So you've discovered that your kitchen isn't the profit center you want it to be. Instead for some reason, your kitchen is dragging down the other parts of your business. Unless you are happy to run your kitchen at a loss, the chances are that you want to plug the losses as soon as possible.

If you have followed my previous recommendations to create a recipe card for every menu item,  then you have by now eliminated the poorly performing menu items, so this should not be the problem.

Assuming that you are now left with profitable menu items only, it's time to stand back and take stock of the situation: The problem you have is that the ingredients purchased throughout the period are not being sold for profit – they are either being stolen, overcooked and thrown out, expiring before usage, not being delivered in the first place.

20% of your ingredients are going to account for approximately 80% of your profits or losses and these are usually your high end ingredients such as beef tenderloin, lamb, halibut, lobsters, crab etc.

It's time to make a list of your top ten ingredients by unit cost.

Once you have this done, you're going to track what happens to these items shift by shift for a week. Seems like a lot of work? So is losing your business because of a poorly performing kitchen.

I recommend doing this out of sight of the kitchen staff, even the Chef. Conduct your opening count before they come on duty and your closing count after they go home.

Use this Free Top 10 Inventory Sheet to track these items easily. If you are losing money in the kitchen, there's a big chance it's occurring with these items.

All you'll need to do is an opening inventory of the items each shift, a list of the deliveries of these items each shift, the quantity sold (get this from the POS) and the closing inventory quantity. The Top 10 Inventory Sheet will then tell you if you are missing items instantly. If you have losses, it's time to approach the Chef and ask for his feedback and answers as to the losses.

I would be very surprised if this wasn't enough for him to take action in the kitchen and tighten things up, providing of course, that he is not the problem….

In any case, now that you are measuring regularly, you'll be able to take appropriate action in the kitchen to put an end to the losses.

How to Take Advantage of the Ultimate Sales Tool - Your Menu
Douglas Fisher
This article will touch on some of the more salient points which should be considered when developing a menu designed to increase sales and profitability. . . . keep reading

DOWNLOAD: Daily Work Sheet & Specials
How often have your staff approached a table not knowing what the Specials of the day are or even if that's the table they should be serving? Download the Daily Work Sheet and Specials Template so you can prepare daily records of your food specials of the day as well as any work notes your staff need to be aware of. . . . keep reading

Properly costed recipes are worth the effort!
Determining the proper cost of each item on each of your menus can be a time-consuming process, but the effort will pay off in the end. Not only will you be aware of your costs, and be able to apply proper selling prices to each item and generate proper revenues, but you can also use this information in many other areas of your business. . . . keep reading