Love the leftover: How restaurants are minimising waste

More than pleasing the palate or snagging gourmet chefs at the right price, the biggest challenge in the restaurant business is food wastage. There are many sources of this wastage, apart from leftovers from customers' plates. There's the perishable nature of raw materials, storage problems and most of all, the challenge of predicting sales. Here's a classic dilemma: miss an opportunity to make a sale or control wastage with tighter inventory management?

But all is not lost. The restaurant industry is increasingly using technology and science to arrest wastage even as some managements are trying to sensitise their staff to the issue. We spoke to restaurateur Dharmesh Karmokar, who along with his partner Hitesh Keswani owns Silver Beach Cafe and Nom Nom in Mumbai.
 
Karmokar's experience of working with veterans Rahul Akerkar and Riyaz Amlani and setting up coffee chains and restaurants before moving to Aurus and The Tasty Tangles has taught him how to master this delicate balancing act. Here's his advice.
 
How Big Is The Challenge?

On an average, food wasted comprises 2-3 per cent of a restaurant's sales. It's a little more in a quick service restaurant and maximum in a pastry shop (6 per cent). That's because cakes and pastries are made in anticipation of sales and involves extensive usage of highly perishable items like milk and eggs.

In addition, another 10 per cent of food sold is wasted, as customers do not always eat the food they order. Finally, you can lose from 0.5 per cent to 4 per cent or more due to bad inventory management and / or bad holding equipment.

Sources Of Food Wastage

There's a lot more to waste than what customers choose not to eat. Vegetable trimmings, chicken strips, dairy products, gravies and sauces, bread ends, edges of a sponge cake and oil used for frying are common items that land up in the trash as also unsold food.

There is also pre-consumer kitchen waste, which could be incorrectly prepared food, spoilt food, trimmings or simply overproduction. This is the biggest challenge for a chef. Anticipation of demand can only be planned with last and latest trend reports. All said and done, it is impossible to be accurate even with demand predictions and hence it will always remain a challenge. Working with in-depth analysis of business trends and consumption patterns over a period of time will reveal a pattern that will help plan final production and thus minimise wastage.

Restaurateur Dharmesh Karmokar

Solutions To Wastage

If you're a pessimist, you lose out on sales; if you're an optimist, you end up being left with perishable goods. It's best to be a realist. The cost of losing out on opportunity of sale is 3 times that of wastage. Here are some suggestions for damage-control.

Respect For Food: In our country, food is considered 'anna' and every God-fearing man worships food. It is also considered the highest form of donation ie 'annadaan'. This ethos has helped us respect food. Restaurateurs need to encourage this belief wholeheartedly.

We teach our team a simple rule - eat as much as you can, as many helpings as you want, but you are not allowed to throw away food. This trains them to control excesses. However, food still gets wasted. A simple act like showing the staff the dustbin at the end of the day can help get the message across.

Proper Storage: This is the most important way to control wastage. Food has to be stored properly and handled as little as possible. So, for instance, if you handle a piece of meat too many times and then put it back in the deep freezer it may get infected. Meats have to be washed thoroughly, wrapped in food-grade plastic and then stored below 4 degrees and fish below 18 degrees. Fresh veggies must get sufficient air or must be refrigerated.

Check, Check, Check: Regularly monitoring wastage can help minimise, if not eliminate, wastage. If an item sits on the menu and rarely lands up on the table, discontinue making that product altogether.

Small Is Big: Cook in small batches and cook them daily so that you can estimate your requirement. This also ensures freshness and better quality. Regularly review and monitor your sales report to determine how many portions of a dish go out each day. 

Investment In Technology: Never hesitate to invest in a vacuum machine to seal meats. Investing in good quality thermostats not only reduces your bills but also ensures quality. Good storage containers also help.

The Right Portions: This is easier said than done. It's a dilemma between price, perception and value for money, but we can try. Different people have different appetites and each person will have a certain degree of hunger. A lot depends on how a restaurateur ascertains portion size given these variables. Notice how greed takes over at buffets and guests throw away heaps of food. Nowadays, people prefer smaller portions. But, in our country, smaller portions are frowned upon as it defeats the value-for-money proposition.

Best Out Of Waste: Last year, we started a competition which allowed junior chefs to create from waste. The dish that makes its way to the menu wins Rs 5,000. The response was overwhelming! Of course, the final product has to be worthy of fine dining. Encouraging innovation has helped.

Waste Penalty: We also started penalising our staff Rs 100 for wasting the food we serve them. I wish I could do the same to some guests! Periodically, talking and mentoring helps. Tell them, 'if they wouldn't waste it at home, they shouldn't waste it at work'.
 
Optical Illusion: A large dish or plate can make a serving appear much smaller than the same serving in a smaller dish or plate. Restaurateurs can thus serve smaller portions on smaller plates, thus creating significantly less kitchen and plate waste, without causing the customer to feel cheated about portion size. In this age of bean counting, the size of disposable plates too has shrunk. We cannot simply replace our crockery. What we do is change the shape of the plate. For instance, a long plate has a better perception in presentation and holds less food. And, of course, the tall and fancy tumblers make you feel you've drank a litre of ice tea even though it was only 180 ml!

As told to Nivedita Jayaram Pawar

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