[JackButler]

Other than beverages, I probably have the highest profit margin on my apps. Most appetizer plates cost me less than a dollar each to produce, and I'm charging anywhere between $3.50 and $6.00 apiece for them. As far as entree's, you can't beat dinner salads for profit margin.

[panini]

I have asked this question to applicants.
I'm usually looking to see if the chef knows the value of a dollar. Which items receive the best net profit. The answer I'm really looking for is reworks. This doesn't always mean prepared foods but useable waste from other preperations that have already been costed and paid for. Like some said, soups, pasta etc. utilizing reworks.
pan

[LogghiB]

Also gotta guess alcohol.

In Chicago magazine had a round table thing with a bunch of local upscale chefs and Charlie Trotter pretty much said that his food was, boiled down, a hook to get people in and buy wine. The money is in ridiculous mark up on beverage service, the food gets people in the door.

[greyeaglem]

A hundred years ago when I was in school, the chef told us the highest profit margins were in beverages (non-alcoholic) and potatoes. He said load the plate with potatoes so people go away full and they'll feel they got good value for their money. Pop and potatoes is what made McDonalds the giant that it is. Pasta would also fit this concept. Essentially this is sound, proven advice, and I believe the "potato" can change as other low cost items become available and familiar to the public.

[KYHeirloomer]

so late in the game, but to me the cogent part of the original post was:

"I had only glanced at the menu"

They may have taught you a lot about cooking, wherever you went to school. But apparently not much about how to land a job.

For all intents and purposes, that menu is the restaurant's product. If you couldn't be bothered familiarizing yourself fully with the company's product, why would you reasonably expect to be hired?

Even had you been well versed in the methodology of food cost accounting, you couldn't have answered the question because you didn't know what the menu consisted of. The question was likely asked not because he expected a definative answer, but to see how your mind operated, what your orientation was to kitchen operations, and how familiar you were with his product.

Next time do your research and you might have better luck landing a position.

[even stephen]

I think is was probably a loaded question. It is probably pretty
clear that the person interviewing you knows the profit margin
on sodas, teas, and coffees. He was probably looking for a fairly
non specific answer. An added value pasta is always a winner, i.e.,
stuffed pastas, raviolis, torteloni, etc. Only if made in house though.
There are a thousand ways to drive food cost down. Probably the
best is using larger unprocessed cuts of meat and using cut by products
to create large plates, soups, and appetizers. Veal rack for example.
Break them down in house, cut the top of the rib and leave intact and
you have a veal rib app. Peel the flap off and clean, Stuff, roll and tie,
braise, slice, and you have a $28 entree that cost you nothing. Cross
utilization to cut waste is a must. Selling something with little cost
does no good when the waste outwieghs the low food cost. A stagnant
menu item will kill you. As everyone else said though, salads, soups,
chicken dishes, etc. IMHO.

[sucrechef]

[quote=Panonthefire;154089]the most profitable item on the menu will be the one with the lowest food cost.
QUOTE]

Unfortunately, not always true. If you have an item with a particularly low food cost, but it doesn't sell, then it is not profitable. Plus, if I make $4.00 on one item, but $10.00 on another item (selling equal amounts of both) then the item on which my margin is $10.00 is more profitable regardless of the food cost percentage.

[Free Rider]

Originally Posted by sucrechef

Unfortunately, not always true. If you have an item with a particularly low food cost, but it doesn't sell, then it is not profitable. Plus, if I make $4.00 on one item, but $10.00 on another item (selling equal amounts of both) then the item on which my margin is $10.00 is more profitable regardless of the food cost percentage.

Yes! Not only that, but you've touched on something else important... profit per each and profit in the aggregate. The two may be very different.

[even stephen]

I get it. Like two brothers who sell cars. One works at a used car lot
selling junkers and old trucks and the other sells cars at the lexus or
mercedes dealership. For every 50 cars the first brother sells, the second
brother only has to sell 5 and he still makes more than the first brother.
Need to get the school books out, but, I think we are talking about a
product mix. Upscale Steakhouses are a perfect example of restaurants
operating with slightly different expectations in regard to food cost %.
Where another type of upscale restaurant may try to run between 28%
and 33%, upscale Steakhouses will run at 48% to 55%. Overall the profit
margin may be the same, but, only because of the increased gross profit per
steak. Anyone out there work in an upscale Steakhouse? What kind of
numbers do you run. Not talking about Western Sizzler, but, Prime and
private line Beef. Would love to know. Also would love to know what
kind and grades of Beef everyone is using.

