Buffet management: reducing risk and increasing efficiencies
Buffet management is back on the agenda for many hospitality operators. The lifting of restrictions is just in time for the approaching festive season and so many hospitality operators will be planning buffet and live food station events. We spoke to Michelin Starred Chef, John Wood, about how best to safeguard profits at this critical time….
Over the last 18 months, operations globally were forced to review, adapt or even shut down their buffet offering. However with regulations now loosening up, the beloved buffet is slowly returning. As with so many sectors post covid, picking up where you left off isn’t necessarily the best strategy. We’re looking at the key pain points and challenges to watch out for and how to plan, analyse and prepare for buffet management success.
Buffet Management Challenges
At a time when information and choice have never been more important to guests, buffets are still hugely popular; offering the flexibility to choose what you like and the quantity you want (often with the option to refill your plate!).
Breakfast buffets are a hotel norm and there is an expectation that most hotels will offer some form of buffet service right across the 2,3,4 and in some cases the 5-star market. At a time when staffing and recruitment are at an all time low, buffets are a practical solution typically requiring less manpower; customers serve themselves and there are less chefs required.
If managed correctly, buffets can provide excellent income for many businesses, requiring less resources than a full a la carte dining experience. However, they do need to be carefully managed and monitored on a regular basis and there are several challenges to be aware of:
- Ordering the correct amount of food to avoid over stocking.
- Preparing and cooking the correct amount of food so that the buffet has the same quality and quantity of items on offer from at the start of service all the way through to the end.
- Replenishing and replacing buffet items that have dipped below their peak of freshness or have become overcooked whilst being kept hot. Keeping everything fresh, whilst minimising waste can be difficult.
- Maintaining a great looking buffet right up until the service closes, without unnecessary waste.
- Offering a wide enough choice of different items to cater for different tastes, dietary requirements, and expectations of your varied demographic of clients.
- Managing costs and Gross Profits (GP’s) with daily fluctuations in both consumption and number of guests.
Ordering and production
This can be challenging if you are new to this type of service. It can be difficult to predict what will be popular with your customers, what will be consumed in what quantities/ratios, and also the range of dishes that are essential to have on offer.
In my experience, the following steps can help:
- Typically, if you are doing this for the first time you can use some common sense around this and stock up on the “crowd pleasers”.
- Try to build out a framework of the buffet menu and the various items you are offering.
- Look at how many customers you are serving- you may know this in advance if this is an event buffet or you will be able to estimate from how many in-house guests are in residence with a breakfast package included (don’t forget to remove the in-room-dining % when calculating), then from this, start to map out what you need to buy.
- Hospitality software, like Kitchen CUT makes this very simple. “Production lists” quickly and simply tell you exactly what you need to buy in.
Presenting and replenishment
Great buffet presentation is essential. Creating and displaying an exciting and enticing buffet is an art and requires careful thought and consideration. It needs to be colourful, interesting and appetising using various plates, levels and presentation techniques.
However, there’s much more to your buffet presentation than visual appeal alone. In the same way that “menu psychology” can influence customer choices with clever placement of items on menus, “Buffet Psychology” can be used in a similar way. Your placement of lower and higher cost dishes can have a dramatic effect on the selections your guests make:
- Draw attention to potentially low-cost items through plate and presentation colours. Place them strategically to encourage customers to take more of these items and less of the more expensive items.
- Avoid “Piling high” expensive items. This will only encourage customers to take more of them. Instead, present them well and regularly replace these items.
Costing Buffets
The unpredictability of buffets (particularly breakfast buffets), makes them notoriously difficult to cost and this is probably the most challenging area of buffet management.
It’s essential to be able to track and record easily what has been initially displayed, but also what has then been replenished during service. You’ll need to be in a position to review what has been returned and what is potentially re-useable.
From this you will be able to establish your costs, then apply this to how many guests you have served and how much revenue has been generated. You will then be able to calculate your GP and food cost. Calculating waste of the items that are not reusable and converting that to a % is also important to avoid over ordering in the future.
Digital Buffet Management
Alternatively Kitchen CUT ‘s Buffet Analysis functionality will do the hard work for you. Pick products, recipes and sub recipes quickly and easily with live costings from your suppliers and the system will do all the calculations for you in minutes. You can then have all the relevant details line by line to improve profitability instantly. Track, monitor, review and adapt to make sure that your buffet management is always ahead of the curve.
Watch this video to learn more:
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