Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] You are throwing money in the trash literally every single day. Food goes bad in your walk in. Prep gets made and never used. Portions are inconsistent, so some plates go out with 6 ounces of protein, while others go out with 9. Your cooks are spending 20 minutes looking for ingredients that should be right at their fingertips. And all of this is costing you money. Today we're talking about kitchen efficiency and waste reduction. How to turn your kitchen from a cost center into a profit center. All of that on today's episode of Restaurant Strategy.
[00:00:32] There's an old saying that goes something like this. You'll only find three kinds of people in the world. Those who see, those who will never see, and those who can see when shown. This is Restaurant Strategy, a podcast with answers for anyone who's looking.
[00:01:03] Hey, everyone. Chip close here. Welcome to Restaurant Strategy. We're diving deep into kitchen operations today, specifically how to eliminate waste and maximize efficiency. This stuff matters because your kitchen is where your food costs are made or broken. Get it right and you can easily save 2, 3, 4, 5 points on your food cost. Get it wrong and you'll bleed money every single day. Obviously, I care a great deal about this. I run something called the P3 mastermind, and it's a group coaching program where I help independent restaurant owners and operators increase the profitability of their restaurants. I talk about this a lot. I'm just going to remind you, if you're ready to have that conversation, go to restaurantstrategypodcast.com schedule. As always, you'll find that link in the show notes. The call is free. It's 30 minutes. We just get to know each other better. I get to ask you questions about your restaurant so I find out what's going on. You get to ask me questions about the program. So you have a better idea what we do in the program again, we. Restaurantstrategypodcast.com getschedule. Go grab time on your calendar now.
[00:02:05] Okay, so let's start today with a story that's probably gonna sound familiar. So I'm working with a P3 member. His name is Rick. Rick runs this awesome 70 seat gastropub. Great food, It's a solid concept, decent sales. But his food costs are consistently or they were consistently at 36% and he couldn't figure out why. He kept saying, oh, what's a gastropub? We got nice quality stuff. And I said, no, you're not serving lobster and caviar and foie gras. Yes, you put a little more thought into your chicken sandwich or your Burger and your charcuterie plate. But it's not rocket scientists. So we set up time. He grabs time for office hours. I do these private one on one sessions, first come, first serve. I open up five hours of my schedule every single week. And I said, let's do this. Let's take a walk through your restaurant. We're going to set up time. You're going to walk your phone around, right? We'll have a conversation via Zoom. That's what we do. We walk through his restaurants. A Tuesday afternoon. He is walking through the kitchen, right? And it's prep time. We walk into his walking cooler, and it is a disaster, right front and center. I don't know how you could miss it. There's a hotel pan of cooked chicken from three days ago. We can see the sticker on the side of it. It was cooked three days ago. And he tells me, I can see it, but he tells me, it's starting to smell funky. I can see that it's starting to smell funky through the phone, through Zoom. There's a case of tomatoes over in the corner that he realizes, oh, they're going soft. They've got to get chucked. There's a container of soup that literally is not labeled, so no one knows what it is or when it was made. And I asked Rick, I said, man, how much food do you throw away every week? And he shrugs, and he goes, I don't know. Some, but maybe more than I think. So I asked him to do an experiment. For one week, we set up a waste log, and we tracked every single item from his walk in that went in the trash. He weighed it out, he priced it out. He wrote everything down. And you know what he found out? He found out that he was throwing away almost $850 worth of food every single week. We tracked it three weeks in a go in a row, and it was all right around $850.
[00:04:11] So on $18,000 in weekly sales, that's almost 5% of his revenue going straight into the dumpster. And this is way more common than you think. The National Restaurant association says that the average restaurant wastes between 8 and 10% of their food purchases. And here's the thing, most of that waste is preventable. It's not customers not finishing their plates. That happens. That's not what we're talking about. We're talking about operational waste. So food spoiling. This is cooks over prepping, inconsistent portioning, poor inventory management.
[00:04:46] So that's what it is. Now let's talk about how to fix it first principle, you can't manage what you don't measure. You need to start tracking your waste. So I had Rick put up the waste log right by the walk in. If you are not tracking it now, you could do it digitally, or you could do it manually with just a clipboard and a piece of paper. But start tracking your waste in the beginning. This might not be a forever thing, but for at least two or three weeks, you track it all. Then you get a scale, you get a notebook. You write down everything that you throw away. Again, a notebook, a clipboard, whatever it is. Log everything spoiled produce, write it down, overcooked proteins, write it down. Prep that sat too long, write it down. Trim for butchering, write it down, literally everything you want. Bonus points. Set up three clipboards. One at the walk in, one on the the line side of the pass, one on the server side of the pass, and you log everything. What happens is, at the end of these two or three weeks, you will have a baseline. You'll know exactly how much money you are currently throwing away and what categories it all falls.
