F & B
MEASURE and modify
Tackling food waste isn ’ t just good for the environment — it also drives cost-effective operations . As Matthew Brennan , executive chef at the Vinoy Renaissance St . Petersburg Resort & Golf Club , puts it : “ In the kitchen , 99 % of product is purchased by weight . If you don ’ t maximize your yields , you are losing money .”
Cutting waste and putting more dollars in the till requires a mix of anecdotal and quantitative record keeping , sources say .
OBSERVATION Anecdotally , observation is vital , says Josef Huber , corporate executive chef at Michigan-based hotel manager Amway Hotel Corp . “ We adjust our menus based on what we notice coming in and out of the dining rooms . We also stay up to date with national dining trends and keep food allergens and dining preferences in mind as we adjust our menu ,” he says . “ Recently , we ’ ve noticed an uptick in special requests for preordered meals , specifically 15 % to 20 %, due to food allergies .”
Executive chef jW Foster of the Fairmont Royal York Hotel agrees that chefs should monitor what guests are ordering as well as what is left on plates , whether due to portion size or unpopularity .
“ We check our numbers daily to determine what is selling and what is lacking , and we touch base with our wait staff to get firsthand information of what guests are saying . All of this will go into the decisions to change or pivot a menu ,” Foster says .
WEIGHING THE BENEFITS On the quantitative side , Davidson Restaurant Group uses technology that quantifies food waste through weight and AI for identification . “ We also track through food cost waste logs , prep lists and systems , although those are not as accurate ,” says SVP Gregory Griffie .
Using the information from the technology , the team might glean that a banquet salad has a consistent high yield loss . Thus , the recipe either would be changed or replaced completely with a more popular and profitable option .
“ We are working to put a portfolio-wide food cost amount to the waste that we are tracking . I can say that at locations where we have been beta testing , we have seen 0.25 % to 0.5 % reduction in food cost based on the general awareness ,” Griffie says . “ It is hard to quantify all of the savings , but there is not a dollar amount that can be put to the environmental savings .”
yet the team had to continue roasting whole chickens daily just in case a guest ordered it . So chefs repurposed the unsold birds .
“ Instead of throwing away any leftovers or changing the menu item , we actually made use of the chicken in several different areas throughout the kitchen ,” Foster says . “ We wound up making a chicken salad that has become a top lunch seller , and we reuse the bones and stock to make chicken soup .”
TACKLING THE BUFFET According to research from IDEO , guests at hotel buffets eat only about half of what ’ s put out . There ’ s a fine line between keeping the buffet stocked but not to the point that it ’ s losing money or creating too much waste .
“ While buffets require a 30 % higher production amount than plated , running out or a delay is not an option for these types of functions , and we often see food waste as a result of over-preparation ,” says Josef Huber , corporate executive chef at Michiganbased hotel manager Amway Hotel Corp .
Griffie says overproduction can account for approximately 60 % of Davidson ’ s hotel food waste . To combat this , the F & B team works with guests
40 hotelsmag . com January / February 2020