Читать книгу Start & Run a Catering Business - George Erdosh - Страница 33

Theft is a serious problem in virtually all food service facilities; the bigger the institution, the bigger the problem. The main problem is the staff stealing your raw ingredients. This is not easy to deal with. If the amounts taken are relatively small and the food value low, poorly paid staff may hardly consider it dishonest to take a package of butter or half a dozen chocolate chip cookies. The issue is more serious if half a dozen pieces of filet mignon disappear regularly. Even $20 worth of food taken from your kitchen by the staff can have an impact on your profit margin if it happens routinely.

To make matters worse, in a small business you don’t purchase many extra supplies. If you need 23 steaks for a dinner, you may buy a few extra in case the guest count increases at the last minute or as insurance against one steak being ruined beyond repair, or being dropped in the dog dish in front of the client. Six steaks taken from the refrigerator can spell disaster.

Theft is usually not much of a problem in a small business with a small staff. You know each other well and your relationship is cordial. Once your business and your staff grow and you hire minimum-wage dishwashers and extra food prep staff, theft could become a real problem, particularly if you are frequently absent from the kitchen.

Larger restaurant, hotel, and institutional kitchens deal with the problem by daily and weekly inventory control. This does discourage theft since the staff know about the strict control. If they are taking the butter, it will be limited to one pound instead of four. The disappearance of a package of butter is hardly noticeable when a lot of food is being prepared; four packages missing will be noticed. Large kitchens put someone in charge of logging everything coming into the kitchen in raw form and keeping track of each item and quantity being used. (This serves as more than theft prevention; it is also the system for ordering and restocking.)

In your much smaller business, the idea of inventory control is still valid. You have to know what you have in your freezer and refrigerator, on your shelves, and in the bins. You don’t need to itemize every last article, but at least keep track of the major items (e.g., how many chicken breasts, how many cans of caviar). Do your best to make your staff understand that you know every spoonful of vanilla in the vanilla bottle and every cup of flour in the flour bin.

Another way to make the staff less likely to take food behind your back is generously sharing the delicious extra food after a successful party.