CFO999

KATIE Unit cost is just one element of reducing food cost, what about delivery scheduling or an analysis of yeild against the receipes to lower buying quantities What is your shringage? Examine your costs against DOA market reports to see how far over market you are paying....you will be surprized. Being small has its limitations, but the same rules apply. If your revenue is X work backwards...find your purchasing limit per day and stick with it

Hey Jaun Thank you for being honest You are right about working with your vendor If the operator is making you drop 5=10 times a week that could become increasingly expensive. And you will pass on the cost This condition is usually caused by the delusion of I need to buy fresh daily or I don't have the storage space. Poor planning The produce items are the perfect example Your vendor buys his product on a three day or weekly cycle...items in a terminal market come by truck from CA or FL. They are already in your vendors facility. So the lettuce you buy Mon. is the same drop you buy Weds. his product cost is the same Front end controls include working with your vendors.purchase orders tell you before you accept the goods into the house I wonder if the vendor would drop his price if you took deliveries 3 times a week? Or request a cost plus program based on DOA market prices When is the last time your vendor said hey,tomatoes are going up next week, you may want to purchase a liitle more this weekend to soften the market increase next week. Produce vendors especially know your useage....Let them store your product, they already do Just tell them in advance that you will take X cases this week. See if the price goes down My point is if you are just calling up to say 2,4,6,8,10 without any discussion of cost, your food cost is not as low as it could be. In this exercise no mention of changing your spec or product brand occurs.

I know this seems nickel and dime....but thats the business we are in $3.50 times how many products= ?

Venors know your useage weekly Why raise my price day to day.....they buy weekly the inventory is already there Their cost didn't change

Thanks Katie Even if you are not a multi-unit MCO the tracking of product costs still apply Vendors spend more time analyizing your useage than anything else And when they need to increase margins they will. One of my chefs tracked his cost on eggs for two weeks and found the vendor charging one price on Monday...higher price on Weds.....and even higher price on Friday. And Fridays order had the highest volume...go figure If the vendor knows your not looking he will take the opportunity to increase his margins.

Hey Katie The game is to see how low you can go without risking the quality of the dish or the spec of the ingredents Demand no market changes from your vendor on a weekly basis Use the bid process to keep the vendor aware you are looking at your product cost Get market reporting from the DOA Do not allow vendors to do your inventory Just ask the price of these items when you order them...track product costs you will be surprised at what you will find

Thank you Cliff Good point Hopefully your menu will change seasonally as well to match those flux market changes in your product cost Presenting in season fresh product is very important Menu planning for those changes are done by the chef and if he/she is on their game the menu pricing will remain static without large variations in cost. Weighing product at time of receiving is a valuable front end control Vendors will play games As far as shorting 5 blueberries...make it up in portioning But the fact that you know you are short is important and should be calculated in your yield to allow for the cost.

Not one person has said yes to using any of the front end controls mentioned earlier in this thread Interesting

Thank You Katie Exactly my point I believe that our present day culinary educators inject these important steps in thier cultivation of our future chefs. Survival in such a large market sector is the name of the game. The high failure rate in our industry should not be ignored or redirected. If you don't use any of these front end controls to prevent your costs from getting away from you, then you must ask yourself.. WHY? I don't have the time or its not my job is a sure sign of impending failure. Raising menu prices will decrease your volume and preceived value Customers at all levels are price sensitive...don't think they are not.

Wow, who''s angry now! I see we can get pretty miffed If you don't use any of the front end controls or they are not being done for you Or you do not know how to check them yourself for accuracy Chances are your food costs are higher than they should be Standards for these responsabilities vary from place to place, but last time I looked this was still a business. Food costs are controlled by people not policies I would have thought the chef would not redirect this responsability And if the chef was hired for only his/her creativity....the owner may want reconsider his labor costs.

No not angry......just surprised BOH is the creator and manufactuer of the product Should it not be there responsability to know their food cost without dependance on a second party....without delays The chef would become a better chef with this ability We are talking about personal growth here Does a chef just create and then its someone else's problem. I thought this was a team thing. All chefs are not finance majors, but in stand alone restaurants(majority) they are usually management

The fact that the person who makes the call is not the same as the person who receives the goods is a control issue What document is he/she receiving against Did we order this Is it a substitute item Is the cost been agreed to in advance Are the quanities correct FOH has nothing to do with any of these issues

Thank you Carrot Top Food cost unfortunately is a BOH responsabilty The chef should have the knowledge to go to the POS and run all the menu sales detail needed daily and know what his daily food purchasing limits are daily If he knows his target food cost percentages and his purchase limits he will not be dependant on the bookkeeper or the FOH managers Without going into the drama of FOH vs BOH There is no escaping keeping an eye on item costs Utilizing purchase orders will mandate knowing item costs and your purchasing limits, portion controls, and par levels

Yeild, portion control,and inventory par levels can only be adjusted if your looking at both menu item sales and item costs. No one is suggesting the chef change his specifications on item quality That could affect consistancy and menu item sales negativley. Do you examine menu item sales daily?

Revenue is not the main issue in food cost Menu costing is If the elements in your receipe are constantly rising and your menu item pricing stays constant .......your food cost will go up This is not a quality issue.......this is financial If you are not looking.....you are dead

I have seen kitchen staff get on the phone and never ask the price on a single item Just send me 2,4,6,8,10 BOH controls would include much more than need and coverage Market price changes on items seem to be ignored You pay one price on Monday and a Different one on Thursday. DO you use purchase orders Documented receiving procedures Negotiated pricing to be held weekly Bids on items (vendor comparisons) Menu costing...checked weekly Portion adjustments for volitile items and this is just some of the front end controls

Are food costs naturally higher if the chefs do the buying?