Ways to Cut Labor Costs in the Food Service Industry Part 1: Labor Saving Equipment
Labor costs are often the highest cost for a restaurant or other food service operation. Industry standards generally place restaurant labor costs between 30 and 35 percent of total sales. With nationwide rises in minimum wage, keeping labor costs low is becoming increasingly difficult. Luckily, there are a variety of ways to lower these costs through certain methods both in and out of the kitchen.
In this two-part series, I will share some effective methods for cutting labor costs through both equipment and managerial techniques. I learned these methods through both my own experience in the food service industry and by talking to professional chefs. Here are a handful of ways to save labor and keep profits high using labor-saving equipment.
Combi Ovens
Combi Ovens are perhaps the most well-known labor-saving piece of equipment. These units produce both convection and steam heat, and are capable of switching between the two automatically throughout the cooking process. Combi ovens can roast, bake, braise, grill, steam, blanch and poach, and many of these can be done at the same time.
When preparing food that is not cooked to order, this saves a large amount of time and labor. If you only had one convection oven and wanted to prepare braised meat, pasta and roasted potatoes, you would have to cook each one separately one at a time. With a combi oven, you can cook at least two if not all of these items at once. In some cases, you could even program a combi oven to braise your meat overnight, eliminating the need for anyone to be present.
This cuts hours off of the cooking process, and will save you a lot of money on the employees you would need during that process. Even in cook-to-order situations, Combi ovens will reduce the need of having multiple employees operating different cooking applications in different spaces at once. One person is required to operate the combi oven.
In addition to its labor-saving qualities, the combi oven provides the following advantages to an operator:
- Versatility allows for an expounded menu
- Cooking speed increased drastically
- Nutrients are preserved at lower temperatures
- Many units are self-cleaning
- All in one unit saves space and energy
- Allows for control of both temperature and humidity, reducing cooking time
Though many complain of the high prices of combi ovens, they generally provide more returns than losses. Saving labor, energy, water, kitchen space, and the opportunity for menu expansion are well worth the price of one of these units.
Consider the graph below comparing the rough unit cost of an Alto Shaam CTP7–20 Combi Oven (pictured above) and utility savings relative to achieving the same functionality with conventional cooking equipment over a 10-year life span.
In just 4 years and 3 months, the utility costs saved by using a combination oven will have covered the entire cost of the unit. By less than 9 years, the savings will have doubled the original cost. This doesn’t even factor in the amount saved on labor and the amount that can be gained from menu expansions. Unfortunately, these two factors are difficult to quantify, but even utility savings alone clearly make a Combi Oven a worthy investment.
Blast Chillers
The basic concept behind saving labor with blast chillers is that by cooking in bulk and quickly chilling and storing the output, you eliminate the need to continuously cook products throughout the day, thereby reducing the labor required to do so.
Quickly cooling hot foods can be tricky without a blast chiller, as harmful bacteria can grow on your product within the temperature range of 40˚F and 135˚F. Legal regulations for cooling times vary depending on locality, yet a general rule of thumb is that your food needs to leave that range within 4 hours. In many cases, walk-in fridges or freezers will not cool down the product fast enough.
Blast Chillers, on the other hand, have the capability to cool a product through this range in roughly 90 minutes without compromising the freshness or quality of the product. This allows you to prepare a large amount of food beforehand and simply reheat it when it’s ordered, saving copious amounts of time and requiring less hands in the kitchen.
Use a blast chiller in combination with a combi oven and you got yourself a cook-freeze system, maximizing labor cost savings. Cook multiple items at once and immediately chill them in a matter of a few hours. You will quickly find that the number of employees needed at once will be reduced significantly.
Food Processors
A simple way to save labor is through the use of food processors. Rather than paying employees for hours of manual cutting, food processors can slice, dice, ripple cut, grate, shred and more. These machines can be used to prepare a wide variety of items such as vegetables, fruits, soups, marinades, sauces and French fries. These processors are fast. To name one example, the Waring WFP14S Batch Bowl Food Processor can grate 45 lbs of cheese, chop 360 lbs of meat, slice 600 lbs of cucumbers or knead 120 loaves of bread in a single hour, and it’s not even a particularly large unit. It could take multiple paid employees to achieve those rates.
For ways to save labor through management, check out the next entry in this two-part series: “Ways to Cut Labor Costs in the Food Service Industry Part 2: Managerial Techniques”.
