Tag Archives: Restaurant Profitability

CHEFS FACING THE CHALLENGE OF CREATIVITY VERSUS BUSINESS DECISIONS

29 Saturday Feb 2020

Posted by in Uncategorized

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, , , , , ,

thinker

You know that every chef has wrestled with this – should the menu reflect a personal philosophy to move the bar or stick with time-tested standards? Chefs are, for all intents and purposes, inherently creative people who are always looking for a way to express that creativity and place their signature on the plate. That is in our DNA, we can’t really help ourselves. Without the avenue for creative expression we feel the weight of complacency. Most professional cooks feel the same way, knowing that working in a property that does not push the envelope does very little to build their resume.

To these individuals – the menu planning process is a license to think differently, study those chefs that they admire, experiment with different ingredients, and push their palates in the process of creating something unique and cutting edge. There is a percentage of the consumer population that responds very well to this. These “innovators” are constantly looking for the next interesting interpretation of food – the restaurant chef who teases them with food preparations that strike a chord, who makes them challenge how they think about food, and puts a smile on their face. To a chef, these are the people we love to cook for – they challenge us and keep us on our toes.

The problem is that this is less than 3 percent of the population of restaurant consumers. Yes, there are a slightly larger percentage of diners right behind them who are simply waiting for a nod of approval from the innovators, and yes, the press loves to focus on them, but the reality is that this population is fickle and they tire of a unique restaurant as soon as another innovator comes along. Restaurants survive and thrive on the “early and late majority” that represents over 60 percent of the dining population. These are the customers that keep restaurants afloat, tend to be loyal, and remain ambassadors for a restaurant for years to come.

We should understand that a major part of a chef’s job is to create and execute menus that address the majority and that are geared towards profitability. The chef’s ability to be creative and put his or her signature on a plate rests first on the ability to run a financially viable operation; thus the dilemma.

You have all experienced the menu pundit (sometimes the restaurant owner) who asks where the shrimp cocktail is. We roll our eyes, and try to explain our theory that this is far too “old school”. I can vividly remember a chef position at a fine dining operation that I walked into and faced planning my first signature menu. The cooks ribbed me for placing French Onion Soup on the menu, saying: “Chef that may have been appropriate in the 1970’s, but this is the 21st century.” Don’t forget the reluctant agreement to add prime ribs on the menu for a consistent Saturday night feature: “Really chef – prime rib? That’s what my grandfather would order.” Well – here is the answer: THEY SELL!

That operation with the French Onion Soup saw the item become the number one appetizer on the menu with rave reviews. The shrimp cocktail was consistently popular, and the Saturday night prime rib was not only popular – it took a considerable amount of pressure off the line on the busiest night of the week.

The initial reaction from a chef is to feel like he or she needs to apologize for being submissive to these “common” menu items, until it becomes apparent that those items give the chef the opportunity to run a profitable operation and find room for those highly creative features and rotating menu signature items.

I can remember the chatter about Gavin Kaysen when he was the chef at Café Boulud in New York when he featured his version of fried chicken on one of the more exclusive fine dining operations in the city. Daniel Boulud offered his massively creative burger on his menu to rave reviews, and Nancy Silverton had a cult following for her California Grilled Cheese Sandwich at Mozza. A chef’s pride should be focused on the care that is given to preparing any item exceptionally well, rather than if it is “off the wall” innovative.

So, how does a chef approach the dilemma of creativity vs. business sense? Here are some thoughts:

[]         EXCEPTIONAL IS ALWAYS CREATIVE

Gavin Kaysen’s fried chicken was a successful fine dining entrée because it was knock your socks off exceptional and people historically love fried chicken. Daniel Boulud’s burger was successful because it was adapted to a high end environment with the addition of foie gras and high quality, fresh ground meat, and because American’s were raised on burgers. Nancy Silverton created a cult following for her crunchy, butter rich, California focused rich cheese sandwich because who doesn’t love grilled cheese and very few operators do it right. When we focus on making the best of anything we have opened the creativity door to success.

