Food Cost... revisited!

:chef: what works for one may not work for another, every business is different and as well personalities, to keep things simple and basic: i try to keep my inventory down, no waste, everything that goes in the garbage is money thrown away, watch your portions, as in any business the cost must be passed on to the consumer, minimum wage went up here as well as utilities, it gets passed on, food and labor costs seem to fall in line when the volume is there, this is just my .02 cents worth

 

I have heard of a few things you can do to cut food costs.

1. You can set up an employee lunch or an employee meal budget (im not sure exactly if that IS what it's called ) By setting this up some folks have said that employees do not graze on your product as much.

2. Conduct a daily/weekly inventory at the beginning and end of the work day. Cuts down on theft ....supposedly.

3. Portion Control

4. Make sure the delivery people are giving you top quality product

5. Try not to overbuy

6. Make sure your storage equipment is working properly (a broken refrigerator or freezer can cost you more than what your employees could eat)

 

You mentioned that when the volume is there the food and labor cost fall in line.This will be true most of the time,so when it gets a little slow,change the menu. You may want to pick a theme for a specific time period of locally grown,and in season ingredients that are not only in the mines of your customers,but can be had at the cheapest prices,generally speaking.
If most of your customers seem to pick the labour intensive and costly items,reduce these to only a few,and add more local fish,chicken,pork dishes,this has worked for me over the years.

foodaholic

 

I look at my COGS- cost of goods sold as my target. COGS are the combination of labor cost and food cost. My approach for the last 15 years to tackle the problem was to MANAGE BOTH NUMBERS. At my current restaurant my COGS averaged less than 50% for last year, and that included management salaries. I find the easiest way to manage costs starts with good menu planning, then runs through training the staff on correct procedure, stressing FOOD MANUFACTURING vs. PURVEYING, and correct costing and waste management. Nothing new. But hey, it works. BTW, my FOOD COST when separated out, runs @18%...

 

I guess what I mean to say is knowing what to buy vs. knowing what to make in-house. A lot of chefs have a problem with this. I think it is the difference in those who can run a good food cost and those that struggle with it.