Portion Control: How to Cut Your Food Cost & Improve Consistency in Your Kitchen

When it comes to the health of your profit-and-loss statement, no number is as important as food cost. Chefs and kitchen managers know that it doesn't take much for food costs to slide a point up or down. With so many responsibilities required to run a kitchen, proper food portioning should be near the top of the list.

All operations portion food in some way, but many should and could do more to improve the process. Successful food costing relies on the portion of product figured into the expense of a dish. If pan-seared salmon with Asian vegetables and miso glaze is 25 percent of the menu price, and the fish weight is 6 ounces, the cost increases significantly if the portion served is actually 7 ounces. The protein is the most important portion and also the most vulnerable to running up costs because it is the most expensive item. But, fortunately, it is the easiest to monitor. Keep in mind, however, if supporting ingredients are pricey, such as the Asian vegetables (red or yellow peppers, baby bok choy, or even some matsutake mushrooms), then there's an investment in the vegetables, also. Particularly with this example, it makes sense to weigh and bag the vegetables with the same vigor used for the salmon.

To see the benefits, do the math. Let's say the restaurant sells 200 salmon dinners every four weeks. Assume the cost of the vegetables in the dish is $1.35 for 4 ounces, or 34 cents an ounce. Overportioning the vegetables by just 1 ounce costs your operation $68 per week, or $3,468 for a 51-week year. That's just one dish.

Take the time to review the menu and identify items that can be preportioned. Some of the easiest come from the pantry. Salads or cold appetizers with ingredients such as artichoke hearts, kalamata olives, cured meat -- such as prosciutto, and upscale cheeses like Parmigiano, Reggiano, or Fontina can add up quickly if overportioned. These foodstuffs can easily be preportioned by weight, or measured by volume, helping to keep the designed plate cost in check.

There are many ways to preportion food, and not all of them may be right for your operation. Fine-dining restaurants don't typically preportion as much as a busy lunchtime sandwich shop. In a fine-dining concept, proteins such as meat, fish and fowl, are cut to specific weights. Other meal items are prepped and prepared by highly skilled and trained chefs who know exactly what goes into each plate, down to the garnish.

But in fast-casual and midscale dining where volume is king, less experienced cooks benefit, and ultimately the profit-and-loss statement, from preportioning. Preportioning results in true cost control, and other benefits, including consistency and speed, are added to the equation, making cooks more efficient. The same approach should be in play each time a cook reaches for a ladle. The ladle should be the amount priced into a salad if it's for dressing or a premade sauce for pasta.

Preweighing and bagging sliced meats and cheeses at lunch ensures complete control over the amount of product for each sandwich. It also gives operations inventory control, letting managers see firsthand how much food is prepped, and what has sold in a shift. Even artesian breads that need to be hand-sliced can be done ahead of time when used for grilled or Panini applications, saving time and labor.

Freshness is another positive to prebagging prep items. Portions can be easily labeled with food-dating systems, and rotated, allowing cooks and kitchen managers to monitor prepped food. Many prepped foods even benefit from being wrapped separately, adding to product quality shelf life.

Using prep cooks to portion food for service will save labor dollars by keeping higher-priced line cooks cooking and doing less prep work. It's important that during service they can reach for finished, portion-ready prepped products, keeping the hot line flowing with properly prepared dishes that meet specifications.

Even fine-dining chefs have embraced the benefit of portioning expensive items like foie gras. With affordable vacuum seal machines available, preportioned slice of foie gras can be service-ready without the risk of quality loss or waste. Cured duck breast prosciutto can be prepared in bulk and sealed in portion, making it easy on the garde manger chef to handle for service, and easier on the sous chef or head chef to count for prep lists, ordering and inventory.

By using the right portioning tools, whether they're ladles, portioning scoops, scales or baggies, they all have the same effect. These tools help prep cooks and line cooks to do their part in controlling food costs and the operation's bottom line.