[00:05:49] Then once you understand where you're at, you can start fixing those problems. But again, you can't manage what you're not measuring. So let's talk about mis, right? This is where I think most kitchens fail. Mise en place is a French term, right? Means everything in its place. You guys know that. It's the foundation of efficient cooking. Every ingredient prepped, every tool in its designated spot, every station set up exactly the same way every single time.
[00:06:16] But most restaurant kitchens don't actually use real mise en place. They have chaos disguised as organization. Cooks spend half their time looking for ingredients. Prep. Cooks make too much of some things, not enough of others. Nobody knows what needs to be prepped because there's no system. So here's how you fix it. You first create prep sheets for every single item you make for every day. Not just make marinara sauce, but I mean, detailed prep sheets that specify exactly how much to make, what ingredients to use, how to store it, how long it lasts. And with pars, you sit there and you look at it, and then you know, here's how much I have on hand. So this is how much I still have to prep before we go into today's service, right? So your marinara prep sauce sauce prep sheet should say, make two quarts, serves 40 portions. Use one can San Marzano tomatoes, quarter cup olive oil, on and on, everything down to the garlic, the basil, the salt, everything.
[00:07:13] And then it says, store in the cambro label with date and contents lasts five days when refrigerated.
[00:07:20] Every single prep item gets its own prep sheet. So salad dressing, sauces, marinades, compound, butters, whatever it is. And here's the key. The prep sheet tells you exactly how much to make based on your sales predictions. This is the key. Understanding how much you have on hand, how much you actually need for your sales, right? What those pars should be, and then therefore, how much you need to make. So if you sell an average of 20 Caesar salads per day, and each salad uses 2 ounces of dressing, you need 20 times 240 ounces of Caesar dressing for that day. So if you make three days worth at a time, 120 ounces, which is 3.75 quarts, you round up to four quarts to be safe, right? Because this thing will hold. But you do this for every prep item and that will keep you from over prepping. Over prepping is one of the biggest sources of wastes in most kitchens. Now let's talk about portion control, because this is where you can make or lose serious money. I was working with a steakhouse out in Scottsdale, right? Sort of in between Scottsdale and Phoenix, and they couldn't figure out why their food costs were so high on specifically their rib eye. They're buying 12 ounce steaks and selling them for 45 bucks, which should have been profitable.
[00:08:35] So we sat there. This is years ago, right? And I remember standing there in the kitchen and I watched them cook steaks for an hour. And you know what we saw? I stood there with the gm.
[00:08:44] The steaks were coming off the grill from anywhere from 10 to 14 ounces. After cooking, some cooks were starting with bigger steaks, some were cooking them longer, some were trimming more fat. When you're supposed to serve a 12 ounce steak and you're actually serving a 14 ounce steak, that's 17% more food cost.
[00:09:03] You do the math. On a $45 steak, that's $12 food cost that extra 2 ounces costs you about 2 bucks. Doesn't sound like much, but at this busy steakhouse, you sell 100 of those suckers a week, that's 200 bucks a week. That's over $10,000 a year.
[00:09:19] The solution is simple. It's training and scales. Every protein gets weighed before it goes on the plate. Every sauce gets measured. And you're going to tell me, right? Man, Chip, we don't have time to weigh every portion during service.
[00:09:33] That may be so, but you can. During prep, you portion your proteins ahead of Time you portion anything expensive. You make your sauces and squeeze bottles with consistent portions. You train your cooks to use the same portions, right? Same spoon for rice, the same scoop for mashed potatoes, right? And it's done the same way every single time. That will be huge and extra bonus points if you say, hey, I only want certain people breaking down the steaks. That's fine. It's a sous chef's job or a CDC's high ranking that knows what they're doing and can break down a rib.
[00:10:09] Can break down the rib eye with a whole bunch of even cuts. It's key.
[00:10:15] Let's talk about inventory management, because obviously prep pars and inventory are all together.
[00:10:21] Inventory is where a lot of waste can happen, right? So if you're not tracking what you have, you're gonna over order. You're not rotating stock, so older items spoil before you actually use them. You're not tracking what you use, so you don't know when you're running low.
