22/01/2018
TOP TEN FOOD COST ISSUES
Who is in charge of the Food cost anyway? The Chef always gets the blame, and of course, he is ultimately responsible for it. However, it takes everyone being involved to really make it work. The sales team, purchasing team, servers, managers, cooks, accounting, and owners.
There are lots of variables to consider when trying to figure out your food cost issues, but here are a few good starting places:
1. Are your menu items priced correctly?
2. Are recipes costed correctly [and recently]?
3. Double check what you are paying for your product versus other vendors, versus your recipe card, and menu price.
4. How much waste are you producing? If the team preps food that is not selling, we need to adjust something.
5. Are you and your staff eating the profit? Everything should be recorded. Even your meals should be recorded and backed out as a credit to food cost!
6. How is the P.O.S.? Are you collecting the correct amount? Check each menu item. This actually happens a lot.
7. Are we counting our inventory correctly? Review in detail and spot check.
8. Do you have a theft issue? How do we know, and then how do we deal with this? And yes, this happens! [a lot]
9. Is there an accounting issue? Check what was paid vs. what was purchased. Who is ordering, and who is receiving?
10. What is your ideal food cost and waste %age ? What is your actual food cost, and then what is the variance?
It’s really simple when you look at it like this. How much we paid for the food, against food revenue, this the food cost. It is simple math. You need to identify where the issue is, and then drill down until you find an answers there always is an answer!
These are just insights.
