While most restaurants have a clear picture of the traffic and food logs within their operations, special occasions such as Ramadan can throw routine planning and operations off the hook. The amount of food waste taking place in your kitchen is now governed by the offer of iftar deals, which require a bit of observation and calculation in order to control it more efficiently. For instance, you might have to reevaluate which days are now your busiest, and which dishes on the Iftar menu are doing better or worse during iftar time.
Here is a quick checklist to go through when devising your menu in order to minimize waste in your kitchen during Ramadan.
You will already have a good idea of the footfall at your restaurant – anticipate the needs of this crowd, but also prepare to serve 15% more diners than usual. As the month goes on and you get a handle on the number of guests dining at your restaurant, you can adjust amounts accordingly.
The best way to minimize waste of ingredients and prepared food is to offer an ala carte menu instead of an Iftar buffet. Try having a set menu where the diner can choose one of two mains as part of the Iftar Combo, for example, our Balochi Steam Tikka and Chunky and Spicy Prawn Rice.
Utilize any ingredients that are leftover but can still be used or re-purposed into a special of the day, or add-ons. For example, leftover raw vegetables can be wrapped in pastry or dipped in pakora mix as a special fry-up.
If suppliers have failed to deliver a couple of ingredients, have your staff pre-trained to turn available ingredients into a substitute dish.
When supplies aren’t enough to create a whole special, but a meal can still be crafted out of them, put them into an iftar special for your staff – this is guaranteed to minimize waste, and maximize morale! And should you have supplies to spare, do consider feeding the less fortunate who populate the area around your establishment.
