Gross profit is excluded from the cost of the operating income of the catering industry. The ratio of food cost to operating income, or MINUS gross profit margin, is the food cost rate, which is expressed by the formula:

Food cost rate = food cost/operating income × 100%

Or: food cost rate = 1- gross profit rate.

Therefore, while determining the gross profit margin, it also determines the food cost rate. Once the food cost rate is determined, catering managers should take it as the basis and strive to control the food cost.

The business activities of the catering industry, from procurement, acceptance, inventory, distribution, rough machining, cutting and matching, cooking, service to collection, will affect the food cost. Therefore, it is necessary to strengthen the cost control of the whole process of production, service and sales of catering products.

1, procurement is the starting point and guarantee of business, and it is also the first link of food cost control. To do a good job of cost control in the procurement stage, we must do the following:

(1) Formulate procurement specifications, that is, strictly regulate the shape, color, grade and packaging requirements of purchased raw materials. Of course, it is not required to use specifications for every raw material, but generally only for those important raw materials that have a great impact on food costs.

(2) Only purchase the food raw materials to be used. Purchasing staff must be familiar with the menu and the recent restaurant business.

(3) Purchasing personnel must be familiar with the knowledge of food raw materials and grasp the market dynamics, and purchase raw materials that meet the needs of restaurants on time, with good quality and quantity.

(4) When purchasing, shop around, buy the best quality raw materials at the most reasonable price, and try to use local materials. Procurement to reduce procurement costs such as transportation.

(5) Conduct regular professional ethics education for purchasing personnel, so that they can establish the idea of "all for the restaurant" and avoid shoddy or taking kickbacks without permission.

(6) Formulate procurement approval procedures. The department that needs raw materials must fill in the purchase requisition, which is generally reviewed by the chef and submitted to the purchasing department. If the purchase amount exceeds the maximum limit, it should be reported to the restaurant manager for approval.

2, the acceptance of raw materials should be established acceptance procedures, acceptance is generally divided into quality, quantity and price.

(1) quality. Inspectors must check whether the purchased food raw materials meet the original specifications, standards and requirements.

(2) quantity. Check the quantity or weight of all food raw materials, and check whether the delivered quantity is consistent with the requisition quantity and invoice quantity.

(8) price. Whether the price of purchased raw materials is consistent with the quotation.

If there is any discrepancy in the above three aspects, all raw materials should be rejected, and the financial department should also refuse to pay, and notify the raw material supplier in time.

3. Inventory is an important part of food cost control, such as improper inventory will lead to deterioration or loss of raw materials, leading to an increase in food costs and a decline in profits. Therefore, we must do a good job in the storage and custody of the warehouse.

The storage and custody of raw materials must be carried out by special personnel. The warehouse manager should be responsible for the safety of the warehouse. No one is allowed to enter the warehouse without permission. In addition, in order to prevent the theft of raw materials, locks must be replaced regularly.

Once food raw materials are purchased, they should be put into appropriate warehouses and stored at appropriate temperatures according to their categories and properties. Restaurants have their own warehouses, such as dry goods warehouses, cold rooms, freezers and so on. Different raw materials have different requirements for warehouses. The basic requirement is classified and stored in different rooms.

All food raw materials in stock should be marked with the date of purchase, so as to make a good inventory turnover. When distributing raw materials, we should follow the principle of "first in, first out", that is, store first and then use, and store first and then use.

In addition, the keeper must always check the operation of refrigeration and freezing equipment and the temperature of each warehouse, and do a good job in cleaning the warehouse to prevent pests and rats from harming the stored food raw materials.

At the end of each month, the warehouse keeper must make an inventory of the raw materials in the warehouse and fill in the inventory list.

