Top 7 Tips to Food Cost Control

The tops seven tips for getting you food cost under control are:

Portion control and plate cost- You must understand the portions you are giving your
customers, what they expect for the price you are charging and HOW MUCH IT COSTS YOU
to plate the food. Now what you charge is as much supply and demand as it is the taste and
quality of the food. Have a standard ingredient list and portion per plate. Add the cost of each
ingredient and divide that buy what you charge. This leaves your cost as a percent.

Waste recording- You simply can not control your food cost if you don't know what is being
thrown in the trash. Also use the clear trash bags in your kitchen. This way you can see what is
going out the back door.

Accurate Sales Mix- This comes from your POS system. If you system is not capable of
recording each individual item you sell, GET ONE. The investment in one and its proper use will
pay for itself in no time.

Based on Sales Mix design a Par Stock- A Par Stock is simply a list of each ingredient and
how many it takes to hit a certain sales level. For example if your register shows you sold 300
pounds of ribs divide this into your sales. Let's say $27000. That leaves 90. What that means is
for every $90 in sales you are selling 1 pound of ribs on average.

Have a sales projection based on reality- This number requires the most thought and must be
based on real sales other wise you will have too much or too little food. You can build in buffers
for coupons, sales, advertising or anything else you think will impact sales. Like wise think about
negatives to sales such as weather, seasonal changes, events that pull people away from your
restaurant location or anything else that impacts you. Now with that project divide it by the
number you got in the par stock tip. If you plan on $32000 in sales and want to know how many
ribs to order divide the projection by $90. That means you need to order 355.5 lbs. Of course
order in whole cases and always round up.

Shop vendors, order and receive- Look for deals without compromising quality. Order what
your build to requires, less anything on hand. Make sure you or a trusted employee checks in the
order to make sure you get all on the invoice. Stop check cases for quality and weight.

Train and coach your entire staff- This is an ongoing effort in controlling food cost. Include
your serving staff as well, they can impact your food cost and over all profitability. Teach your
kitchen portion control, HACCP procedures and of course waste control. Teach your wait staff
suggestive selling and what to add to certain meals to balance the guest experience as well as
improve overall food cost.
Work every day at these tips and watch your costs steadily come down.

Restaurant Food Costing - Save Money and

Increase Profits
Every restaurant can benefit from proper food costing. Food costing is one of the most important
elements for making your restaurant more profitable. Costing out your food enables you to have
complete control over how much you spend on food and allows you to price your dishes for
maximum profit, as well as good value to your customer.

Typically, food costs should account for around 1/3 of a restaurant's expenses. The food cost
along with labor and overhead costs should account for more than 2/3 of the total expenses.
Above that is the profit the restaurant will generate. Since food costs are one of the highest
expenses for a restaurant, food costing is viewed as one of the best ways to increase profitability
for a restaurant who needs to generate more profits to stay in business.

There are a number of ways you can analyze and optimize your food costs. First, you can do this
manually, by thoroughly analyzing your food costs during a set period of time, usually a period
of several weeks or a month. Your statistics should then be analyzed against restaurant industry
average food costs to try and pinpoint areas of expense where your restaurant can improve.
Remember that all beverages should also be included in your food cost analysis. From there, you
should have a detailed report of all food purchases that were made in your restaurant during the
reporting period. You can then compare this to your food inventory costs for the same period.
You'll be able to calculate your total food cost and be able to make adjustments for inventory and
food costs. For an even more accurate analysis, try to conduct your reporting period over a
longer period of time. This will allow you to further reduce costs and maximize inventory and
overall profits.

Another way to calculate and optimize food costs is to use software. There are food costing
systems, as well as full scale restaurant inventory and management software packages that
include extensive food costing analysis and reporting. The reporting and calculation is
automatically done for you as inventory and sales are calculated. Cost Genie is one of the leading
software packages for this task and it's available at CostGenie.com.

Once you have analyzed your food costs and inventory, whether manually or via a software
package like Cost Genie, you can make adjustments to your business, including standardizing
your recipes, evaluating your purchases, minimizing spoilage and taking steps to streamline your
entire inventory and sales process.

The bottom line is that proper and detailed food costing for your restaurant means increased
profits and restaurant success.
The Most Crucial Things You Need to Know
Before Starting a Restaurant Business
Opening a restaurant or even having one can be such a fulfilling, rewarding and amazing venture
for most people. To enjoy the fruits of this venture, you must remember that starting up a
restaurant takes nothing but hard work. It is possible to have a very unique idea or concept,
perfect location and a brilliant business plan, but if you do not get the right restaurant equipment,
you can fail badly. We know that for this to happen, you need more than just proper management
and good staff. You must gather the best equipment you can afford at the front office and in the
kitchen. Meeting with your operational manager and head chef is actually the best way of
looking at the specific needs for your restaurant. Below are some of the most crucial commercial
kitchen appliances that an aspiring restaurant owner must have to start a restaurant.

