Running a buffet can be one of the most rewarding and unnerving experiences one can have. Seeing everyone come up to your buffet table again and again to eat your food is a good feeling, but if something isn’t eaten often, it’s going to get old and less appetizing.
From a customer perspective, nobody likes to eat food that’s been baking under a food warmer for hours. From a restaurant owner’s perspective, nobody likes to throw away food that wasn’t eaten. There are several tactics which one can take to keep the customers coming.
- Keep very precise records
One of the biggest reasons that buffets fail is that they don’t put out the food that people want to eat. Diners might pick over something then leave it. Know exactly how much you put out and exactly how much hits the bin.
- Use shallow serving trays
A long, shallow serving tray might be just the ticket to a successful buffet. Why? Because people are more likely to eat it if they believe that there’s plenty to go around. Shallow trays also keep the amount of food per round down.
- Pre-plate expensive items
Plating your expensive items beforehand allows you to have the control on exactly how much your patrons eat. This is also done with desserts that have a long preparation time.
- Use smaller serving spoons
Giant serving spoons on the buffet encourages people to get huge amounts of food and potentially waste a good portion of it. Using smaller spoons is one way to achieve the type of portion control necessary to keep costs in check.
- Have only a few specialties on the bar
Yes, this is most definitely a nod toward Gordon Ramsay’s Kitchen Nightmares where he dramatically cuts the menu down to a few items and tells them to focus on a specialty. More isn’t necessarily better with a buffet, if the items on there are good enough.
- Rotate Every Hour
Most food will last around two hours under a heat lamp before it becomes inedible. However, it starts to lose noticeable flavor after an hour has passed. Try to rotate the food hourly if possible. If you don’t put out great quantities, then it might be running low after an hour anyway.
- Have small plates
Smaller plates mean less food on each plate. It’s a great way to control food costs. A small plate makes it more difficult for a customer to take more food than they can eat.
Running your buffet can be quite the challenge, but those challenges can be overcome with the right strategies and the right food. We hope that with these tips your buffet is not only fulfilling, but profitable as well.
Thanks go out to Kenming Wang on Flickr for the Creative Commons use of the picture.
