Notes on Purchasing and Receiving

Keeping extensive notes on your business day may seem tedious, but it will help your food costs and planning. Takes notes of what the day was like, what the weather was like, etc. Then, if you want to know if your restaurant is going to be insanely crowded a sunny sunday after the fourth of july, you simply have to look it up. It's not an exact science as people have frustratingly proved time and again to be irrational, unpredictable creatures. Other, larger factors may be at play as well. For instance, at my new job, we researched the aforementioned sunny Sunday and the year before had done ten times the business as we were doing that day. This because of the economic slump when people are loathe to pay astronomical prices for luxury cooking items.

Key terms: par stock - what you need to have on hand to make it from one delivery to the next with minimal overstock. Overstock of perishable items means possible spoilage, overstock of non-perishable means money lost due to excessive storage space being used. Use aforementioned notes to forecast par stock needs.

AP weight -(As Purchased) the weight of an item before trimming
EP weight - (Edible Portion) the weight of an item after all trimming and prep is finished
AP/EP - dividing the EP by the AP gives you a percentage yeild. Always purchase according to what you need as EP. So, say you need 6 pounds of carrots EP and have an AP/EP of 80% then you have to buy 7.5 pounds of carrots AP.

Portion control - there are a few reasons to be a stickler about portion control.
1. Consistency - everyone cook's idea of what a portion should be is going to be different. say you have mashed potatoes and gravy and one night it has a scant dollop of gravy on a heap of potatoes and the next it looks like gravy soup with potato garnish. The customer isn't going to be happy and won't return. Give your cooks a standard size serving ladel to serve it with and it will be consistent.
2. Food costs - How can you estimate your par stock or food costs without having a set cost for each menu item? Also, if an item is getting too expensive (food cost fluctuates with the seasons) it may behoove you to adjust the portion size.
3. Food costs II - If a certain menu item consistently comes back half eaten, make the portion smaller.

Menu Planning

Here's some ground rules for planning your menus to make the best of what you purchase. Following these rules lowers your food costs. It's also fun (in a nerdy culinary way) to stare at menus at nice restaurants and try to see what other uses they have for those crazy mushrooms used for the special.

1. Use all edible trim (this means using mushroom stems to flavor stocks, meat trim to make soups, etc. Perhaps this is why they have soups of the day?)
2. Don't add an item to the menu unless you can use the trim
3. Plan production to avoid leftovers (unless you're at home, then leftovers are fantastic)
4. Plan ahead for use of leftovers (like if you make roast chickens one night, have chicken salad sandwiches on the menu for the next day using leftover roast chickens)
5. Avoid minimum use perishable ingredients (can your super special perishable ingredient be substituted for something you can use in several dishes without loss of quality?)

Another thing I learned from watching Kitchen Nightmares is that you don't want your guests going home with food. This skyrockets your food costs. If possible, trim portion sizes, perhaps even lower the menu costs, until most plates come back empty or nearly empty. This also allows them room for dessert. How many times have I lusted after the passion fruit creme brulee only to find myself stuffed at the end of the meal and unable to fathom eating another bite?