[]         PUT YOUR SIGNATURE TWIST ON THE CLASSICS

When your cooks complain that an item is too “old school” then help them to put a unique twist on the classic standard. Offer that shrimp cocktail with a few ethnic twists – maybe a Thai, Spanish, or Japanese twist. The French Onion soup that I offered became a bar-b-que onion soup that was out of this world, and maybe the prime rib feature includes a sampling plate of sauces, a bleu cheese popover, and family style vegetable platter. Make it your own while maintaining the core character of a timeless dish.

[]         THEY ARE CLASSICS FOR A REASON

Classic rock is timeless, classic paintings attract viewers of all ages, and classic menu items will remain popular – always! Why? Because the flavor profile stimulates the palate, the item prods some memories that put a smile on a guest’s face, and familiarity is comforting. Why argue with these facts? Remember what is universally enjoyed and keep that in mind when you contemplate what items should find a home on your menu.

[]         PAY ATTENTION TO THE HISTORY OF A DISH

Know when and why a dish became popular. Study how it was developed and how it came into prominence. The story counts and adds to the validation of a product. Waldorf Salad is a 1960’s menu classic and is to some – past it’s prime. When you add the story about Oscar of the Waldorf and how the dish was originally developed, then the salad takes on a whole new level of significance. When Peach Melba is properly made and presented as a dessert created by Escoffier when he was the chef at the Savoy Hotel in London – then it peaks customer interest. It was created for the Australian soprano singer – Nellie Melba who he apparently had a crush on. That simple grilled cheese is just another sandwich until you point out that it was first developed by Otto Rohwedder who also designed the bread slicer. After all how many times do we reference something creative as the best thing since sliced bread? The story counts.

[]         FLAVOR FIRST

When it comes down to it, everyone responds best to food that tastes great. It is flavor that keeps customers coming back. Whatever the dish, whether it is cutting edge or a throwback to the 1940’s – if the flavor is there then people will order it time and again. Flavor first – flavor brings them back.

[]         IT’S ABOUT THE EXPERIENCE

When you build an experience around a dish then excitement builds among employees and customers. Look at how any dish on your menu fits into that experience formula of appealing to every sense, when it stimulates interest through storytelling, and shines as being perfectly executed. Note these stories about Gavin Kaysen’s Fried Chicken at Café Boulud, Nancy Silverton’s Grilled Cheese at Mozza, and Daniel Boulud’s db burger.

Gavin Kaysen:

https://dujour.com/lifestyle/cafe-boulud-expensive-fried-chicken-trend/

Nancy Silverton:

https://www.foodandwine.com/travel/restaurants/nancy-silverton-grilled-cheeses-mozza

Daniel Boulud:

https://ny.eater.com/2013/4/15/6450049/daniel-boulud-on-the-legacy-of-the-original-db-burger

[]         MAKE EVERYONE FLAVOR ADVOCATES

If there are doubters among your stakeholder network then let the flavor be the spokesman. Have tastings with your staff, tell the story, and build your advocate base. When they are excited and convinced then they will pass that enthusiasm on to the guest.

Find that happy medium of understanding what sells and how to make it your own, and allow this understanding to set the stage for levels of creativity to follow. This is what a chef does.

PLAN BETTER – TRAIN HARDER

Harvest America Ventures, LLC

Restaurant Consulting

www.harvestamericacues.com BLOG

Image

IN RESTAURANTS – LABOR MANAGEMENT IS A KEY TO SUCCESS

05 Sunday Jan 2014

Tags

, ,

IN RESTAURANTS – LABOR MANAGEMENT IS A KEY TO SUCCESS

Let’s face it: restaurant work is labor intensive. The terms hospitality and service typically include people in their definition. Although many other industries have spent considerable time determining how to automate non-skilled and skilled tasks, it would be hard to imagine or even accept a restaurant without the interaction of people and the creativity that comes from many hands in the kitchen. That being said, it is labor cost that becomes most troubling for chefs and restaurateurs to manage. Here are some of the facts:

