Well, I attended the NRA Show in Chicago last weekend, and yes, I did see Mario Batali in the flesh. (Crude cell phone picture coming soon…) I also tried lots of food samples, including a few delicious “stinky” cheeses (but you already know that I have a penchant for gourmet cheese). I gathered some good information, and since I blogged last week about measuring profit, I’d like to continue with that theme.
When you’re measuring profit, your costs have to be accurately measured first. They have to be strictly controlled, and one step in cost control is portion control. Just telling or training your staff to use the correct portion sizes is not always enough. A way to virtually eliminate error is to pre-portion your foods. At the NRA Show, I gathered some excellent portion control information from Daydots. Their literature uses a few examples of portion mismanagement to drive home the point that small mistakes can add up to big profit loss:
If fresh cucumber cost $1.15/pound, serving one extra ounce 60 times per day would cost approximately $1574 annually
If rice cost $0.15/pound, serving two extra ounces 150 times per day would cost approximately $1027 annually
One way of preportioning food is through portion bags. Daydots lists some of the benefits of portion bag use. The main ideas are that portion bags:
- Save food cost.
- Make happier customers because they know what to expect every visit.
- Make food prep faster and easier, requiring less staff training.
One crucial facet of a restaurant or bar’s success is strict attention to money matters, and calculating your profit per plate requires consistent value on each plate. (Or in each glass, for that matter; don’t forget to use measured liquor pours for those high-profit mixed drinks.) For more portioning ideas and information about products that can make proportioning easier, please call, email, or chat online with a Serv-U sales representative.