[shroomgirl]

a good friend has 13% food costs.....Provencal bistro, breads made inhouse, desserts inhouse, breaks down whole critters, fish soup was a piece de resistance. Free fish heads/bones, add some shallots, tomato paste, herbs alittle cream and he sells it for $5.50 a cup.....and it sells well.
I watch Ed really carefully......

[dinerminer]

The question you should have asked is, "How are you defining profit?"
1. Is it the item with the lowest food cost percentage?
2. Is it the item with highest contribution margin?
3. Is it the item that produces the most gross profit (sales frequency x gross profit per item)?
Theres more than one way to skin a cat.

[oldschool1982]

Thoughts into words or better put....How not to stumble and break that last crain bell. Costs, whether it be item or menu, seem to be held to two standards of measure. Theoretical and actual.

So you sit down and work out the theoretical. This to me is a perfect world scenario but, the investors/bankers/owners want this. Sucks because usually they hold it over your head like it a friggen tablet of stone.

Okay so now you open the doors and you have menu mix to contend with. All menus are created with items that generate sales but have a poor cost % and items that are "gravy" and dirt cheap to prepare but have a great %. Ideally I would love to have a menu that sold nothing but these or would I.

All business need some sort of sales boost. Something to help with the ying and yang of their whole world. To me these "high dollar" items, for example a 40 dollar steak, sell 10 of these and you cover labor for a small kitchen for almost a shift. But a 12 dollar pasta you have to sell almost 4 times the amount to cover the same.

Even stephen mentions some very good points and a sound mentality towards costs. I admit though that judging by what he considers as acceptable is way outta line from when I did the steak thing. Not that I consider it un-acceptable but the owners I have been around sure did. (Goes back to that theoretical/actual thing again.) Anyway I was expected to run a 37% (at the highest) in a higher end steak house with a mix or 65% steaks. Luckily we did about a 55/45 mix because of some of my seafood offerings but I still ran a 37%. Mainly because beef and seafood are commodities and since the price change almost daily I was always chasing the menu price.

Before this turns into a Tolstoy novel (too late) I guess that for a full service, white table cloth restaurant the most profitable item on the menu could be almost anything. especially if the Chef/buyer bought the main ingredient in a bulk purchase or brokered a cheaper price. But if you don't have that ability then it would be a pasta or veg dish most of the time. It would have your greatest contribution to the bottome line but wouldn't contribute much to the sales for the day.

Jeeeezus I sure hope this made sense!

[the_seraphim]

you wanna know what the most profitable thing is? how about this for a markup...

made a passionfruit sorbet kind of thing, very nice (wasnt sorbet more of a mousse really i forget the name following head chefs directions he was quoting from memory while cooking a load of steaks)

anyway it cost around 20p or 40cents to make each one.. and they sold for £3.50 each

now thats around a 1500% markup... thats the most profitable thing right there... or theres the bread and butter pudding made from brioche bread thats short of life we use for the mushroom brioche... its that or throw it so... why not utilize it... lol, chef's special desserts are usually best for profit.

[kuan]

In most places I've been in the midwest, if you could break out the steak part of the business you'll see that the food cost is ridiculously high but the most profitable. Guys like steak, period! Some people don't see the forest for the trees. Selling 20 steaks at $20 and 50% food cost is better than 20 fried chickens at $10 and 30% food cost. In theory, after food costs but before adding labor costs you have $200 vs. $140.

But it doesn't just end there. It cost less in labor to run a steakhouse. The dollar amount is the same since it's pretty much fixed, but as a percentage, the labor typically runs pretty low. That's for FOH and BOH. That $200 in steaks only costs you $50 in BOH labor and $20 in FOH labor. That chicken also costs the same in labor but you get $70 return on chicken vs. $130 on steak.

[the_seraphim]

AAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRGGGHHHHH

FRACTIONS!!!!

lol