With the economy in flux, it's no surprise that catering companies are having a hard time controlling food cost. When the cost of product goes up you can expect that the costs of catering equipment are also going to be on the rise - as well as the cost of doing business. Adjusting prices and passing the cost on to the customer is less than ideal, especially if you want to stay competitive. If you're feeling the economic pinch in your catering business then there's a good chance your customers are feeling it as well. The best way to control food cost is to take a close look at your operations to see where you can cut costs.
Look At Your Production Methods - Fresh herbs may very well be attractive options for cooking, and look great as a garnish but fresh purees that have been refrigerated or frozen, or dried herb, are excellent choices for the kitchen because of their long shelf life. These also work well for any dish that has a long, slow cooking process. For more expensive herbs, this is a smart process to control food cost.
Size Matters - Instead of cooking in large quantities out of confidence, do small batch production so you can be more responsive to changing needs in the food production process. This also helps you stop over production. At the end of the day it's much easier to make a correction to a single gallon of soup as opposed to a dozen gallons of soup when there's a time crunch. Remember too that tighter production control promotes improved food safety and HAACP management, and helps you maintain better quality control standards.
Exit Strategies - IF you know that your product is running out of time, then try to promote a special using those ingredients or menu items to your customers. For a caterer, this could be a reduced price on providing soup for an event. Treat this as an exit strategy that lets you get out from under product loss.
Know Your Shelf Life - If you have a standard menu for your catering business then you should know the shelf life of every item you have. If you order fresh for custom consumer menus then you need to make sure you're familiar with the shelf life of those products. This lets you minimize waste and optimize your food cost. Remember that smaller items are particularly susceptible to temperature and degrade faster than other items.
Plan Production Quantities - While most businesses and catering companies make their provisions for production based on previous clients, it's a good idea to revisit your calculations in comparison with waste to see if your production planning needs some modifications. If you can trim even 2% of the waste by altering your production then you're saving money.
Look At Your Production Methods - Fresh herbs may very well be attractive options for cooking, and look great as a garnish but fresh purees that have been refrigerated or frozen, or dried herb, are excellent choices for the kitchen because of their long shelf life. These also work well for any dish that has a long, slow cooking process. For more expensive herbs, this is a smart process to control food cost.
Size Matters - Instead of cooking in large quantities out of confidence, do small batch production so you can be more responsive to changing needs in the food production process. This also helps you stop over production. At the end of the day it's much easier to make a correction to a single gallon of soup as opposed to a dozen gallons of soup when there's a time crunch. Remember too that tighter production control promotes improved food safety and HAACP management, and helps you maintain better quality control standards.
Exit Strategies - IF you know that your product is running out of time, then try to promote a special using those ingredients or menu items to your customers. For a caterer, this could be a reduced price on providing soup for an event. Treat this as an exit strategy that lets you get out from under product loss.
Know Your Shelf Life - If you have a standard menu for your catering business then you should know the shelf life of every item you have. If you order fresh for custom consumer menus then you need to make sure you're familiar with the shelf life of those products. This lets you minimize waste and optimize your food cost. Remember that smaller items are particularly susceptible to temperature and degrade faster than other items.
Plan Production Quantities - While most businesses and catering companies make their provisions for production based on previous clients, it's a good idea to revisit your calculations in comparison with waste to see if your production planning needs some modifications. If you can trim even 2% of the waste by altering your production then you're saving money.
2 comments:
Best Catering Tips you are sharing with us. If you are associated with the business of Restaurant then must read each and every poinb of above blog very carefully.
Excellent and useful information presented in this blog, I really like this article.The cost of having an event can vary widely. The following tips should provide you with a good idea of what you can expect and help you in designing the vision for your event.Thanks!
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