Commercial kitchen appliances are much different from the normal kitchen appliances used in a
home. You must critically think of the space in your restaurant such as where your customers
will be served. You must think of the chairs, tables and other restaurant furniture. Also, think of
salt and pepper shakers, condiment dispensers; and glassware, silverware and paper goods,
among other things. If you plan to serve a specialty menu, then you will need to have a stock of
specific appliances. You will also require pans, pots, spoons, food service equipment and other
restaurant appliances.

A commercial refrigerator is crucial for any commercial kitchen. It will take up some good space
in your kitchen, but it will come in handy when handling perishable items. It will also come in
handy when storing raw eggs and meat that must be kept separate from other foods.

Furniture should not be neglected at this stage. Look for furniture that will fit into your kitchen
space, like counter installations, shelves and dish holders. You can get this information from
online shops and other restaurant equipment supply stores anywhere.

If you are not planning to run the restaurant on your own, you will require a good number of
other operational items, like a point-of-service system, cash registers and credit card processing
equipment. This operational restaurant equipment is crucial for accounts and transparency
purposes and if you wish your restaurant to run smoothly and efficiently. Plan to buy an
inventory control system, security surveillance system and a safe.

A point-of-sale system or cash register is very important and there are several brands one can
choose from, but you can just as easily get a programmed one with specific menu items with a
range of payment methods. The systems can also link multiple regions so that clients and hosts
can actually transmit orders to the restaurant kitchen without necessarily being there physically.

If you get the above tips in order, together with good co-operation from members of your staff,
you will be sure to have a successful restaurant venture and you will also have excellent profit
margins within a very short time.
Restaurant Design Guidelines
At times, excellent food and superior service is not enough for a restaurant to become a hit to
customers. Sometimes a good restaurant design is what is called for. The following are some
guidelines for creating that ambiance.

First of all, the owner or the restaurant manager should determine their target customers for this
restaurant. Do they have in mind the Class A, Class B, or Class C? Class A customers would be
those rich people who don't have to work to earn any money. Class B customers would be the
salaried professionals and educated workers. Class C customers would include people who do
manual labor.

Based on the target customers, create a setting that would speak to the customer. Is it formal or
casual? Determine also the budget for the design. Is it high-end, mid-scale, or budget? What sort
of ambiance do you want to project? Is it going to be a theme restaurant? What is the locale of
the site? Should the food being served match the setting? Does the budget of the design and
construction go with the expectations of the client?

The visual display must compliment each other thru texture, color, contrasting materials, seating,
and tabletops. Even the dishes, glassware, and the silver must contribute to the design. The visual
spectacle should enhance the experience of the guest. Design elements should mirror the
ambiance that is being intended as well as the expectations of the customer.

The bar and the kitchen work hand in hand. Make sure ample space is allocated for the servers to
move with ease. The pattern of traffic should not congest the staff and the customers. The drinks
should be served as quick as possible. The kitchen should follow the standards of culinary
requirements. The chef should be able to reach everything from his workstation.

With the use of screens, banquettes, and booths, partition large spaces into cozy, intimate
pockets. Grand architectural elements like columns and fireplaces should accentuate large airy
spaces. Eliminate emptiness and expand the sense of space with the use of mirrors. Plus, it is also
a great tool for observing people without invading their privacy.

Use dramatic lighting to highlight focal points. For effect, illuminate a piece of artwork, a wall of
unusual texture, or even the dining tables themselves. An example of this is bathing tabletops
with beams of light in a half-dark room. The diner's attention will be focused on the plate
presentation creating a sense of intimate space. High ceilings coupled with brightly lit spaces
suggest a sense of energy and vitality. Low ambient lighting from wall lamps or sconces can
create a cozier feel.
Good Customer Service For Your Restaurant
Is Good Business Practice

It is absolutely impossible to operate a successful restaurant without excellent customer service.

The best restaurants in the world have risen to the top of their industry by providing their
customers with exceptional food, elegant and trendy environments and most importantly,
incredible customer service.

It is a well-documented fact, that if a guest has a positive experience in a restaurant they will tell
between 40% and 60% of the people they meet about that experience. Conversely, a guest who
has a negative experience will tell almost 95% of the people they meet and will typically
describe the event in more detail. There is no simple way to calculate exactly how much revenue
is actually lost by bad, 'word-of-mouth' advertising, but it costs an average of 35% more money
to attract new customers to a restaurant than it does to attract prior guests.

While the quality of the food and the cleanliness of the restaurant are both extremely important
to guests, the level of service provided has the strongest influence on the guest's perception on
whether they have had a positive or negative experience.

