The complete guide to preventing waste in your restaurant
Does this sound familiar? You have a winning dish—customers are crazy about it, but when the new cook prepares it, the sauce comes out a bit different, or the portion size on the plate suddenly changes. When you ask the chef for the exact cost of the dish, you usually get a quick calculation on a napkin or a something like: "Around 18 shekels, give or take."
A profitable restaurant has no "around". This is where the most important concept in a professional kitchen comes in: the bill of materials (BOM).
Smart Menu = Less Waste, More Profits
The secret is to maximize the use of every raw material. How?
Ingredients that appear in several dishes: Do you have herbs used for both salad and pasta sauce? Great, you've saved money!
Utilize every part: Vegetable peels can become broth, less popular meat cuts can go into ragu or soup, and even dry bread can become croutons.
A Tidy Fridge = Less Trash
When the kitchen is organized, it's much easier to maintain priorities.
FIFO Method: The first to come is the first to go. Don't let old products disappear behind the sauce containers!
Tag Expiration Date : This way, you won't suddenly find a box of vegetables you forgot about until it tries to escape the fridge on its own.
Smart Inventory Tracking: If you have a system like Zestt, you'll always know what you have, what's missing, and what needs to be ordered.
Only Order What You Really Need
If you know what your customers order more of and what they order less of, you won't buy unnecessarily.
Analyze Food Cost: If there's a dish that nobody orders and requires expensive raw materials, it might be time to cut it from the menu.
Adjust Inventory to Season and Operating Hours: Do you have dishes that customers only order in the summer? Don't buy stock for them in the winter!
Plan Based on Holidays and Special Events: So you aren't left with excess stock after a holiday or a busy weekend.
How Can You Start Right Now?
Take a fresh look at the menu and ensure raw materials reappear in several dishes.
Organize the fridge and storage area so you don't throw away food for no reason.
Use sales data to make smarter orders.
At the end of the day, preventing waste is not just about saving money – it also contributes to the environment and having smarter business management. So let's have less garbage – and more cash registers!