RES TAU R AN T

B AC K OF
H O US E G U I DE
As much as friendly servers, well-designed decor, and reasonable menu prices can affect your
guest experience, nothing can make or break it more than the food.

As a restaurateur, you know all the components involved in turning raw materials into a finished
product. The quality of ingredients, the integrity of the staff, and the consistency of portions and
preparation all play a role. But that’s not all.

A successful restaurant kitchen is directly impacted by the amount of dedication and leadership
- or lack thereof - that managers demonstrate. Creating and adhering to a winning system results
in intangible business value. Your loyal guests know they can expect the same, unbeatable meal
every time.

This ebook will help you develop that back of house system to ensure quality and quantity in the
kitchen.

• First, we’re going to cover the importance of the hiring process so you can fill the back of your
house with trusted, passionate individuals.
• Second, we’ll help you set up a process for organization and give you the tools to make kitchen
checklists for your staff.
• Next, we’ll highlight the best practices for restaurant inventory and provide you with a par
sheet template.
• Finally, we’ll connect you with the best recipe card templates on the internet to help ensure
consistent meal prep in your kitchen.
By the end of this guide, you’ll be equipped with the best materials for kitchen innovation,
consistency, and profitability.
KITCHEN HIRING
R E A D MOR E
Hiring remains the top challenge to modern restaurant owners,
according to the 2017 Restaurant Success Report. So let’s take You can also read up on the
a look at how to hire the right players for your kitchen. topic with these relevant posts
on the Toast Blog:
When interviewing to stock your kitchen with the best staff,
there are certain traits you’ll want to screen for. Hire the Best: Creating
Value-Driven Restaurant Job
• Calm under pressure: There’s already plenty of heat in the Descriptions
kitchen.
• Organized: Keep the back-of-house clean and consistent. 4 Things You Absolutely Must
Do Before Hiring a Restaurant
• Team-oriented: You’re only as strong as your weakest link.
Chef
• Experienced in the kitchen: Only hire a newbie if they
express excitement and enthusiasm for the role. 6 Restaurant Interview
Make sure other BOH team members - particularly your most Questions to Ask to Ensure You
trusted - interview every candidate. This way you’ll have the Hire Only the Best
input of those who will be working first-hand with the new
Restaurant Staffing: 7 Keys to
hire.
Attract Top Talent

For more tools on building an outstanding kitchen The 5 Real Reasons You’re
team, download our Restaurant Hiring Kit. Losing Restaurant Staff
K I T C H E N O R G A N I Z AT I O N
Once your restaurant is staffed with the best in the industry, it’s up to you to provide them with the resources they
need to do their jobs well.

For any role, checklists can be an incredibly useful tool to stay productive and organized. It’s important to note,
though, that checklists are incredibly useless if no one is utilizing them.

Make sure your managers know why it’s important for the staff to use checklists and are utilizing them in the
back of the house. It’s easy for things to get sloppy, so having leadership that enforces the ideas of process and
organization through checklists keeps everything - if you’ll humor us - in check.

B U I L DING KITCHEN OPENING CHECK LISTS BUILDING K ITCH E N CLOSI N G CH ECK L I ST S

For opening checklists, document everything that is second
nature to the first arrival on a shift. Do they turn the ovens
on to preheat as soon as possible, or are there tasks that
take precedence? Do they check inventory in the morning,
or was this already done last night?
The closing checklist should be focused on
cleanliness and organizing for the opening shift.
Sweeping, mopping, surface cleaning, and food
storage should all be done the night before so that
the opening crew can get right to work.

It’s also helpful to break checklists down by section. There should also be an emphasis on safety.
Cleaning, organization, and general tasks are good places Something left on overnight that could be
to start. hazardous or any food left improperly stored could
lead to huge health and safety concerns.

DOW N LOA D OU R TE M P LAT E The closing checklist should also be broken down
by section so employees can divvy up their closing
TO GET S TA RTED → tasks systematically.
K I T C H E N I N V E N T O RY
Every bit of variance in your restaurant food costs directly
impacts your bottom line. Let’s say you do $1,000,000
in sales per year. If 5% of your food inventory cost
is unaccounted for, this means you’re missing out on
$50,000.