Most people will return to a facility that provides mediocre food and great service, but will rarely
return to a restaurant that provides mediocre service and great food.

The guest's dining experience begins outside the restaurant with the appearance of the facility. A
clean and well-lit parking lot with clear signage will signal a restauranteur who takes pride in
their establishment.

Your customer's experience continues at the front door with how the host or hostess welcomes
them to the restaurant. Instead of forcing the guest to speak first, a welcoming and hospitable
host will welcome your guests to the restaurant with a smile and pleasant greeting.

From there an attentive and charming server sustains the hospitable climate and begins to
introduce the menu and the concept of the restaurant. A good server can provide suggestions,
explain menu ingredients and ultimately influence their guest's decisions.

Up-selling is a simple technique of selling additional items or increasing the value of items
purchased. A good server can provide the guest with a unique dining experience and increase the
check by 20 - 30%.

Once the order has been received, it's time for the server to become a project manager. Timing
the arrival of appetizers, drinks and meals can be an intense juggling act, but is essential to a
good guest experience.
Sometimes things don't go as planned and there can be delays and mistakes that will affect the
guest's meals or drinks. Ensuring that the guest is fully informed about the progress of their
dinner is the best way to smooth any 'wrinkles' and prevent any escalation.

It is just as important to make a positive impact when the guest is on their way out of the
restaurant as it was on the way in. Each team member should be trained to wish each guest a
good night and to thank them for coming to the restaurant. It provides a very powerful perception
of gratitude and welcome when 10 people wish you a good evening as you head for the door.

One of the more well-known, yet rarely practiced elements of exceptional guest service is team
service. Team Service suggests that 'the role of each person in a restaurant is to ensure that every
guest has a fantastic experience.' In practice, each server has a 'section' but is responsible to
maintain the service level of the entire restaurant. Essentially instead of having one server, each
table is serviced by the entire team.

The ultimate goal of any restaurant is to provide quality food in a creative environment,
presented with sincerity through exceptional service. The more a customer service program
'anticipates' the needs of its guests, the better equipped it is to deliver an exceptional dining
experience every time. By consistently providing exceptional customer service, a restaurant
virtually assures its own success.

In an ever-changing and continuously-evolving industry, one constant remains. The better the
level of service you provide to your guests, the more likely it is that they, and anyone they know,
will continue to return.

The Do's and Don'ts of Menu Printing For

Restaurants

Using printed menus is one of the effective ways of promoting a restaurant. The prints help
convince diners to taste or order the foods that you offer; thus, boosting sales for your food
business. Learn the best practices in creating your promotional prints and come up with a better
strategy. You should also learn other companies' mishaps in printing and learn from these
mistakes.

1. What You Should Do When Printing Menus

* Keep in mind that your printed menus should tell customers what they should buy. Diners eat
in your restaurants because they trust that you will prepare great meals for them. Take advantage
of this by recommending your best dishes. In your print, highlight your best food items - this
should be your specialty.

* Use creative copy. Be sure to write creative and effective copy in the section names and
descriptions of the meals that you offer. Uniqueness and creativity will attract more people to
dine in.

* Make it easy for customers to decide and find the meals that they prefer. Your menus should
have different sections and sub-sections to specify the foods being offered such as low-calorie
items, sizzling food selection, desserts, main dishes, beverages, and appetizers.

* Tell customers to ask for help. Your restaurant prints, as mentioned earlier, are more than a list
of food. Tell your diners to ask for help from your staff when they need suggestions or have
questions about the meals being served.

* Add value. For take-out and delivery prints, add coupons for your customers to use next time
they order. You can have inserts like brochures or flyers that provide information on a specific
promotional discount.

2. The Don'ts of Restaurant Menu Printing

* Don't focus on the prices. Though menus should have prices for customers' reference, do not
give so much emphasis on it. Customers should based their choices on the taste of the food you
offer. People will start to factor the price when deciding what to order; usually end up skimping
on most meals.

* Don't skimp on images. Use appetizing images and photos on your prints. You don't need to
include photo for each and every meal though as the print will feel cluttered and crowded.
Instead, just include photos of your best-sellers or items with the highest profit margins.

* Avoid using generic words to name your food items. Do not be contented with putting names
such as salads, desserts, sandwiches, etc. Instead come up with descriptive ways to present the
foods you offer. You can use, for example, "garden fresh delights" for salads.

* Don't skimp on printing. Restaurant prints should look professional and enticing, home printers
will just not be enough. Look for a printing company that can give you professional quality -
great design, sturdy, and durable materials.

You have to keep in mind that printed menus are not just materials for your diners to see when
choosing what to order. These prints can also be taken home, stuck on refrigerators for reference,
or be stuffed in drawers. That being said, you need to know the right things to do and what to
avoid when printing and designing restaurant menus.