Don't fret, as the entire purpose of Open Cafeteria is to ensure that you do not miss out important but minute details like this.
Here are 6 tips on choosing the right utensils for your food:
1) Find a reliable wholesaler.
Choose one that is reputable and had supplied to famous restaurants in your city before. That way, you will know that you have got yourself the best deal as they order more from the manufacturers and hence, get them at cheaper prices. If you are starting up a restaurant in Singapore, a good place to start is Sia Huat (Retail Sales). They have a whole inventory of kitchen appliances with offers for up to 30% if you buy in bulk!
One important criteria is also the speed and availability of the resupply of utensils the wholesaler offers to your restaurant. Even more important if your kitchen assistant has butter fingers.
Personally, I would recommend Cerabon Essentials. This brand of utensils is really cheap but apparently reliable as well, because it is widely used by large hotel chains here in Singapore. I heard that it is quite durable as well - some hotels actually sell their used Cerabons to new restaurants!
2) Get your chef to go with you.
Let the man have his own opinion on how his food will be presented to the customers. If you have little or no experience in this industry, this man will give you practical opinions on what kind of utensils to get.
3) When do you need the utensils by?
A good time to pay a visit to the wholesaler is at least two months prior to your cafeteria's opening date, especially if you intend to print your cafeteria's logo on the plates.
The wholesaler usually outsources the printing, which means that it will lengthen the delivery time to your cafeteria. Depending on the type of printing you go for, high quality printing takes 2-3 weeks for the order to return to the wholesaler.
4) Determine the quantity of utensils needed.
I am not a math person but let's just use a formula for main serving plates here:
Total number of seating capacity x 120%
Why the 120%? Chances are, some customers might ask for an extra serving plate to share their main courses. You may choose to use smaller sized plates for that, that's your decision to make as a restaurant owner.
5) What is the size of the tables in your own cafeteria?
While shopping for utensils, take note of the size of the plates. If the width of your table is less than 40cm, you definitely can't go for the 30cm round plates. Bear that in mind!
TIP: The last two digits of the barcodes labelled on the plates is usually the size of the plate!
6) Ensure that you have enough dry storage space in your kitchen to store the utensils.
1 plate is about 2cm in height. You do the math.
That's all I have for now. Do check out the featured post of the day and have a great week ahead!
No comments:
Post a Comment