Restaurant Prep Sheet

Do you know how much food to prepare each day for your restaurant? The restaurant prep sheet guides you to know how much of each item to prepare each day. Are you losing money in spoiled foods? Then, you need a good system in place to help reduce food waste. The Prep Sheet is easy to use and it works.

Inventory – Par – Do

Inv = Every morning the opening manager does an inventory from the prep sheet
Par = Is the estimated amount of food to get you through the entire day and night
Do = Par minus inventory amounts equal the amount of food you need to prep for the day and night

Do not try to guess how much to prepare because you will lose money in spoiled or out-dated foods. Also, the manager-on-duty should periodically check the accuracy of portions and weights on some prepped items.

The manager verifies completed prep work and no over-prepped items. The manager also checks to confirm no expired date dots and proper date dots used. Another important item is the rotation of food, “First In, First Out” (FIFO).

In addition, the newest prepped item should be placed behind the older product, as long as the old product is still within freshness date. Use Date Dots or Use First stickers to identify the items that should be used first. The prep person should also sweep and mop the walk-in and sweep the freezer. The prep person should also front all product and organize all products, check for expired products, and verify food rotation is correct.

Using a Waste Sheet

Enter all spoilage and out-dated products on the food waste sheet. Then, the manager must sign-off on the spoilage or out-dated products. The manager also should determine why the spoilage or why the out-dated product occurred. Check the correct use of food rotation, “Date Dots” and “Use First” stickers. Maybe rotation was incorrect and the cooks used the new products instead of using the old product first.

Unfortunately, one of the biggest reasons why spoilage or out-dated products occur is that the prep person prepared too much food. Sometimes the par needs to be adjusted or sometimes the prep person may want to avoid extra work on the next shift. It could be the prep person thinks that it is saving time to over-prep. The prep cook needs to understand that prepped items have a specific shelf life. The reality is that over-prepping is literally shaving off time from that product’s shelf life. This results in product waste. It is important that during inventory the manager see’s that a specific product sold very little and adjusts the PAR amount to reduce waste.