Cooking From Scratch or Buying Pre-Made Food?

Restaurants choose between two main options: cooking from scratch or offering pre-made meals. A lot of restaurants, especially small ones, will purchase pre-made food and pass it off as their own, unique recipe.

The problem with pre-made menu items is that you lose that unique flare for your food. And if it tastes the same as the restaurant down the street, what will keep your customers coming back?

Consumers have high expectations. If you’re passing yourself off as a high-end restaurant and offer sauce from a jar, your customers will not be happy. Establishments, which charge top-tier prices, are expected to make their dishes from scratch.

The signs that a restaurant is using pre-made food are:

· Extremely fast service and delivery

· Extensive menu options

· Meal texture is off

· You’re at a popular chain restaurant

But for a restaurant owner, pre-made food can mean consistency, less preparation time, and more revenue.

Pre-made food tastes the same every time as it’s made in large batches with the utmost precision. The same great taste can keep customers coming back, but it can also tarnish your reputation if you’re charging high-end prices for the same menu item that is being sold at lower-priced restaurants.

Where Do Restaurants Get Their Food?

Restaurants purchase their products in bulk from suppliers. Massive suppliers with contracts across the country are how restaurants get their food.

You may also contract with local farmers for fresh produce and meats, or with bulk warehouse stores.

Suppliers have also started to offer pre-made food options:

· Soups

· Desserts (cookies, cakes, muffins, etc.)

· Breakfast foods

· Sauces

· Appetizers

· Deli foods

· Entrees

Onion rings or mozzarella sticks, two popular appetizers, are a good example because they allow for high sales and generally taste the same.

Cookies and muffins, or cakes, are also great pre-made goods unless you’re a baker, and consumers expect you to make your own.

If you want to maximize your revenue per table, these extra items can add to bill totals and provide you with an easy way to make profits.

How Do Restaurants Prepare Food So Quickly?

Fresh, from a consumer standpoint, is almost always better. When you’re offering food made from scratch, you can charge more and add unique flavor to the dish. The key to cook quickly is pre-prepared food.

It is still made from scratch but in the morning or the night before. Pizzerias will often start their restaurant food prep the night before by making dough balls and allowing them to sit overnight.

The general rule of thumb at a food prep restaurant is that:

· Everything but protein is prepared ahead of time

· Sous vides may already prep meats and cook them so that they only need to be seared

· Veggies are prepped, cut, boiled in salted water, and placed into ice water to shock them before fully cooked. The veggies can be warmed up and served rapidly

· Sauces are cooked in large batches and ready to serve

· Any of the starchy foods are par-cooked

Chefs can often finish the dish when warming up, allowing the vegetables or starch to finish cooking right before serving.

Ingredients are prepared ahead of time, and this is done in every restaurant. That offers fast service while still allowing for the fresh taste.

Kitchen setups and stations are also larger than in a home kitchen. They allow for a variety of foods to be cooked quickly. Restaurants may have different sections, and these sections might include:

· Meats

· Fish

· Sauces

· Soups

· Vegetables

· Fry items

· Baking goods

Each section may have one or more cooks that specialize in these dishes. The kitchen may also have areas for prep time, service time, and cleaning. The goal of prep time is to ensure that all items needed for the next day are ready.

Food prep is often the longest, hardest time of the day for cooks. Service time is often easier because a lot of the food is ready to be cooked without the need for chopping, running back and forth for ingredients.

Prep cooks are the heroes behind the scenes at restaurants, making it possible to maintain their quality and fast service time.

Ultimately, it’s up to the restaurant owner and the cooks to determine if they should incorporate a few pre-made foods into their menu or not. In many cases, an authentic restaurant will make all of their dishes by scratch using the prep techniques outlined above.

If you’re trying to pass off pre-made food as authentic, you risk losing the trust you’ve built up with customers over the years.

Source: https://mcdonaldpaper.com/blog/restaurant-food-preparation-scratch-or-pre-made-food