Recipe cards – the ultimate tool to control consistency
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August 27th, 2008
Perhaps the most crucial yet most often overlooked consistency control in any kitchen is the use of recipe cards for every item on the menu. Its all very well having each menu item costed, but if your costing is for 200 gram portions of eye fillet and one chef is preparing these at 220 grams, this is a 10 percent difference which comes straight out of your profit.
A recipe card should detail every ingredient used in a recipe with the weight required. While grams and ml are more accurate units to use, I recommend using units which can be easily utilised in a busy service. Eg. a 60ml ladle may be used to portion sauces, or a 60ml ramekin may be used.
Its also important to include a photograph of the item. This not only helps the kitchen consistently present the item, but servers can use this to correctly identify it on the pass. For the price of a digital camera these days you will quickly see a return on investment.
Including a method (how the item is prepared), along with nutrition and special diet information is also handy for any server selling an item. They can see at a quick glance if the item is suitable for a diabetic or someone with a nut allergy. Daily specials can be the hardest things to communicate to servers as they are not used to them.
They also give you a tool as an owner to monitor the consistency you require. If a chef is deliberately preparing a different way you have a control which you can come back to and ask the question why is this different today?After all, its your profit were talking about here. You can look at it from a diners perspective also. If a diner had a great meal one night and returned to order it again then find it was completely different, how would they feel?
Any changes made to a recipe should be signed off by a head chef or manager and you need to have a policy in place.
Recipe cards can be generated from any recipe in MenuCoster (www.myrecipes.co.nz). In just seconds you can instantly scale a recipe for the number of portions you require.