• There is no carry-over value with labor. In other words, unlike food, labor time today cannot be put on the shelf and reused tomorrow. Once labor hours are expended they are gone and must be paid for regardless of sales.
• With labor you are dealing with the emotions, highs and lows, and attitudes of individuals. All of these factors are fairly unpredictable. To say that one style of management or one management action will work on all individuals would be absurd. It doesn’t work that way. Thus the time and energy utilized to manage others is quite extraordinary.
• In most cases there is a range of performance with individual employees that offers an area of peak efficiency and value. If there is not enough business to bring an employee to a point of peak value then the cost of delivery is impacted negatively. If there is too much business and the employee is pushed beyond efficiency then oftentimes the quality of product or service is negatively impacted. It is a fine line that must be anticipated and managed.
• Employees need and crave constant training. To not invest in them can lead to apathy or departure. Re-training new employees is very expensive both directly and indirectly in guest satisfaction.
• The nature of the business is that every day provides peaks and valleys in business and demands so it would be difficult for anyone doing time studies to build a model of efficiency that could be constant.

So what are the solutions? As a chef I am always concerned with the product produced for guests. I want to make sure that the restaurant uses the best quality ingredients, handles those products correctly, dedicates the time to proper technique, and plates the food as beautiful, flavorful, finished menu items. All of this takes time and varying levels of expertise to produce. Yet, have we analyzed what skill sets are best applied along the way?

Does it make sense for your higher paid line cooks to spend time chopping and dicing vegetables, trimming garnishes, portioning proteins, making soups and stocks? Does it make sense for those same higher priced employees to accrue overtime every week because they are investing part of their day in this important, yet less skilled work? Overtime kills a restaurant operation and does little to help employees remain fresh and on their game.

I have never been an advocate for a forty-hour work-week in kitchens, but excessive overtime leads to a deletion of morale, a lack of consistency, mistakes and accidents. I would suggest the following as a start:

*Every restaurant should incorporate a commissary shift with those cooks who have the foundations but are still building their skill sets. These cooks would be responsible for the majority of mise en place from vegetable prep to stocks, soups and bases for sauce work. The role of the higher paid line cooks would be to bring the flavors together with finish cooking, organize their work area to ensure a smooth service and plate dishes with the care of an artist to impact the WOW factor when guests receive their food. This small change (if you are not already doing so) would have an impact on cost of labor, smooth operation of the kitchen, consistent presentation of menu items, happier more focused employees and satisfied guests.

Additionally, where feasible and when product quality is not impacted, restaurants should consider those available ingredients that have been packaged to save labor without sacrificing the integrity of what you need to offer. This will require the chef to have an open mind, request ingredient tastings from vendors and establish purchasing specs around these labor saving ingredients.

Finally, the menu drives the need for labor. The menu in any restaurant should not be designed solely from the flavor profile that the operation is seeking to deliver, nor just from guest requests. The menu is a reflection of the restaurants business savvy. What labor time and level of expertise is required to produce this dish? This should be a question that is always asked during the menu planning process.

Business decisions in successful restaurants need to be made. The emotion of modifying staff schedules and occasionally terminating staff because of their impact on restaurant finances is never easy and likely the hardest job that a manager faces, yet your responsibility is to the business as a whole. Planning efficiencies into the operation so that these unpleasant tasks can be avoided is always the best rule of thumb.

PLAN BETTER – TRAIN HARDER

http://www.harvestamericaventures.com

Posted by | Filed under Uncategorized

≈ Leave a comment

Image

WHY IS IT SO DIFFICULT FOR RESTAURANTS TO MAKE MONEY?

26 Thursday Dec 2013

Tags

, , ,

WHY IS IT SO DIFFICULT FOR RESTAURANTS TO MAKE MONEY?