To minimize these losses, embrace inventory tracking.

There are many helpful inventory management solutions to

make this task easier, but if you’re looking for a quick fix, a
par sheet should do the job.

W H AT I S PAR LEVEL?

A par sheet is a tool back-of-house managers can use to compare actual sitting inventory with required sitting inventory.
Setting par levels is determining how much stock of one particular item you always want to have on hand in your restaurant.

For example, if you’re a sub shop and go through 100 subs a day, you’ll want to make sure you always have enough rolls
for those 100 subs, plus a few extras to account for mistakes, bigger orders, or emergencies. That said, maybe your par for
bread rolls each day is 120 rolls. If you order bread by the dozen, your par for bread would be 12 dozen units to have in-
house at all times.

Remember your inventory will be restocked at different frequencies. While bread may be dropped off every morning, you
may only get meats or cold cuts twice a week, or drinks every week. When setting pars, set levels to reflect the frequency
of supply deliveries.
H OW TO S ET UP YOUR PAR LEV E L SHE E TS

Refer to the sample par level sheet provided with this guide to
help you set up your restaurant’s par.

First, do a quick survey of all of your food items and determine

the amount you always want to have on hand. This should be
the average amount of each item you go through until the next CLICK TO-
delivery plus a bit of just-in-case inventory. You never want to run
out of something, but stocking your walk-ins with too much food DOWNLOA D-
that will go bad by the time it is used is a recipe for disaster.
THE PA R -
Record these par levels in the “par level” column after separating
each ingredient by produce, meat, etc., or by the food supplier if SHE E T-
you have more than one.
TE MPLATE -
In the “amount in store” column, leave the cells blank. If you print
out or re-use this sheet, this column will be for recording your
end-of-day quantities.

If your restaurant requires any extra par for events, bad weather,
catering, double orders, etc. record those in their respective cells.

When you subtract the quantities from each “amount in store”

line from their respective “par level” line and, if applicable, add
any additional par in the other columns, you will be left with the
inventory needed to be ordered.

Now, managers have a one-stop solution: a single column to allow

for simple ordering from each supplier.
COOKING & QUALITY CONTROL
One of the best ways to strengthen inventory control is through portioning.

Without the right portioning protocols, chefs and line cooks can easily throw “what looks right” onto the grill or into
the bowl, only to be robbing a restaurant of its profit. This throws off inventory forecasting, sales reporting, and
customer expectations.

The answer to this problem is the tried and true recipe card. Recipe cards simplify the portioning process down into
plain language. If your line cook second guesses a quantity, they can double check the card instead of tossing an extra
dollar’s worth of chicken on the grill without approval.

The big takeaway here: make your recipe cards as detailed as possible. Follow the “hit by a bus” philosophy - if your
head chef gets hit by a bus and is out of commission for a few months, make sure the kitchen can run just the same.

CLICK TO
DOWNLOA D
THE R E CIPE
CA R D
TE MPLATE
 CONCLUSION
Without a smooth-running kitchen, it’s basically impossible to have a smooth-running restaurant.

That’s why every step in the planning and running of your kitchen is imperative. It starts before day one with
aggressive hiring plans.

To keep your staff organized and productive, it’s best to use tools like opening/closing checklists, par sheets,
and recipe cards to leave nothing to chance. When you’ve got the best minds in the industry working the
back of the house equipped with the tools and systems to get the job done, you’re one step closer to a
successful restaurant.

C HE C K OU T TH ES E F R E E TO O LS F O R A N E V E N BE TTE R
RE S TAU RA N T KITC H E N !

Restaurant Food Cost Calculator
Monitor your back-of-house costs with this free tool.
Compare your costs with those of other restaurants in
your area to develop more competitive price points.
Restaurant Chef Tips: 21 Kitchen Hacks from the
Experts
We asked 21 of the country’s most successful chefs
for their top kitchen management tips.

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A B OU T

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