Tips for Short Order Lunch Menu Production

Many of these tips may seem obvious to the seasoned line cook, but they are none the less essential for operating a short order cook's line:

TIP 1:

Prep as many steps ahead as you can, so that during service, it requires only a few steps to finish a dish. EXAMPLE: For a menu item such as a cobb salad, all the individual ingredients would be prepped ahead: tomatoes diced, eggs sliced, bacon cooked and diced, blue cheese crumbles and dried cranberries in containers, lettuce washed and cut, chicken breast cooked, chilled and diced, etc.

     All that would be necessary to complete your salad would be assembly in a chilled bowl. Upon order, this menu item will take less than a minute to prepare.

TIP 2:

Prepped ingredients should be stored where it is most handy for a line cook to reach them. A refrigerated sandwich prep table that includes a flip top lid, various slots for sixth pans, a cutting board surface (for slicing sandwiches, quesadias and other items on the fly) and a lower storage unit is necessary.

TIP 3:

EVERY PREPPED ITEM SHOULD HAVE IT'S VERY OWN PLACE TO BE STORED!
Why the caps and exclamation point? Yes, I AM yelling at you! Every cook in your kitchen should know the exact location of products (this includes within your walk-ins, canned storage, dry storage, chemical storage, etc). Thus, if a busy line requires anyone from another cook to a chef to step in to help, there is no delay due to hunting for sliced tomatoes, as an example. Busy kitchens can be chaotic enough. CONTROL THE CHAOS.

Tip 4:

Timing of menu items that are on the same order so that they are all completed at relatively the same time is key.

     For example, an order that includes a burger with fries, a cobb salad and a Rueben with coleslaw, would be prepared in this fashion.

     The burger would be started on the broiler (the meat patty having already been potioned out ahead of time) since this is the item that will take the longest to cook.

     The fries would be dropped into the fryer next, since they can cook unattended, and can hold well before the burger they accompany is cooked.

     Let's start the rueben: the sliced corned beef goes onto the flat top. Next, we will brush melted butter onto two slices of rye bread, which will then be placed on the flat top to grill. Next, two slices of swiss and a squirt of 1000 island dressing will be added to the bread. A half cup of saurekraut goes on the flat top next. Check your burger!

    Next, since the salad can be assembled in about a minute, we'll do that next. Of course, we'll keep in mind that the burger needs to be flipped. So far, two minutes has transpired.

     Your fries are ready! Tranfer to a pan equipt with a heat lamp, season with salt.

     Check your burger! If done, set to the side. Proceed to set up your plate: bun, (toasted ahead as part of our morning prep), LTO (Lettuce Tomato and Onion) set-up (pre-set by the dozens as part of morning prep) and pickle slices. Add your patty and fries.

     Assemble your Rueben, slice and plate with pickles.

    Your server will provide the coleslaw for the Rueben and dressing for the cobb.

Your order is complete in around four to six minutes, typical for lunch rush.

I'll add more production tips im my next post.

Happy cooking!



 

How to Calculate Food Cost

It doesn’t matter that you have the best menu in town, a high-traffic location, beautiful decor and rave reviews if your restaurant charges $12 for a meal that costs you $13 to serve. Your cost to serve a meal includes both overhead costs and the actual food on the plate. Miscalculating either is a recipe for disaster.

Step 1

List the ingredients of the dish you are appraising. Include even small amounts of food, including a squirt of ketchup or spoonful of mayonnaise. Don't forget to account for cooking oil, seasonings and garnishes as well. Every dish should be portion controlled to ensure each chef serves the same meal at the same cost.

Step 2

Calculate the cost of each ingredient in each dish. For example, if a tomato costs 25 cents and each one yields eight slices, the tomato cost for a dish that includes two slices would be about 6 cents. Include a proportion of any delivery fees, interest, returns charges or other expenses directly related to purchasing foods.

Step 3

Add the total cost of the ingredients to calculate your food costs for that dish. Do not include the labor costs to prepare or serve the dish.

Step 4

Divide the menu price by the food cost to determine the percentage of the price that comes from food to begin determining if you have priced the meal correctly. For example, if you sell a meal for $18 and your food costs for that meal are $6, your food cost is 33 percent.

Step 5

Calculate your overhead cost per meal served. This includes all of the nonfood costs to run your restaurant, such as labor, rent, marketing, taxes and other expenses. Determine a daily overhead cost to run the restaurant and divide that by the number of customers you estimate you will serve each day. For example, if your overhead is $2,000 per day and you serve 250 customers daily, your overhead cost per person is $8. Include allowances for employee meals and food theft in the overhead figure, since these are not direct costs to serve a customer meal.

Step 6

Determine the target food-cost percentage you want for your menu items. Use your overhead costs to guide you. For example, if you sell a meal for $12 and have an $8 overhead cost, your food costs must be no more than $4 to break even. If you want a profit of $2 per plate, your sales price would then need to be $14, giving you a food-cost percentage of about 29 percent. If you feel your market will not support meals that cost more than $14, your chef will need to prepare menu items for no more than $4 each. If you sell meals for less than $14, your chef will need to use less than $4 of ingredients per meal, using your 29 percent guide.

Step 7

Examine your current menu prices to determine whether they cover your overhead and foods costs, and return a profit. Use your target food-cost percentage to do this. For example, if you determine that your food costs can be no more than 20 percent and a particular meal uses $4 of ingredients, you must sell that meal for at least $20.

Step 8

Determine whether you need to calculate different food cost percentages for different services or items. For example, a low-cost breakfast menu might require food costs to be less than 20 percent of the ticket since profit margins are small. A more expensive dinner menu might support foods costs as high as 35 percent per plate.

Step 9

Analyze your sales by item to see if your food-cost percentages can support your business. If you determine that you are selling mainly low-cost items, you may need to raise those prices -- or lower your food costs -- to be profitable. Look at total food costs per service and divide by total sales to get a more complete picture of your food costs without having to calculate the actual cost of each menu item.

Cross Utilization of Ingredients Throughout Menu

     Cross utilization of ingredients throughout your menu is crucial to maintaining food cost, avoiding spoilage and controling ordering.

Example:

     A menu that includes say, a burger (ingredients which include lettuce, tomato, onion, choice of American or Swiss) should also include items that rely on the same ingredients. In this example, we'll use a Chef's Salad, which will use many of the same ingredients as our burger platter. By "cross utilizing" ingredients, many individual menu items can be created. Why is this an essential part of menu design? Let's review:

FOOD COST: By using a small number of ingredients, costs are easier to calculate and track. Inventory and ordering is simplified. Price fluctuations are easier to follow and pro-active solutions can be found.

AVOIDING SPOILAGE: By being able to rotate product quicker and more efficiently.

CONTROLLING ORDERING: Estimating how much of any ingredient used in weekly or bi-weekly production is easier. Fresh foods can be closely tracked and purchased on an as needed basis.

Take a look at the major chains menus and you'll see just how much cross utilization is used. I think you'll be surprised!