When running a restaurant, every cent counts and not carefully monitoring the cost of ingredients could very well cost you your entire business. We can help you with this and reveal to you why it’s so important.
Type of ingredient
Of course, we all know the type and variation of one single ingredient can really influence its cost. Even food ingredients have their own quality standards and characteristics that can cost significantly more than your average day-to-day variant.
So, see and consider your ingredients carefully. Do you really need that one ingredient that costs you over a hundred times more than the average? Can you find a cheaper alternative or supplier?
Amount of ingredients used
Even if you’re sticking to the more expensive and high-end ingredients in your cooking, remember to portion them carefully when you do use them. Or maybe even use them sparingly for only specific servings.
A more efficient way to run a restaurant is to only serve a limited menu with only several or more dishes available. This way, your monthly expenditure on ingredients is predictable and more easily measurable after a period of time as your restaurant serves more and more customers.
Weight of the ingredient
The amount of a single ingredient you use is also closely related to weight. Weight can be a more accurate way of measuring the amount you’re using. It’s no wonder then why many recipes use it as a measurement.
Calculating the cost per gram of an ingredient
Some of the ingredients you buy for your restaurant you might not buy in bulk or in large amounts. You could be buying an ingredient in a bottle or a packet – especially if it’s only used in small amounts at a time.
With the info you get on the packaging, you can divide how much it costs you to buy the ingredient and divide that by how much it weighs. This gives you the cost per gram of that ingredient.
From here, you’re intricately counting every cent for every gram of ingredient you purchase for the restaurant. Sure it may seem too much to calculate every little detail. But costs no matter how small are crucial to running your business.
Calculating the cost for a single portion
You can now calculate how much a single portion of food you’re serving your customers would cost you. In the long run, you can even tweak some things about your dishes to make them better or not cost as much to make. But as long as high standards and quality remain.
In the end, that’s why all this counting and calculating is important – cost and money. Your restaurant is a business after all. And as with any business, your financials are important to stay in business.
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