[00:10:35] Here is a simple system that actually works. First, create a master inventory list of everything you keep in stock. Proteins, produce, dry goods, I mean, literally everything. And you update this list every time you add or remove items from your menu, right? This goes hand in hand with an order guide.
[00:10:55] Second, designate one person to be responsible for ordering each category. This is huge.
[00:11:01] One person is held responsible, therefore one person is accountable. One person orders all the proteins, maybe another person orders all the produce. One person does all dry goods. Don't let everyone order everything. That's how you end up with five cases of tomatoes when you actually only need two.
[00:11:19] Third, implement a first in, first out rotation. New deliveries go in the back, so older items get pulled front and they get used first. You label everything with dates and you train your staff to check dates before using anything. It literally takes five extra seconds. We are not in that much of a rush to not check dates. I worked with a restaurant in Seattle that was losing 300 bucks a week just on produce spoilage, meaning lettuce going bad, tomatoes going soft, herbs wilting. We implemented just this simple system. Designated ordering, proper rotation, date labeling, all the stuff we just talked about. And within a month, their produce waste dropped to less than $50 a month.
[00:12:00] $300 a week to $50 a month. That is huge. Huge savings, tens of thousands of dollars straight to the bottom line, all from basic inventory management.
[00:12:10] Now let's talk about repurposing ingredients, because this is where you can get creative and turn potential waste into real profit. So your roasted chicken bones don't have to go in the trash. They can become stock. And I know a bunch of you guys know this. I grew up in fine dining. This is obviously something you do, but if you don't know it, if you've never heard it, this is me telling you. Your vegetable trimmings can become soup base. Your day old bread can become bread crumbs or croutons. They can become bread pudding. I'm working with a farm to table restaurant. It's up in Vermont. It's cute as a button. They've gotten really, really creative with this. Their carrot tops become the base of a chimichurri. I don't understand it, but it's brilliant. Their beet greens become part of the salad mix. It's really unique. Their cheese rinds go into their soup pot for extra flavor. And they track this stuff. They're saving about 200 bucks a week simply by repurposing ingredients that used to go in the trash and now it goes gets reused.
[00:13:05] Plus, it actually fits their farm to table concept. Customers love seeing that they're using every part of the ingredient. And it becomes a talking point for the servers. Becomes a talking point for the managers at the tables. This is how serious we are about sustainability. This is how serious we are about waste. It is awesome. Now let's talk about efficiency when it comes to prep. Because, you know, time is money, especially in the kitchen. Your prep cooks are some of your highest paid kitchen staff. You and I both know it. Especially when you got to have a bunch on staff doing a lot of stuff at a time. So every minute they waste costs you money. The key is batching and sequencing. Instead of making one sauce, then one marinade, then one dressing, you make all your sauces at once. Sounds crazy, I know, right? But I watched this happen. You get all your equipment out, all your ingredients prepped, and you knock out similar tasks in batches. Honestly, same with protein. Don't butcher one chicken, then move on to something else. Butcher all the chickens at once. The more you can batch similar tasks, the more efficient your prep becomes because you get into a rhythm. And sequencing matters, too. You do your long cooking items first, right? And you know this stocks, braises, anything that needs hours in the oven. Then you do your prep that can sit. So dressings, marinades, sauces. Then you do your fresh prep, the salad mix, the garnishes, anything that needs to be used same day within the just a couple of hours. I worked with the kitchen out in in Colorado, spending six hours a day on prep. We organize, we reorganize their prep their, their whole sequencing batch. Similar tasks, same amount of prep, but now it takes four and a half hours. It was an hour and a half of labor savings every single day. And guess what? Technology can help here too. I, I know we talk, at least I'm trying to in this whole batch of episodes the last couple of months, trying to talk about the analog operational perspectives. But tech can help. And I'm not talking about expensive software or equipment. I'm talking about simple tools that make for that make your prep more efficient. So food processes.
