Total control

29 November 2004 by
Total control

Ever heard the one about the chef who had to make lobster bisque for 80 covers and ordered 80lb of lobsters instead of 8lb? Maybe not, but it's the kind of tale every chef could tell you and it illustrates a fundamental mistake in stock management - inaccurate ordering.

"Good stock control is all about buying at the right price and selling it without wastage," says Tony Hassid, consultant, stocktaker and auditor with stocktaking and inventory service Stockchek. The first thing to do is decide on quantities of ingredients based on projected sales of menu items.

For Andrew Turner, executive chef at the 1880 restaurant in London's Bentley hotel, this begins with the menu. "All our ordering is based on strict amounts needed for items on the menu. It's all written down and nothing is left to chance. It sounds boring, but if you have a formula for everything, it breeds confidence, which breeds ideas.

"Never let a chef guess what a pinch of salt is. Once the chef starts ad-libbing quantities, they'll ad-lib ordering," he says. If you base things on guesswork there's a tendency to over-order, says Turner, who believes chefs lean towards laying in too much stock "just in case".

Ordering the right amount is vital, but what you do when it arrives is a key stage in the life cycle of your stock. Goods should be checked for quantity and quality by a member of staff with an eye for detail. They should use scales for high-value items such as meat and fish to ensure they match the order. Substandard items should be sent back, so check the supplier's returns policy to ensure you comply.

At delivery you should check use-by dates, and good practice is to date-stamp stock so you can keep track of it. With cold-stored goods, keep a record outside the freezer. No one likes hanging around in such cold places, and oversights can easily occur when staff are hurried.

Once beyond goods-in a number of best practices come into play: store things the correct way - prepared on top and raw below in fridges, for example; and rotate stock using the last-in, last-out principle. Establish par stock levels and write them on item labels so you can see when things need ordering.

Beyond the fundamentals there is fine-tuning you can do to smooth stock control in the kitchen. John Campbell, executive chef at the Vineyard at Stockcross, recommends reorganising your supplier schedule to create the most efficient workload for receiving, processing and storing stock.

"When fish comes in, for example, it has to be cleaned and boned then finished and prepared. We've changed delivery times so that we can do that when it best suits us. What you want is an even supply of goods coming into the kitchen and an even workload. Work back from the menu and see what things you can prepare when, and make deliveries suit this," says Campbell.

Monthly stocktaking should be the norm for a kitchen, and the stock records it generates replace guesswork with facts. Stockchek's Hassid tells the story of the pub that spent £2,000 too much on lager at Christmas - for three years running. "A stock record can tell you what you've bought and what you've used so you can change the amount you order next time" he says.

Stock control check list
Ordering - Establish strictly defined quantities from projected sales of menu items, based on accurate stock records where possible.

Delivery - Check goods received for quantity, quality and use-by date.

  • Label and date stamp goods.
  • Arrange delivery schedules to best suit your working patterns. Food needs cleaning and preparation soon after arrival and before storage, so ensure it comes when you've got the staff to deal with it.

Storage - Store correctly to ensure freshness is maintained.

  • Use par stock levels. If stocks fall below them, reorder.
  • Do a monthly stocktake.
  • Establish stock records so you can monitor usage and use the figures to help ordering.
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