[00:00:00] When food cost is high, most owners seem to react the same way. They blame prices, they blame vendors, they blame waste, they blame portioning. And then they start squeezing.
[00:00:13] But here's the truth. Food cost problems are rarely ingredient problems. They are almost always leadership problems. Today we're going to reframe food cost completely. Not as a number to fight, but as a system to to lead.
[00:00:29] 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.
[00:01:00] Hey everyone, thanks for tuning in. My name is Chip Close. This is the Restaurant Strategy podcast. Two episodes every single week to help you level up and build a more profitable restaurant. In case you don't know me, I'm the founder and CEO of Restaurant Strategy. I am the host of the P3 mastermind. It's our signature coaching program.
[00:01:16] I give talks, I write books. I also host a membership site. It's called Restaurant Foundations. Hundreds of hours of video content on there, plus templates, spreadsheets, eBooks, all kinds of great goodies in there, you get access for your first month absolutely free. After that it's 97amonth. There is never any pressure to stay. So even if you want to go, take advantage of the free month and then just swipe all the files, cancel your membership. It's totally cool. Again, it's another resource. Just like this show. Just like YouTube, Instagram, the LinkedIn posts, all of the free content we put out. This can be free for you, obviously. I hope you stick around because we put out great new content every single month because. But you don't have to. Even if you just go swipe it and cancel. Totally fine. The link is in the show notes. Go check out Restaurant foundations if you are ready to level up, grow revenue, build a more profitable restaurant.
[00:02:08] Now, if you've listened to this show for any length of time, you've heard me talk about Kickfin. Because they've been a trusted partner of mine for years and I genuinely believe in what they do. For restaurant operators, see, managing tips has always been a headache. There's never enough cash in the drawer at the end of the night. Managers are stuck making bank runs throughout the day and then doing spreadsheets sheet math at, I don't know, one, two in the morning. Tip pooling regulations keep getting more complex. It's just not fun. And that's exactly why Kickfin exists. With Kickfin, restaurants Can calculate tip pools automatically and send instant cashless tip payouts to employees existing bank accounts. And I said cashless. No cash, no predatory pay cards, no glitchy employee apps required. Your team gets their tips fast in the account they choose from, right? When their shift ends. Kickfin integrates with all the major POS players so Toast Square, Skytab, Genius Union and many more. So you get fully automated end to end tip management. It's fast, it's accurate, and it gives you a clean digital record for accounting and compliance. Kickfin powers tip payouts for every type of concept from mom and pop shops to regional hospitality groups, to national brands like Walk On Sports Bistro, Marco's Pizza and Toasted Yolk Cafe. Great hospitality starts behind the scenes when your people feel valued, when they are paid fairly and paid fast. I promise everything improves and Kickfin makes that possible. If you're ready to save hours every week, eliminate those cash runs, streamline your accounting and make tip payouts the best part of everyone's day. Visit kickfin.comdemo and yes, that link is in the show notes.
[00:03:50] Okay, so today we're going to talk about food cost. Food cost, it's very important to understand, is not a result. I want you to think of it like a lever.
[00:03:58] So let's get this straight, right? Food cost is an outcome. It does reflect decision making. It reflects menu design, training, clarity, accountability.
[00:04:07] It reflects discipline.
[00:04:10] So trying to fix food costs directly is like trying to lose weight by just adjusting the scale.
[00:04:16] The scale reports reality, but it doesn't change it. I think we all know the real way to change our weight, just like I think we know the real way to fix food cost.
[00:04:27] But most owners manage food cost reactively, right? So the food cost spikes, panic sets in, portions get smaller, prep gets rushed, tension increases, and none of that actually fixes the root problem. It just makes your kitchen and all your cooks anxious.
[00:04:45] See, menu design is actually the first food cost to decision before food even ever gets ordered. Cost is already baked in. So menus with too many ingredients, too much variation, too many low margin items, well, they're going to guarantee higher food costs right off the bat. See, the leadership chooses complexity. The leadership can also choose simplicity.
[00:05:11] Food cost pays the price. If you don't choose right.
[00:05:15] Waste, I want you to understand, is a training issue, not a moral failure. See, most owners treat waste like a character flaw. Well, my team doesn't care. The staff is so sloppy. But more often waste comes from unclear prep expectations or poor batch sizing or inconsistent pars or rushed service, right. Rushed service, too many covers coming in within a 15 minute timeframe leads to rushed execution.
[00:05:44] And blame never seems to doesn't reduce waste.
[00:05:48] What reduces waste is systems. Systems fix the problem.
[00:05:53] Portion control fails when leadership is unclear.
[00:05:58] So scales don't fix culture rules don't fix buy in people portion correctly when expectations are crystal clear, when standards are actually enforced, when leadership is consistent with every cook, every shift, every day.
[00:06:16] Inconsistency above creates inconsistency below.
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[00:06:42] That's where Ajinomoto Foods comes in. Ajinomoto has a huge catalog of fast, easy to prep frozen Asian products that taste and look homemade. That includes classics like fried rice dumplings and onion rings and new trendy fusion plates like kimchi chicken pot stickers. See Choosing Ajinimoto is choosing over 100 years of proven expertise in the food service space.
[00:07:08] Choose to save time. Choose to save money in your busy kitchen without compromising on the quality your customers have come to expect. Learn more about
[email protected] and yes, you'll find that link in the show notes.
[00:07:24] Now we're talking about food cost and how food cost is really a leadership problem, a systematic problem.
[00:07:31] And again, purchasing I want you to see as a leadership decision, not simply a task. Buying is or can and should be strategic, meaning what you buy, how often you buy, that in what quantity and from whom.
[00:07:47] When you delegate purchasing without providing oversight, it creates drift. And drift ultimately will always increase costs by setting clear expectations about what you want to accomplish that will help your people better manage the task at hand.
[00:08:06] And if you are not providing oversight and support for the people that you've delegated to, well then it's never going to be exactly like you want. Your job is not to do the purchasing, to place the orders, but your job is to oversee the execution of the task. Your job is to support the people who have to do that task.
[00:08:28] Food cost stability comes from predictability. Now what do I mean by that? I mean predictable menus with predictable prep and predictable volumes, right? Which I know it's impossible to predict the future, but we still have to try. And most of you have enough historical data to get pretty good at it. See, chaos is Another thing that inflates food cost calm actually reduces it. And again, we talk about complexity versus simplicity.
[00:08:56] When it's already hard enough to predict the future, to look in your crystal ball and tell what's going to happen tomorrow or next week, why would you want to make that any more complicated than it needs to be?
[00:09:06] So complexity is not your friend. Simplicity helps you figure out how to predict the future.
[00:09:14] See owners set the tone around money if leadership treats food costs like a constant emergency, or a constant source of blame, or an absolute mystery, then the team will mirror that energy.
[00:09:27] If leadership treats food costs like a shared responsibility or a system that's constantly improved, or a metric with context, well, then the team will respond in kind.
[00:09:40] And so here's the real shift I want you to make Food cost is not controlled in the kitchen. It is controlled in the leadership decisions in the way that the structure and systems are established and overseen, the expectations being laid out, and then the accountability provided. Every choice upstream, intuitively, naturally, obviously will echo downstream.
[00:10:05] And so here's what I want you to ask yourself this week. Where am I tolerating inconsistency because enforcing standards fields too difficult or uncomfortable?
[00:10:15] I promise you that's where your food cost is leaking.
[00:10:19] If food cost feels like a constant battle, stop fighting ingredients and start leading with your systems. Set clear expectations, make clear SOPs, provide oversight and support for the people who are executing all of this. That is the only way through.