This is the most important question for operators or would be operators of restaurants. This is the defining question that separates those who will be successful vs. those who are destined to fail. Unfortunately, far too many in the restaurant business never ask this question, nor do they respond to the signs of failure until it is too late.

I have wrestled with this question for years and in my current role as a consultant am faced with delivering the answer(s) to properties who are waking up to a realization that it is very difficult to realize a profit even in the busiest operations. When I step back and look for cause and effect it appears to me that the answer to this question lies in the mindset of the restaurateur and chef. Does the operator have a mindset of a solid business manager or is he or she totally focused on being a part of the creative venture that a restaurant can become. There is a middle ground, but without business acumen, the restaurant will struggle. The following examples point to the yin and yang of building the right mindset balance:

*Are you content with creating a restaurant based on positive cash flow or are you working to build a long-term, sound business?

Many restaurants fall into the trap of believing that they are successful when cash is coming in faster than it is going out. This works well until there is a dip in business or unexpected expenses come knocking on your door. The illusion that success is simply based on a steady flow of customers has clouded the vision of many restaurateurs. Yes, you are busy, but are you really profitable?

*The opposite can also be true. The restaurant has incorporated excellent cost controls including portioning, inventory controls, focused buying, and time management, but fails to recognize that the top line DOES drive the bottom line.

Restaurant seats that are empty are way too costly. The combination of cash flow and cost control is necessary for the “business” to succeed.

*Menu, menu, menu. Is your menu a reflection of the egocentric need to offer the most expensive ingredients? Kobe beef hamburgers – really? Shaved truffles on your hand cut ravioli filled with fresh mozzarella imported from a small village in Northern Italy where the animals are hand fed a mixture of grass and grains from meadows that are above 2,000 feet and have exposure to the sun for 11 hours a day. You have seen the hype that is associated with building an image of restaurant importance. The questions are twofold: is this really a reflection of talent and is this in any way profitable?

*Does great food require the most expensive ingredients? Incredible cooks, and ones that can assist the business in making a profit are able to coax extraordinary flavors from less expensive ingredients. The prices they charge reflect the quality of the experience and the desired profitability of the menu item. Hold onto the truffles for the rare price fixe wine dinner and start looking at ways to build flavors from those chicken thighs. Try making some exceptional mozzarella in-house and market that as a calling card. There is greater talent in making your own vs. simply ordering ingredients on-line.

*Do you take ingredient shelf life seriously?

Waste can kill a restaurant business. Are you monitoring your inventory, ensuring that temperatures are ideal for specific ingredients, rotation of product is taking place, and order amounts are monitored closely to maximize usage? Is your menu flexible enough to accommodate the ingredient shelf-life cycle? How large are your garbage or compost cans? Does someone on your staff monitor production to minimize ingredient miss-use?

Stocks may require specific proportions of ingredients to develop consistent flavors, but broths are much more adaptable. Don’t throw out those carrot or onion peels; work them into a broth as a basis for featured soups or braising liquids. Those lobster shells make a great fumet or lobster butter.

*Measure, measure, measure. Use a scale! This is a business of pennies and your proteins, in particular, must be scaled out to protect the small amount of profit that you might realize from every menu item.

Watch what comes back on plates from the dining room. Consistent unfinished meals either means guest dissatisfaction or portions that are too large. It is always better for the experience and the business to have multiple complementary flavors on a plate than to simply overwhelm a guest with portion size. No one needs that 16- ounce steak. Portion control is a foundation of profitability.

*Know what it costs to make a cup of coffee. Coffee is a perfect example of how we can let costs get away from us. On the surface it may be a few pennies to make even the best cup of coffee, but are you factoring in what your staff consumes, waste, refills, etc. Business people know what their products cost to deliver, including all of the variables. Yield management is your job. Is that rib roast really $4.25 per pound? What about trim, cooler shrinkage, roasting shrinkage and slicing waste? You might discover that the roast plate cost is actually 30-35% higher than the cost at purchase.

