Sponsored by Texas Pete
The double whammy of a labor shortage and soaring hourly wages has restaurant operators in a tight spot, especially as sales return to pre-pandemic levels. Customers are eager to revive their dining-out habits, but many restaurants are short staffed and unable to feed them as quickly as before.
John Moser, founder of MBB Management, a Philadelphia-based restaurant and hospitality consultancy, says nearly all of his clients are facing this dilemma. Part of his plan is advising them to consider convenience and speed-scratch products that keep food quality high while reducing labor.
“Simplifying operations is the future of the restaurant business,” Moser says. Since the costs of labor and food are out of control, operators must adjust their menus to control both expenses. “If they keep doing the same thing they’ve done for the last 25 years, it’s not going to work. It takes new thinking to be profitable now.”
Not surprisingly, some restaurants did the opposite when the pandemic hit. According to Emergence: 2023 Predictions, a report done by Kinetic12, from 2020 to 2022, many chains abandoned innovation to reduce costs and stay in business. However, 2023, provides “a clean slate of opportunity, and we will see more innovation in all aspects of the menu,” researchers wrote.
Today's recipes require fewer ingredients, less labor
In the kitchen, Moser says, that must happen with new recipes requiring fewer ingredients and less labor.
“I have a client that developed a ready-to-go cheesesteak sandwich that’s already wrapped in paper and is reheated in a TurboChef Oven,” Moser says. “Whatever you have to do to keep product quality high while reducing labor and cutting down SKUs, figure that out.”
When Moser suggests chef clients consider partially or fully cooked items designed for reheating on demand, he often gets pushback from some who say, “‘Well, I like the idea, but I’m concerned with the quality.’
“And what I try to tell them is manufacturers have done a tremendous job making quality products, especially since COVID hit. And when I say ‘manufacturers,’ I’m talking about serious R&D chefs who are making great food with great shelf life, and then coming up with easy ways to serve it.”
Garner Foods, the makers of Texas Pete® sauces in Winston-Salem, North Carolina-has addressed operator challenges with its “Simple As” Customize Sauce Collection. There you will find dozens of recipes for sauces made with fewer than five common pantry ingredients that can be prepared in less than 10 minutes in batches to make multiple portions for a variety of menu applications for sandwiches, salads, appetizers and more.
Need an easy Nashville Hot sauce recipe —and which would go well on fried chicken, spicy shrimp, over loaded fries or wings? Make it in minutes with brown sugar, smoked paprika, Texas Pete Original Hot Sauce, and Texas Pete DUST Dry Seasoning. Even a spicy garlic tahini dressing for salads is simple when all you need to do is combine Texas Pete Sauteed Garlic Hot Sauce with tahini, lemon juice, olive oil, and honey that goes well on grilled fish or chicken, or a hotter honey recipe that is universal for multiple applications.
“These kinds of products are ones we’ve always needed to execute better in the kitchen,” Moser says. “In the past, we didn’t have the help to execute like that. Now we do, and we need to use those kinds of products.”
Each Texas Pete Simple As recipe includes an instructional video for new and existing kitchen staff members to speed training and consistent execution of each of the customize signature sauces.
Kitchen innovation affecting restaurant design
Kinetic12’s research found that operators are planning to return to innovation in carryout, delivery, drive-thru, and off-premises catering. When customers were shut out of dining rooms during the height of the pandemic, many were not only happy to adapt to delivery and carryout options, but some also found they preferred those options to dine in.
Moser says he’s seen the trend also, and he’s advising clients to factor those opportunities into their facility design plans.
“Going forward everything I’m doing will be built that way,” he says. “Smaller overall footprints, with pick up windows for takeout and delivery are the norms for the future to maximize the dollars produced per square foot of real estate are quickly becoming the norm.”
“What I mean by that is every casual and fast-casual restaurant should have such a window or point of easy access at which customers can pick up carryout foods,” he says. “Build a takeout station upfront, have a register there or make it self-check-out. Above all, make it simple and reduce labor.”
Wise words: make it simple and reduce labor. That’s what Texas Pete products and its Simple As recipes bring to the kitchen. Want to learn more about Texas Pete’s broad and delicious line of products? Visit its website by clicking here.