When I think back to the time I first started to cook I saw a lot of recipes in books with 20 ingredients and complicated to make. TV chefs were more into showing us how to complicate cooking than giving access in my opinion. With this tradition, the lack of real knowledge sometimes and feeling of inadequacy when it comes to knowing the quality of we present, it’s no wonder we as Business owners make a lot of mistakes. We would need a huge kitchen just to house all the machines and the ingredients that might be used one or two times.

Then came the Jamie Oliver’s of the world who stopped the slicing and dicing in favor of a more natural time saving approach. Great for at home when cooking for 4 people but it goes against the grain for some who would like to present something a little more refined. Then we search for more, better deal and more complicated.

I also found Gordon Ramsey’s series Kitchen nightmare’s fascinating. Gordon’s show highlights for me that its not enough to simply cook what was mostly atrocious Food in the series. In the Restaurant business there is the customer service, restaurant setup and promotion to boot. Not to mention the added complication of a food delivery service if this is also offered. The thinking that many recipes that are complicated will be more attractive to the public and that by adding a takeaway service you reach more people. All the while not really thinking about business design, customer interaction and that with each recipe or earning model brought into the restaurant comes a system of thought out processes that need to be put into place.  Why is winging it in in he restaurant business not only bad customers, but put a little time into the business side and you have the opportunity to be sustainable too. In many of the basic options decisions sustainable means good business. So here are some tips to prompt movement… got some more then leave a comment at the end of the article. 

Complicated recipes mean its harder under pressure to deliver on time and with quality. Staff need more training time to get it right and the customers usually have to wait longer for food that might or might not be up to standard. It takes a great kitchen to handle this. 

Simple recipes with fewer ingredients means more likely that everything is fresh with less effort form your staff to deliver this. Think about whats in season locally for greater sustainability. Source products from locals who can deliver year round different products that come into season at a discounted price for a loyal customer, you.

A 20 item menu of dishes not designed to go together might seem like a good idea from your customers perspective, they get more choice. With good number of fresh ingredients needed to sustain such a menu, that best case are thrown away on time and worst case reused to save money but hazard the quality of the dishes that are presented on table. This means you are dealing with an extended preparation time, more space is needed in cooling and the preparation area. More waste if this is truly regulated and all because some pre-thought wasn’t put into the composition of your menu.

Using a maximum of 15 fresh ingredients (10 if you can at all help it) and a cross over so all fresh ingredients are used in at least 5 recipes with a big menu and 3 in a small one means less preparation, less complexity of procedures to make the food and less waste if it’s not used by the end of the day. Smaller menu’s made up of simple recipes enable your staff to cook them to a high standard, learn this in less time and have more experience cooking them so they become more efficient. Simply spoken less personnel hours, less waste and more quality. 

Many small startup restaurant and cafe business’s use a common service type without thinking through the implications of this for the personnel, location they rent, the size and setup of the space and the numbers of staff they have to meet the customers needs. Some service setups mean more drinks sales, or less formal while others a more sophisticated form of dining.

Best thing is to think through your concept. Are you a take away service, or 5 course high brow restaurant. Where do you make your money, food or drinks? Whats the possibility of your kitchen in the preparation of food if you have one? How many customers can sit at one time? Are more sittings possible in one evening with a change to your service. Customer service or attention and thought when dealing with clients is one of the biggest factors for them to return or not. A successful client relationship means them going away with a smile even though not everything might have gone according to plan. Good design of a location can also easily include recycling processes, cleaning and HACCP regulations with products that don’t affect the environment. One small step for your business can mean a great step for mankind. 

No design means a stress on staff. But importantly with staff no design in setup means we as managers and business owners are setting up our staff to fail. They leave the premises feeling like they failed, it was hard or the ugly feeling of dealing with various degrees of unhappy customers just because the setup intrinsically doesn’t work. Staff are expensive, good staff are hard to find and maybe there are some sustainable solutions.

Staff are one of the most expensive costs of the business, and when seem as people are vital to the success. Their job satisfaction means not training new people and their smiles warm up rooms of customers. In all aspects we are dealing with people. There are many who find it hard to get into a job after illness or big life event. Consider the first P and bring in a touch of social entrepreneurial spirit to the mix. These people once in are usually longer stayers than those who got the job easily.

In the last years the restaurant business has become more and more competitive. With new establishments and concepts being opened up all the time, not to mention franchise chains that can support new locations with that more publicity and knowledge that a new business owner succeeds far better than the lone starter often can. It can be difficult to resist the temptation to under price your products which inevitably means you have to go for less quality food options to keep costs down. This is in relation to smaller numbers of restaurant visitors while you are finding your feet which can create even more temptation to cut costs. Starting a restaurant business is certainly an investment and i have heard quotes of up to around 3 years before a restaurant really becomes a financial success.

Consider who your public are, what is your brand? Does your location allow for many tables or only a few? Is there a kitchen in which case food is a good earning model. If not then drinks and maybe cocktails with be your bread and butter income. In any case the marriage between what is possible in your situation and what you want to present in the way of a brand is essential. Only then is it good to look at pricing. Personally i always under priced myself until I started learning about branding. It takes a huge leap of faith to say my brand is worth it and voila, this is the price, great value ain’t it. AND…top it off with maybe you aren’t paying me enough (if all the other tips come off ;-)). Sustainable tip would be to ask a little more from your customers and deliver beautiful quality food. Don’t forget to promote the hell out of this. Done right and your customers will leave feeling they paid a little more for a delicious food experience they aren’t sure to get somewhere else. Last but not the least find your niche and deliver to it. Branding, pre-thought and delivery of what they expect from this is everything.

When I came across the idea of Sustainability and the concept of the three p’s about 6 years ago, i was impressed by how impactful this way of thinking can be on just about any business. The three P’s being People, Planet and Profit. An example would be something like the following. By cutting down waste of fresh produce in a restaurant you are not only increasing profits but doing your bit for decreasing the demand for over production of food which has some pretty serious environmental repercussions. Maybe we don’t feel these first hand, but the new generations to come certainly will. It takes a bigger man to intelligently think beyond survival and profit. Becoming sustainable is not only good for profits, its good for your brand.

We can take this a couple of steps further. Imagine that you design a menu with maximum 5 fresh ingredients (those that go bad within 2-3 days and can’t be stored in a freezer). All the waste is composted in your waste area and this compost is used to fertilize plants bearing the fresh products you need for your kitchen. Salad greens, tomato’s, chilli’s, chives, cress, lemons, small cucumbers, garlic and more can be grown in a yard or on a rooftop patio. Be a little creative and the world is your oyster of at the very least growing ground for a multitude of ingredients. These in turn remain fresher for longer and in season can be picked on demand rather than bought in. There’s no packaging in this scenario so less need for recycling that would be done on all bought in goods. Consider small local businesses over large chains and create a good relationship. Usually resulting in a long standing working relationship and importantly more of the sorts of discounts larger chain stores can offer. There are too many tips of this kind to enter here and if you are truly keen you can search out some great companies who are more than willing to help you find your sustainable roots at a reasonable price. These little but large sustainable steps make you truly sustainable even though this term is too often overused and misunderstood. Be one of the few who live up to the standard.