*There is no such thing as a free lunch. Allow me to repeat again – this is a business of pennies. Do not give anything away for free. Your friends who expect a deal in your restaurant are not really your friends. Account for everything. If your restaurant makes donations then monitor them and categorize them as advertising and public relations. Make sure that you then promote your generosity so that it may have an impact on future business. If you provide a meal for your employees make sure that you track it and categorize this as an employee benefit. At the end of the month or year, print the cost of this and show your employees what that means to them in real dollars of value. Get credit for what you do – this is good business.

*Finally, charge what you need to charge. Restaurant prices cannot be negotiable. Once a price is set for a ‘la carte or banquet menus, do not waiver. You cannot afford to lower your prices. Offer your guests plenty of choice but do not sacrifice profitability. If there is too much resistance to an items price then change the menu item.

Making the decision to have a business mindset without sacrificing your commitment to quality is the only combination that works. A restaurant that is not profitable serves no one. Make a decision this year to be in the business of profitability. This one decision will serve your employees, your customers, your investors and you for the long run.

http://www.harvestamericaventures.com

Posted by | Filed under Continuing Education for Food Professionals, Uncategorized

≈ Leave a comment

Image

Setting the Record Straight About Restaurant Profitability

13 Friday Dec 2013

Tags

, , , ,

Setting the Record Straight About Restaurant Profitability

I am on a mission today to set the record straight. There is a terrible misconception on the part of the media, restaurant customers and even many restaurant employees that food establishments make gobs of profit. “I can purchase those ingredients at 1/5 the cost and make that dish at home”! Yea, you probably could assuming you have access to the same ingredients and know how to cook, but this does not take into account why you go out to restaurants. The modern restaurant serves many roles from the reward system for patrons to a source of entertainment and knowledge. But for decades the primary reason why people go out to dinner is so that they don’t have to cook or clean up. This is reminiscent of the old advertising adage used by public transportation in Buffalo while I was growing up: “take a bus and leave the driving to us”. Now the cost of operating those restaurants, like the cost of operating any business go way beyond the obvious cost of the primary raw materials. So, in an effort to clarify what many do not realize, here is the reality of restaurant profitability.

