2. Why you need proper recipes
Knowing & tracking your costs
Understanding recipe construction
◦ batch vs. recipe vs. complete recipe vs. menu/pkg
◦ standards and consistency
Different ways to do it
3. Started with CBM at 14
Electrical Engineering/
Computer Science
Background
Worked at CNN & theatres
Learned other aspects of live
events
Fell in love with food thanks
to this job
4. Founded in 1980 as a hot
dog stand
Catering spun off into
separate company in 1991
Peak revenue of $17 Million
90 FT & 130 PT Employees
45% Full Service / 35% On
Premise / 20% Delivery
5. Largest event $1.3 million
Focused on food quality
above all else
Poor facility design
challenges efficiency
Non Chicago address is a
marketing struggle
6. 394 Vendors
3,220 Inventory Items
13,308 Recipes
◦ Largest known database in existence
3 FT Staff dedicated to managing the database
15,381 photos (432 GB)
7. Consistency in your product
Selling based on true costs
Consistency in sales force pricing
Keep profit margins where they need to be
Smart purchasing decisions
Historical data = forecasting trends
◦ Caterers are selling for the future
8. Know your loss Loss from cleaning
What is useable Loss from
product cooking/reduction
Proper units of ‘Useable Product’
measure floz ≠ oz loss
Brisket – Start with 100# received
1. Lose 38% in cleaning – now 62#
2. Lose 39% in cooking – now 37.82# saleable
3. Lose 12% in scrap/trim from slicing
9.
10. FLOZ Weight is always better than
Water volume unless it is a liquid
Vodka
Can use weight to confirm
Chopped Herbs
yield
OZ
• Chicken
• Mayo
• Flour
17. Tap Water
Fryer Oil
Packaging
Skewer
Garnish
Loss
18. Food Cost
◦ 30% Labor
◦ 30% Overhead
◦ 30% (or less) Food Cost
◦ 10% to pay sales commission and profit
Any average food cost 20%-30% is ok
Chipotle is at 33.5%
19. Pastry @ 20%
◦ So much additional labor
◦ Passed apps also good at 20%
Proteins can be up to 50%
◦ What can your market bear
Cheap items @ lower FC% (8%-16%)
◦ Potatoes, Rice
Anything bought & resold @ 50%
Packaging @ 50%
20.
21. Database (designed for recipes) – BEST
◦ Designed for this use
◦ Instantly recalculate recipes
◦ Relational data
◦ Expensive start up cost
Database (not designed for recipes) – OK
◦ Relational Data
◦ Lacks functionality
◦ Takes a lot of time to setup
Other – POOR
◦ Low start up cost
◦ Very expensive in the long run
◦ Data is flat – not linked throughout
22. Adjust or change ingredients
Adjust yield and portion
Better purchasing
23.
24.
25. Ingredients + loss = yield
All costs included
Ingredients are logged
properly
Ingredients listed in order of
use
Method written so a person
with no experience could do
Use standards – Medium
Dice, Brunoise, etc
26. To download a copy of this presentation, go to:
slideshare.net/CateringChicago
Jeff Ware
jware@CateringByMichaels.com | (847) 966-6555
Editor's Notes
Gives 50,000ft viewAble to see cost of each component > we always replace green pepper w/ red to lower costAble to reserve waste for reuse > trimmings from cake to be used for cake popsBrings consistency to product sold
Use Blueberry example to talk about useable product – comes as 1pt container but some are crushed, moldy, etc
1 tablespoon parsley DOES NOT EQUAL 1 tablespoon chopped parsleyEA – only when using 1pc – ex. 1 mushroom on a skewer, 1 baked potato
IngredientsMethodYieldLoss?
Brings together cooked rice and other batch recipesStill need method, yield, lossNot ready to be sold
Adds sauces, packaging, etc (garnish)Ready to sell
Combine several saleable recipesNo packaging or sauce at this level – because it is already included in the complete recipesMethod should explain presentation and packaging details
We used to aim for 25% FCLowered to 24% to account for the cost of testing recipes and doing database development
Talk about pros and cons of eachRecipe Database: includes reports and prints. Often has option to import from Sysco, GFS etc to save data entry timeCan even buy recipes already builtTypes – CostGuard, ChefTec, MenuMaxRegular Database:Catering Sales/BEO Software, MS AccessOther:Word, Excel, Beverage Napkins
Focus on your top selling itemsNo reason to leave your money on the table!
