Qualitaly_111

JUN. JUL. 2019 XIII to adapt the offer to the needs of the customer. Only in this way it is possible to obtain an increase in sales and profit maximisation within a restaurant. Something easier said than done. It is not so obvious that a restaurateur or a chef knows exactly how to create an ad hoc menu for their point of sale. In reality, it often happens that a restaurant has too diverse an offer, certainly impacting on the customer, but most of the time hardly manageable or even feasible. But, how do you avoid this kind of problem? We talked with Gian Franco Fadda, one of the catering industry’s great experts. How do you analyse the costs of a restaurant? Where should you start? The first thing to do is to check exactly your expenses, dividing them into fixed, semi-fixed and variable. The first are made up of the bills (electricity, gas, phone, etc), the rent and tablecloths; then there are the costs for the purchase of ingredients and labour. Finally, one must take into account the unexpected, which are much more frequent than one might think (products which turn or expire in no time, erroneous cooking, excessive demand...). In short, wanting to be more technical we can say that the fundamental principles for an efficient calculation/ measurement in the kitchen are: - purchase rational - control of consumption - calculation of selling prices - control of losses What are the factors that contribute to the determination of the selling price? The most widely used method to determine the final sale price is called the co-efficient multiplier, which is given by the sum of the following items: - the cost of food 30% - labour 40% - general expenses 10% - profit 20% - Total 100 By multiplying the cost of food for the multiplier you get the sale price. Whereas the multiplier is 100 if we divide it by the percentage attributable to the costs of food, we get the following: 100 : 30 = 3.33 If the cost for the production of a dish amounts to a hypothetical 2.58 euros, the sale price will be: 2.58 x 3.33 = 8.59 How do you determine that the cost of a dish amounts to 2.58 euros? You start from the cost of the ingredients and then determine how many servings you can get from a foodstuff, considering the eventual waste. Once you have established the cost of the portion, multiply that by the 3.33 of which we spoke before. Let’s talk about the creation of the menu... To create a menu, you need to follow some main rules. First of all, make sure that there are no repetitions, i.e. dishes that are too similar to each other. However, it is also important not to fall into the opposite error, proposing a series of dishes with ingredients that are too different. For instance, if at noon you decide to offer your customers a range of salads, you need to make sure they have some ingredients in common, otherwise you are forced to buy too many ingredients. Another important element is to offer only dishes with seasonal products which, of course, will have a different cost if purchased at other times of the year. How do you go about the supply of food? Initially, it is better to buy the products every day and see what the actual consumption is. Only afterwards can you can think of programmed purchases. Of course, the stock must be equipped with the basic ingredients: salt, sugar, oil, pasta. Even there, however, it is necessary to monitor the actual consumption. What do you do to consume products that have less rotation? The best solution is to propose the classic dish of the day at an attractive price by using those foods that have not been used or, maybe, in stock, avoiding letting them go off and, therefore, become unusable. There are “loss-leader” dishes? Of course. With desserts, for example, the restaurateur can get a good profit margin. They are usually sold for about 7 euro, but their real cost is about 1 euro. It is very important to check, however, which type of processing should be carried out on that product, because if the labour should need too much time you lose every type of economic advantage. However, maintaining the quality of ingredients, the best trick to have a good edge is to find products that have competitive costs. Ultimately, who should take care of all these aspects? Usually it is the owner who takes care of all these steps. In a larger structure - where the owner is not present - there must be a manager who has a control, in short, a manager of the restaurant, otherwise, my statement will seem far-fetched, it is easy to incur considerable losses in turnover. ______________________________ BOX WEBSITES https://www.ciboe.it/food-beverage/ food-pairing/ https://www.facebook.com/ foodpairing.page/ https://campariacademy.en/en/ academy-mag/foodpairing/