1. On average, if the restaurant does everything right they can realize a net profit of about 5% before taxes. That means that of that $50 tab for your dinner at a favorite steak house, the restaurant MIGHT realize a net before taxes of $2.50. That assumes they do everything right and do not have any waste, spoilage or theft (external or internal). This assumes they have the time to check prices from their vendors every day and always buy right. This assumes that their employees are always diligent when it comes to portioning, utilizing all ingredients, and properly preparing dishes according to the recipes developed.
2. What can go wrong? That dining room ambience that you love costs lots of money to maintain. Think about the cost of those fresh cut flowers, the price of china, glassware and silverware. Understand that each cloth and napkin placed on a table cost money to rent (yes, rent – most restaurants do not own their linen nor do they launder them). That nice stemware from Riedel that you like to drink your French Pinot Noir from probably cost $15 and guess how many break on a daily basis. The Italian bone china that the chef loves to use to highlight his/her cuisine may be $15-20 per plate, and you guessed it – they also break frequently.
3. Music is another issue that escapes most people who dine or even work in restaurants. Even if we play CD’s in a restaurant there is a fee that goes to BMI and ASCAP. Even more so if you have live music (not including what you pay the musicians).
4. Maintenance can be a real drain on restaurant operations. The cleaning chemicals used to wash dishes, clean floors, sanitize surfaces is substantial.
5. How about restaurant build out? The cost per square foot of building a kitchen including equipment can be in the neighborhood of $400 per square foot. A relatively small 600 square foot kitchen would thus cost approximately $240,000 to build. Dining room space is cheaper, but typically much larger in square footage. That restaurant that you love to go to is a multi-million dollar project. This needs to be paid back over time and guess what – the bank is not patient when it comes to payment due dates.
6. Bar inventories are important to a restaurant’s health and the selection demands of the public. The nature of state liquor authorities is to require payment cycles from restaurants that range from cash on receipt to 14 days or so. If you miss a cycle payment the vendors will not and cannot deliver to you or will require COD. So, that restaurant wine cellar with a list of 200 wines by the bottle and a selection by the glass may have a value in the hundreds of thousands of dollars, or more.
7. Food is highly perishable, especially proteins and produce. In some cases shelf life is measured in a couple days. It must be used in that period of time or it becomes costly waste. Since in a ‘la carte restaurants we never really know what you are going to order, managing ordering and inventories is very important. Any waste will eat away at that 5% net.
8. Let’s talk about waste: it costs lots of money to have that restaurant waste and recyclables taken away.
9. Uniforms: we want our staff to look good, crisp and fresh and since they are working around food, their clothing needs to be sanitary. Thus, most restaurants rent uniforms, aprons and side towels. This can account for thousands of dollars of cost each month.
10. Insurance is of course an issue with any business but in restaurants we also need something called third party liability insurance to protect the operation and its employees from an intoxicated guest who causes harm to a third party who in turn chooses to sue the restaurant. Yes, if a customer drinks too much it is the fault of the restaurant.
11. Marketing and advertising is a shotgun effort in most cases. We place ads in the newspaper, magazines, radio and television to try and stimulate traffic. We never really know how well this works but find ourselves in a position that failure to continue advertising might negatively impact business; so we continue to spend thousands and cross our fingers (social media is helping a great deal with driving down marketing costs).
12. Turnover and training is an on-going issue in restaurants. Since rates of pay are fairly low, the work hours are long and stress runs high, employees come and go way too frequently. Although we should spend more on training, typically by the time we finish training a staff we need to start over with new ones.
13. Staffing is expensive in restaurants because it is a labor-intensive environment. Lots of preparation and support work that can require a restaurant to have dozens of staff to support those 100 dinner guests tonight.
14. Note that I have not even touched on mortgage or lease, utility costs, equipment repairs or property taxes.

Now, this may seem like I am complaining; I am not. It is however important to counteract the misconceptions that people have about this fantastic business that services the public in so many ways. We are the first businesses that charities go to for assistance, the first businesses that provide employment for young people just starting out and the first business that guests turn to when they have had a rough day and need to be pampered. This is what we do and we love it (for the most part).

Many restaurants that have continued for quite some time do so simply because they are able to maintain a positive cash flow, not because they make gobs of profit. Those who find it hard to control those sensitive costs are unable to create a steady flow of cash or are unable to meet the needs of a fickle customer base, become part of that 66% failure rate.

A simple request would be to acknowledge that restaurants provide a service, one that is costly to provide and that although your steak might seem pricey, you understand that a great deal goes into bringing it from steer to plate. Fortunately, there are restaurants out there for every socio-economic level, 965,000 of them in the U.S. as of last count.

http://www.harvestamericaventures.com

Posted by | Filed under Restaurant success, Uncategorized

≈ 1 Comment

Image

SHARPEN YOUR CONTROL PENCILS – EVERYONE IS GUILTY UNTIL PROVEN INNOCENT

13 Wednesday Nov 2013

Tags

, , , , , ,

08FW501

Most of you are probably thinking: “what an awful statement to make”. The American mantra is always the opposite and has become the basis for our legal system, yet from experience, I would state that the best approach is to plan for the worst in an effort to prevent it. Allow me to explain how this works in restaurant operations.

The reality for management must be that everyone could be dishonest if given the opportunity. It becomes important to realize that managers should thus focus on taking away the temptation in an effort to help your employees and customers remain honest.

