a lot more enjoyable. But then, what restaurant owner can take a vacation? 

The World's Best Airline Awards 2013

Ranking 1 to 20

The World Airline Awards are a primary benchmarking tool for Passenger Satisfaction levels of airlines throughout the world, delivering a unique survey format based on analysis of business and leisure travellers, across all cabin travel types (First Class, Business Class, Premium Economy Class and Economy class passengers).

Air travellers completed an online survey questionnaire about their experience with airlines on the ground and onboard, during a 10-month period. The survey measures passenger satisfaction across more than 40 key performance indicators of airline front-line product and service - including check-in, boarding, onboard seat comfort, cabin cleanliness, food, beverages, inflight entertainment and staff service. The Survey covered over 200 airlines, from the largest international airlines to smaller domestic carriers.

1	Emirates
2	Qatar Airways
3	Singapore Airlines
4	ANA All Nippon Airways
5	Asiana Airlines
6	Cathay Pacific Airways
7	Etihad Airways
8	Garuda Indonesia
9	Turkish Airlines
10	Qantas Airways
11	Lufthansa
12	EVA Air
13	Virgin Australia
14	Malaysia Airlines
15	Thai Airways
16	Swiss Int'l Air Lines
17	Korean Air
18	Air New Zealand
19	Hainan Airlines
20	Air Canada

The World's 50 Best Restaurants Award 2013

list from San Pellegrino

The World's 50 Best Restaurants list has been announced, and the big news is of course that Noma's three year reign as the number one restaurant in the world has come to an end. That title now goes to El Celler de Can Roca in Girona, Spain. Noma holds tight at second, while third goes to Massimo Bottura's Osteria Francescana.

World's 50 Best also announced they'll be doing Latin America's 50 Best Restaurants in September in Lima; more details on that can be found in a press release below.

1. El Celler de Can Roca, Girona, Catalonia, Spain 
2. Noma, Copenhagen 
3. Osteria Francescana, Modena, Italy 
4. Mugaritz, San Sebastián, Spain 
5. Eleven Madison Park, New York City 
6. D.O.M, Sao Paulo, Brazil 
7. Dinner by Heston Blumenthal, London 
8. Arzak, San Sebastián, Spain 
9. Steirereck Restaurant, Vienna, Austria 
10. Vendôme, Bergisch Gladbach, Germany

10 Ways to Save Money at Your Restaurant

Everyone is looking for ways to save money these days. Restaurants are no exception. The good news is that there are a lot of quick steps you can take to save you money, either through cutting energy use or reducing spoilage. A lot of these tips are the same things your mom told you growing up.

1. Switch to energy efficient light bulbs. Subway recently switched all their light bulbs to energy efficient bulbs in all of their 2000 US franchise locations. Switching to an energy efficient light bulb can save up to $22 per bulb per year. This can add up to quite a savings over time. Also keep lights off when you don’t need them. If you don’t start serving lunch until 11 o’clock there is no reason to turn the dining room lights on until then. 
2. Only run the dishwasher when it is completely full. This cuts down on water usage, soap and energy costs.
3. Soak the dishes. Rather than running hot water over them to loosen dried food, fill a sink and let them soak.
4. Install low flow faucets and toilets. This will save between 20 to 40 percent of water usage.
5. Turn down the thermostat. You can still be comfortable at 68 degrees rather than 72 degrees.
6. Switch from plastic to glass. Green restaurants have been following this tip for years. If restaurant uses disposable plates, flatware or cups, considering a one time investment for china, glass and silver. You will save on garbage (good for the environment as well as the restaurant budget) and save money over time.
7. Invest in energy efficient appliances. This is a lot easier said than done, especially in a sluggish economy. But consider that many states offer restaurants tax credits and other incentives for switching to energy efficient appliances. Plus, the savings on an energy efficient appliance can often pay for itself within a year or two.
8. Trim down your menu. Track sales of every menu item and remove menu items that aren’t selling. Also look for ways to cross utilize menu items, using one item for multiple dishes. This will help reduce food spoilage as well as keep food cost under control.
9. Take advantage of e-marketing. More and more people turn to Google to look for restaurants than the yellow pages. Take advantage of all the internet has to offer, from your own website to online advertising. Many companies offer inexpensive e-newsletters you can send to customers for a fraction of traditional prints ads.
10. Train your staff. Teach your staff to sort recyclables, turn off lights, let you know if there is a leaky faucet in the wait station. Ask them to bring in their own take-home containers instead of using the restaurant take-outs.

Why Fast Food Is Not Cheaper Than Healthy Food

quoted from Tim Harland, MD - Board certified internist and founder of Dr Gourmet.com

I get a lot of questions during lectures from people wanting to know how they can eat better when eating healthy is so expensive. They base their questions on claims that unhealthy choices are cheaper. For instance, I saw a recent news story where the reporter walked around Wal-Mart and looked at the value of foods based on the measure of calories per dollar. This is really nothing more than a cute parlor game to say that one dollar will purchase close to 1,000 calories of candy bars but only a single large apple, because it doesn't tell us anything about what we get for our money. Calories are certainly an important part of our diet and weight control, but it is the quality of those calories that matters to our health.

The conclusion often from studies and news reports is that the subsidies on more calorie-dense foods are the culprit Because our government provides funding to farmers growing calorie-dense products like corn (which is processed into sugars) and beef, the typical fast food menu can be advertised as being "cheap, cheap, cheap," and candy bars can be sold for 33 cents each.

This is, however, one of the great myths about healthy eating -- ranking right up there with the fallacy that eating healthy doesn't taste good. I believe it's more economical to cook a fresh, healthy meal than to eat junk food.

The argument I hear most often is that it's cheaper to eat at McDonald's. After going to McDonald's recently and putting together a typical meal for four (mom, dad and two kids), I came up with a total of about $14.00 (I didn't actually buy anything, though). For that money, you get almost nothing of nutritive value, but bland white bread, greasy burgers and fries with a sugary soda.