Pizza Today - February 2018 - 53

They are also easy to read.

* KISS: KEEP IT SIMPLE, STUPID. Or
if you are being nice, keep it simple and
stupid. For food cost, and any process,
make it fool-proof and simple enough
to be followed day in and day out
without failure. Here's an example. If
your store uses kids' crayons and needs
to stock them, then don't have a par
sheet with 486 crayons listed as your
par for the week. Keep it to one case
unopened. That way, you know when a
box gets opened it's time to order up.
* PARS AND TOOTHPASTE LOGIC. Pars
are the tightrope string of a restaurant.
You want to keep enough product in
stock to not run out, but you don't want
so much that it goes bad -- or worse
yet, is wasted. That's where toothpaste
logic comes into play. When you have
a massive five-pack of toothpaste, it's
likely you coat the brush with enough
tooth goo to caulk a bathtub. Staff can
be the same way. They see you have
tons of two-liters of soda. What's the
big deal if we give a few extra away or
take a few ourselves? Same goes for
product on your line. Excessive amounts
of anything can lead staff to think you
have extra to burn, like 10 gallons of
floor cleaner so staff uses the cleaner
non-diluted and kills a whole gallon
because it's easier to clean that way.
These examples are real and happen all
the time, so keep the pars effective, but
tight. Make staff feel like it's that last
bit of toothpaste on hand to only use
what they need.
* INVENTORY. The next level to
consider is a real up-to-date inventory
-- not just a percentage of what was
purchased versus what was sold, but
actual inventory. Percentage sold leads
to the food-cost roller coaster where
your staff orders up one week, blows
food costs and then next week is under
because they are using last week's
overage.
True food cost takes recipe building
of all your pizzas and entrées (and,
more importantly, your prep items). If
you make meatballs from scratch, you
have to price out all the ingredients to
make a batch and then divide it by the
number of meatballs you get from a
batch to know the cost of one meatball.
That price will change each week with

the cost of beef and your ingredients.
To know how much you purchased versus
what you sold, you need to put in the work,
get a solid Excel food-cost sheet, or buy an
inventory program. No matter what you do,
you can do this. But it requires entering the
data I talked about earlier and that is not
as flashy. Yet it's necessary to survive in this
business.
* D.R.I. Another thing I believe in is
having a directly responsible individual -- or
D.R.I. -- for all tasks. Food costs should be

assigned to the general manager or kitchen
manager. Ideally the person responsible for
the food cost does all of your food ordering
for that location. That way they know what
they have on hand, what they have ordered,
and that it's their responsibility to hit the
number. Shared blame equals blanket failure.
n

MIKE BAUSCH owns Andolini's Pizza in
Tulsa, Oklahoma and is a frequent speaker
for the Pizza Expo family of trade shows.

F E B R UA R Y 2 0 1 8 / P I Z Z AT O D AY. C O M / 5 3
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Pizza Today - February 2018

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