As much as he loves the creative side of what he does, Paul Verica, Executive Chef at the Club at Longview in Charlotte, N.C. also loves the numbers side and understanding the how’s and why’s of his operation. Each of his recipes features a cost analysis with very specific per-ingredient breakdowns and calculations.
“There are many benefits to costing out all of our recipes,” says Verica. “The one I feel is most important is that, in doing so, it teaches my staff the concept of ‘food is money.”
Equally as important, understanding this concept is crucial as his staff members as they move forward in their careers. Verica hopes, armed with this information, they will look at and treat products differently knowing the costs associated with each item. “Having standardized recipes and sharing this costing information with my staff gives them a sense of ownership and understanding,” he says. “I feel it will make them less likely to waste products when they can relate tossing out half a pepper to tossing out dollars that could be used for their next raise.”
Management by numbers
Knowing and analyzing food costs helps Verica stay on top of his vendors and subsequently his chefs. He looks at internal processes; to make sure his team, as a whole, is being as efficient and effective as possible.
“For example, we used to buy all of our fish in whole or fillet form, and butcher them down ourselves,” he explains. “While this to me was the ideal way to do things, it led to some waste and quality issues, because as a young club our business volumes can be inconsistent-we can do 60 covers on a Friday night and then 20 on Saturday. Since the last thing I want to do is sell a bad product, let alone waste a product, that led me to look into options for pre-cut, “cry-o-vac” fish. The price per pound was a little bit more, but if we monitor our product levels, purchase what we need when we need it, and store and handle the product properly, we can increase our shelf life dramatically. At the same time we are trimming waste.”
And of course the biggest benefit of costing all of recipes is that Verica can make sure his team is constantly working towards achieving food cost goals, which he says is a “constant struggle, with multiple factors working against us.”
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