[00:15:06] Processors for chopping vegetables, Immersion blenders for sauces. Vacuum sealers for storing prepped proteins. Chamber vacuum sealers. If you're doing a lot of volume, they'll pay for themselves in reduced waste and better food quality within a couple of months. Let me tell you about temperature control because this is a huge one for reducing waste. Most restaurants lose more money to temperature abuse than they realize. So food sitting in the danger zone. Walk ins that are too warm. Hot food that doesn't get cooled down properly. You're walking right. Should be between 35 and 38 degrees. Your freezer should be between 0 and minus 5. Hot food needs to be cooled from 140 to 70 degrees within two hours, then from 70 to 40 degrees within another four hours. Get some digital thermometers with alarms when you're walk in temperature spikes. You'll know immediately instead of finding out when your lettuce is wilted or when you discover the wilted lettuce the next day or when you see that the dairy is spoiled two days later. All right, now all of this is only good if you've got the staff who can execute it. So let's talk about training, because again, all these systems are worthless if nobody's following them. You need to train everyone on proper food handling, proper portion control, proper waste tracking, and how to rotate your inventory. And here's the key. You need to make it simple. You need to make consistent. Don't just tell people what to do. Show them. Create checklists. Take photos of what proper mise en place plus looks like @ each station. Make it impossible to mess up to A while back I worked at a restaurant that was losing money simply because their line cooks were inconsistent with portioning. Some used a six ounce ladle, some used a four ounce ladle and they didn't even realize it. The fix? We color coded the damn labels and put a chart above the of each station showing which color ladle to use for each sauce. Because guess what? In the Heat of battle when they all sort of look the same when things are moving fast. But colors. Colors help it stand out.
[00:17:03] We talked about menu engineering a few weeks. Let's talk about how menu engineering can help from a kitchen efficiency perspective. So some dishes are waste magnets. They require ingredients that have short shelf lives. They're sometimes complicated to prep. They don't sell enough volume to justify the prep time.
[00:17:20] So what I want you to do is just look at your menu and identify some of those high waste dishes. That special sauce that uses fresh herbs and only sells three portions a night. Maybe it's time to retire. It doesn't matter how much you love it or that garnish that requires daily prep. You're picking dill, and it costs, you know, $2 per plate. Maybe there's a simpler alternative. Your menu should be designed for efficiency, not just for customer appeal.
[00:17:46] Every ingredient should appear in multiple digits. Dishes, every prep item should have consistent demand. Every recipe should be simple enough that any cook, even a new cook, can execute it consistently every single time.
[00:17:59] Let's talk about waste audits. Once a month, you need to do a deep dive into your waste. When I say you, it doesn't need to be you. It can be your kitchen manager, your chef, whatever. You pull all your invoices. You look at your waste tracking sheets. You calculate exactly how much money you threw away, and you try to figure out why. Was it spoilage? Was it over prepping? Inconsistent portioning, poor inventory management? Once you know the root causes, well, then you can fix them systematically. But if you don't know it's a problem, you don't know to fix it. So again, back to Rick's restaurant, the one I mentioned at the beginning. We did those monthly audits, right? We're doing that now for the last six months. First month, like I said, 850 bucks in waste. By month six, we were down to less than $300. It was over 3, $500 in savings, which, you do the math. It was, like, almost $30,000 a year. His food costs dropped just over the course of a couple months from 36 to 31.
[00:18:52] So now here's your homework. For the next two weeks, track every single item you throw away. Weigh it out, price it out. Write down why it was wasted. Put it on a log. At the end of the two weeks, calculate your total waste as a percentage of food purchases. If it's over 5%, you have a problem that needs immediate attention.
[00:19:10] If it's under 3%, you're doing pretty well. But there's still room for improvement, then what I want you to do is pick the biggest category of waste and you fix that one first. If most of your waste is, let's say, spoilage, focused on inventory management and temperature control, if it's over prepping, then create better prep sheets and work with your teams. Get the forecasting right. If it's inconsistent portion control, implement scales and training and observe your cooks during prep and during service.
[00:19:38] Kitchen efficiency isn't just about working faster, it's about working smarter. It's about having systems that prevent waste before it can even happen. It's about creating consistency. So every plate costs the same to make and can generate the same profit. We don't talk enough about that, but it's key. If you do this right, your kitchen becomes a profit center instead of that cost center. Your food costs drop, your labor efficiency improves and your food quality becomes more consistent. At the end of the day, it's going to make for a better experience for your guests.
[00:20:09] Now that's it, guys. I appreciate you being here. Thank you for listening. My name is Chip Close. This is the Restaurant Strategy Podcast. One last thing, if you get any sort of value from this show and the episodes we've been going, I don't know, since 2019, was that six years now? Six and a half years. You get any sort of value from this, please go to Apple podcast, leave us a five star rating and review. Just letting other people know what you get out of the show and that's it, guys. Appreciate you being here. I will say see you next week. Two episodes every week. See you next time.
