Equipment: How Foodservice Equipment Helps to Control Costs

Equipment: How foodservice equipment helps to control costs

Karen Malody         Sep. 20, 2011

The upcoming annual SFM Conference will include a discussion of rising commodity prices and how menu engineering, waste management and reductions in energy consumption can provide more beneficial, more corrective solutions for operators compared with raising menu prices. As a MAS consultant, this leads me to my favorite topic:  How  foodservice equipment plays a significant role in easing operational challenges and can protect profits. This is not just a ‘hard times’ solution – this can prevent hard times.

Procurement hedging, strategic product replacement and menu mix alterations are all legitimate options to implementing price rises. But if all these measures are not implemented through optimal equipment that protects operators from loss through product shrinkage – or worse yet, poor execution – what has been gained? And who is helping operators make critical equipment-selection decisions in the first phases of their project development?

One might turn to professional groups such as FCSI, for a kitchen design expert. But, as I have noted before, their hands are tied if there is no menu. And that menu should be produced by optimal equipment.

In the old days, with only limited cooking techniques available via limited types of equipment, operators had relatively fewer choices for tenderizing, imbuing deep flavors and minimizing shrinkages of cheaper cuts of protein. It was challenging to grill a chuck steak to mouth-watering tenderness. But now operators can slow roast it for several hours in a controlled slow-cooking environment, remove it, mark and caramelize it on a grill and present a walloping good steak. Pork shoulder steaks, “Boston Butt steaks” bone-in, are some of the most flavorful steaks on earth. Same cooking method, same fabulous results.

Hocks, shanks, cheeks, top rounds, mock tenders, bottom rounds – you name it. We now have so many more ways in which to prepare these flavorful cuts and simultaneously deliver superb quality to guests. Issues of controlling food costs through astute operational practices and keen menu engineering are becoming much more top-of-mind with operators. But, too often, the role equipment can play is either forgotten or not on the radar in the first place.

I’ve written for years about the necessity of collaborative effort in the industry as the best means of bringing profit-generating, forward-thinking operational solutions to our customers and clients. As consultants and equipment designers and manufacturers, we must merge our separate interests and work in solidarity. Our food cost-challenged operators are out there, needing our help.

Many chefs and operators are never or rarely able to get out to trade shows or events that help to expose them to potential equipment solutions. They are too busy trying to negotiate with vendors to get better prices, reduce labor to keep management off their backs and rehire for the three positions that just gave notice. So, how do we get equipment information to them? By more informative marketing, equipment demonstration road shows and, just maybe, through blogs like this one.

Original article from: http://nrn.com/archive/equipment-how-foodservice-equipment-helps-control-costs