“There’s an old saying that’s long been accepted in fraud prevention circles called the 10-10-80 rule: 10 percent of people will never steal no matter what, 10 percent of people will steal at any opportunity, and the other 80 percent of employees will go either way depending on how they rationalize a particular opportunity. The good news is that there is much a business can do to sway this 80 percent to their side.
Another widely accepted theory is that of the late Dr. Donald R. Cressey called the “Fraud Triangle.” According to this theory, there are three factors — each a leg of a triangle — that, when combined, lead people to commit fraud.
One leg is an individual’s financial problem or need that they perceive is nonsharable; i.e., a gambling debt. The second leg is this individual’s perception that there exists at the place of business an opportunity to resolve the financial problem without getting caught. The third leg is the individual’s ability to rationalize or justify the intended illegal action (“After all I did for my company, they mistreated me. I was entitled to that money.”). In shorter terms, PRESSURE plus PERCEIVED OPPORTUNITY plus RATIONALIZATION equals FRAUD.”

http://www.businessknowhow.com/manage/employee-theft.htm

What is most telling about this quote is both the need to take away temptation and the employees’ mindset that they might be able to justify their dishonesty based on “after all I did for my company”. Let’s look at 100 (not literally) ways that people can and do steal from restaurants.

• Theft of cash from a register
• Servers or bartenders shorting the till by not recording certain items that are sold to guests
• Accepting favors from vendors in exchange for over-ordering or buying items at a cost that should be lower
• Walking out of the operation with product
• Over-portioning, not portioning, giving away free drinks (theft of service)
• Taking small equipment
• And the list goes on and on

By nature, most of us want to trust our staff and co-workers. To this end, restaurants in particular, tend to be physically set-up under the premise of trust. Look at your own operation in this regard:

• Do you have locks on your cooler doors?
• Do you require your cooks to requisition product from a central receiving area?
• Do you have a system of checks and balances where more than one person (from a different department ideally) is responsible for ordering, processing bills and taking inventory?
• Do you perform unscheduled inventories on alcoholic beverages?
• Do you require your cooks to scale out ingredients, especially high-cost center of plate items?
• Do you clearly state that those responsible for ordering abstain from accepting any gifts from vendors?
• Do you require those who order to solicit bid prices from various vendors?
• Do you use a system using purchase orders that match up to invoices?
• Have you implemented a portioning system in your bar?
• Do you limit only one person to access the cash register on any given shift?
• Do you require your staff to leave backpacks, or large carry bags in their cars or at home rather than bring them to work?
• Do you conduct daily inventories on high cost, portioned proteins?
• Do you conduct weekly or at least monthly inventories of all products used in generating sales?

If the answer is no to any of these questions, then there is an opportunity for your staff to steal. This does not mean they will, it simply points to a weakness in your system and a responsibility that you have not taken to help your staff to stay honest.

There are answers to this dilemma that allow trust in the workplace to exist and create an environment where employees (management included) are part of the solution, not the problem.

• Limit access to coolers and storerooms either by using locks or incorporating a system of planning using requisitions and delivery to various stations in the kitchen or bar
• Use cash registers that require employees to enter a password and management to lock out others during a shift
• Have cashiers count and sign for their bank at the beginning of a shift and sign off on their drawer at the end of a shift
• Require regular inventories conducted by two parties who do not report to each other
• Have all employees sign a terms of employment document that states that they are not allowed to accept favors from vendors
• Install a method of portioning in both the front and back of the house
• Watch patterns of over/short daily cash reports
• Offer orientation and training sessions for staff that outline your control procedures and how important it is for all to participate in the financial success of the business

The key to a successful program is to make it participatory rather than allowing employees to feel that they are being watched and pre-judged. Restaurants are businesses with very small margins for profit and they can only be successful if all staff members’ buy-in to the need for control. Control is a word that oftentimes poses negative connotations. Control should not be designed to control people, but rather control the environment that they work in. If it is presented in this fashion, your staff will see the merit and understand their role.

Posted by | Filed under Continuing Education for Food Professionals, Uncategorized

≈ Leave a comment