The number of points in the inventory should be weighed, and the inventory cannot be estimated. Inventory elbow should be attended by cost accountant and keeper. It should be said that the inventory amount of each raw material should be consistent with the book amount of the finance department, but it is actually impossible. Sometimes, due to loss or price error, the inventory amount does not match the book amount of the finance department. The profit and loss situation must be strictly audited by the restaurant manager. In principle, the ratio of the profit and loss amount of raw materials to the delivery amount of this month cannot exceed 1%.

For example, if the balance of a warehouse last month was 4590.00 yuan, the raw materials purchased this month were 12000.00 yuan, the delivery amount this month was 12500.00 yuan, and the inventory balance at the end of the month was 29 10.00 yuan, then the error rate * of the warehouse in that month was expressed by the formula:

Inventory amount this month+shipment amount this month-purchase amount this month-balance last month/shipment amount this month ×100% = 3910+12500-12000-4500/125000.

That is, the error rate is 0.72%, which is within 1%, so it is considered as an acceptable loss. After finding out the reason, the accountant should calculate the error amount in the current month.

4. Distribution of raw materials

Distribution control of raw materials has the following two important aspects:

(1) Without approval, materials shall not be taken from the warehouse.

(2) Only necessary food raw materials are allowed to be used.

5. The cost control in rough machining is mainly to scientifically and accurately determine the net material rate of various raw materials. In order to improve the clean rate of raw materials, it is necessary to:

(1) During rough machining, it shall be processed in strict accordance with the specified operating procedures and requirements, so as to achieve and maintain the due net material rate.

(2) For high-cost raw materials, experienced chefs should first inspect them and put forward the best processing methods.

(3) rejected parts (meat and bones, etc.). ) should be recycled as much as possible in the process of rough machining, in order to improve its utilization rate and make the best use of it, thus reducing the cost.

Cutting collocation

Cutting and matching is an important link to determine the cost of main ingredients and ingredients. According to the actual situation of raw materials, the whole material is used, the big material is used, the small material is used, and the leftovers are comprehensively utilized to reduce the food cost.

Restaurants in China generally implement the food raw material consumption quota system, and strictly follow the specifications and quality requirements of menu serving points to prepare dishes. Once the raw material consumption quota is determined, it is necessary to formulate a calculation table for the consumption quota of food raw materials and conscientiously implement it. It is strictly forbidden to use insufficient or excessive or shoddy. The main ingredients should be weighed, not grasped by experience, and strive to ensure the specifications and quality of the dishes.

7. Cooking catering products, on the one hand, affects the quality of dishes, on the other hand, is closely related to cost control. The impact of cooking on food costs mainly has the following two aspects:

(1) the amount of seasoning. There are few condiments used to make a dish, and the proportion in the cost is also low. However, judging from the total amount of catering products, the consumption of seasoning crystals and their costs are also considerable, especially oil, monosodium glutamate and sugar. Therefore, in the cooking process, we must strictly implement the cost specification of condiments, which will not only make the quality of dishes more stable, but also make the cost accurate.

(2) The quality of dishes and their rejection rate. In the cooking process, we should advocate one pot, one dish, special dishes and special cooking, operate in strict accordance with the operating rules, and master the cooking time and temperature. If guests come to the restaurant to eat, they have opinions on every dish and ask for a change, which will affect the service quality and food cost.

Therefore, every chef is required to improve his cooking skills, feed reasonably, and strive not to produce or produce less waste products, thus effectively controlling the food cost in the cooking process.

8. Services

In the process of service, it will also cause an increase in food costs, mainly in the following aspects;

(1) The waiter didn't repeat what the guest ordered when accepting the order, so that the guest indicated that he didn't order when serving.

(2) The service personnel stole vegetables, resulting in insufficient quantity, which caused the guests not to complain.

(3) The waiter knocked over the plate and soup pot when passing by or serving food.

(4) Incorrect food delivery. For example, the food ordered by the waiter at table 1 was sent to table 2 by mistake, but the guest at table 2 did not explain it.

