How to Profit from Proper Prep Work

An essential area of competence and consistent execution in any restaurant is in the preparation stage of the food production process. The implication of not having your act together here is immense because it has a direct affect not only on your food cost, but even more importantly, every guest's dining experience.

In this article we'll discuss 12 practical and profitable preparation practices designed to help you control your costs and enhance the odds that your kitchen is capable of creating the food products your guests want and expect.

Profitable Prep Practice No. 1:
Develop and Use Standard Recipes

Imagine eating in a new restaurant that's just opened in your neighborhood. You notice it has one of your very favorite dishes on the menu, let's say it's the seafood pasta. You order the dish, and when it comes to the table it's a big, healthy portion. It's steaming-hot and tastes absolutely wonderful. It might just be the best seafood pasta you've ever had. Any chance you'll return to this restaurant? In fact, you might even become an evangelist for the place, and tell other people about it.

Almost everyone has had that dream in which they show up to class unprepared for the exam. All of us fear being unprepared, and for good reason. It creates disorganization, frustration and lost opportunity, and can be costly.

Let's say you return to this restaurant in a couple of weeks and you've brought with you some additional friends or family members to share the experience. When the server comes to the table you don't even have to see the menu because you already know what you're going to order, the seafood pasta. But when your dish of pasta arrives, you immediately notice something. The portion size is not nearly as generous, there's no steam rolling off the plate, and it just doesn't taste the same. It is not nearly as good as it was on your last visit.

Are you disappointed? Are you still going to tell people what a great restaurant it is? Are you going to return? In fact, there's a possibility that you may never give this restaurant a second chance and they may have lost you as a customer forever. Why do people return to any restaurant? They go back because they liked what they got the last time. Customers today don't want surprises. They want and expect "consistency." If not, they'll go someplace else. And we all know how many dining choices there are these days.

Just to remind you of the importance of repeat business, past National Restaurant Association surveys have found that the average fine-dining restaurant gets around 60 percent of sales from repeat customers. Among casual operations, that figure increases to around 80 percent. It's just more proof that you live or die in this business not by how many people you attract once, but by how many first-timers you can turn into regulars, who keep coming back again and again.