In view of the above phenomenon, it is necessary to strengthen the professional ethics education and regular business technical training for service personnel, so that they can correct their service attitude, establish a good service consciousness, improve their service skills, serve guests in strict accordance with the rules, make no or fewer mistakes, and minimize food costs.

9. Collection restaurants should not only pay attention to the cost control of the service process from raw material procurement to food production, but also pay attention to the collection control to ensure profitability.

Any mistakes and loopholes in the collection process will lead to an increase in food costs. Therefore, the restaurant manager must control the following aspects:

(1) to prevent the omission or recording of food prices;

(2) Fill in the price of each dish accurately on the bill.

(3) Accounting is correct at checkout.

(4) Prevent account leakage or evasion.

(5) to prevent cashier or other staff corruption.

10. After the audit is completed every day, the accounting desk should prepare a "restaurant business day report" according to the bills and a la carte menu, one for self-storage, one for the front desk together with the bills signed and paid by the in-house guests, and one for the accounting department together with all the bills, a la carte menu, banquet reservation and cash of the operating income of the day. The accounting department should carefully examine and verify the "restaurant business daily report" and relevant original documents to ensure the interests of the restaurant.

(B) drinks cost control

The cost control of sprinklers, like food cost control, should also ensure the low cost and high efficiency of sprinklers from the aspects of procurement and storage. The key to controlling sprinkler cost is as follows.

1. Western tourists are used to brewing spirits and drinking them later. They generally drink water with alcohol content below 14% (that is, 14 degrees). Therefore, restaurants usually have special staff to prepare drinks for guests to meet their needs.

In the process of blending water, we must make a standard wine spectrum, that is, the formula and dosage of various kinds of blending water needed for a mixed drink, and strictly follow this standard wine spectrum and use the metering standard of blending water to blend water, so that the dosage is correct and accurate. Only in this way can we ensure the quality and control the cost.

2. Take stock at the end of business every day. All restaurants, especially bars, should take stock of all kinds of drinks consumed that day and fill in the list of drinks. The purpose of inventory, on the one hand, is to control the cost, on the other hand, it can also prepare for the next day's business according to the inventory situation. At the same time, the inventory should also review whether the operating income of the day is consistent with the wine list and actual consumption. If any problem is found, it should be reported to the superior in time and the reason should be found out.

3. The phenomenon and reason of out-of-control wine cost. Wine is a high-profit product of restaurants, but in fact, out-of-control wine cost in Chinese restaurants often leads to a decline in the profit of restaurants in wine. The phenomena of sprinkler cost out of control mainly include:

(1) is not prepared according to the standard wine spectrum. When preparing cocktails or mixed drinks, the brewer arbitrarily changes the dosage of various raw materials or increases the dosage of some raw materials, which will lead to the increase of the cost of adding water.

(2) The catering service personnel are corrupt. This phenomenon is also quite common, especially in bars where bartenders and cashiers are also involved.

(3) The service personnel sell personal sprinklers. Service personnel use the restaurant's catering facilities to sell their own drinks during business hours, and sometimes steal various auxiliary materials or ingredients from the restaurant, which directly leads to the increase in the cost of adding water.

(4) When the cost of drinks such as group meals is fixed, the service staff will open and pour them indiscriminately, resulting in a lot of water spraying waste.

(5) Restaurant staff secretly drink water. This phenomenon also happens from time to time in poorly run restaurants.

(6) Spraying deterioration caused by improper inventory also greatly increases the spraying cost of restaurants.

There are many reasons for the above phenomenon, but the main ones are:

(1) The rules and regulations are not perfect.

(2) Service personnel lack good service awareness and professional ethics.

(3) The service skills of service personnel are not skilled enough.

To this end, restaurants must improve various management systems, regularly provide professional ethics education and business training to employees, so that they can establish a sense of serving restaurants and guests and work in accordance with service standards and processes.

Although the cost control of catering is complicated, catering managers can continuously reduce costs and increase income as long as they control the cost of food and water in an organized and planned way.