pre made soups?
We're currently making all of our soups in house from scratch but it's proving not to be cost effective (when labor is included) and generally causes some inconsistencies and head aches. Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated! Thanks!
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Tyler Stevens on
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I hate soup.
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Just kidding buddy
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Permalink Reply by Alex C. McGregor on
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Haha, thanks homes. And I know that's a lie. We used to eat that stuff like it was goin' outta style back in the day.
Tyler Stevens said:Just kidding buddy
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Permalink Reply by Mike McGinness on
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Agree scratch soups can be a hassle. But I too do it anyway. Important to have clear detailed specific directions with the recipe when different people are making them. Either keep making 'em from scratch or take 'em off the menu. Yet to find a decent line of quality pre-made soups.
What can help from a cost stand point is making at least some of your soups types they are good, sometimes even better, on re-heats. My two about most popular soups are classic comfort soups of this type: Navy Bean with Hickory Smoked Pit Ham and Split Pea with Bacon. Both require being started the day before so indeed a hassle!
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Permalink Reply by Denise Smith on
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We start with what our distributor calls a 'heat and serve' or 'you cook' soup but we always add to it because theirs is always lacking. We have done several from scratch but it has to be a a soup of the day because we usually can not repeat it. We pre prep some of the ingredients when we are already prepping that item... for example; carrots get sliced and julienned while out- sliced for soup and julienned for cakes and salads. Cucumbers are something we have found difficult to deal with because the english ones spoil too fast.
If an ingredient can not be used in at least three different dishes... it doesn't come into the kitchen!
That includes coffees! Coffee shots from the barista station go to the blender station if not used within reasonable time (1/2 to 1 full day) they go to the kitchen and are tested before using in baking if not suited they become fertilized for all our new landscaping... along with all the only airpots of brew, tea, and all grounds.
We started with the frozen oven roasted potatoes for our loaded potato soup and in a bind still use it but we can cube and roast potatoes between scone and bread batches and not have an empty hot oven.
You may find the more labor intensive ingredients more economical to buy and other things from scratch... it's the semi-homemade concept.
Bottom line will the customer pay for it, enjoy it and come back for more?
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Permalink Reply by chuck celentano on
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I do all my soups from scratch, the difference in the taste and quality is well worth it. Don't sacrifice your reputation for a few pennies. We all know there are plenty of items that we make a killing on and some items you might take a beating on, but please don't jeprodize what you work hard to build everyday just to save a few cents. As you can tell I am passionate about EVERYTHING that I create, I put my heart and soul into all of my dishes and the comments from my customers make me feel very satisfied and proud. I have worked for chefs that take pride in serving frozen soups, that's not me. I walked out of a well paying Sous Chef position because I caught the Head (?) adding "ButterIt" (YUK), to my scratch made Cream of Broccoli. I threw my apon at him and said "Make your own f-ing soups". I went home and my wife (God Bless her) said " I was waiting for you to do that". Now that Chef comes into MY place for lunch. :)
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It's less about the actual dollar value and more about the time spent. We have twelve categories to prep, and only two people on at a time. The opener starts the soup as soon as they get there, but there is always something that doesn't get done that we make more on and is less stressful on the employees. I would really rather not sacrifice quality either, but... I got some figuring to do haha.
chuck celentano said:I do all my soups from scratch, the difference in the taste and quality is well worth it. Don't sacrifice your reputation for a few pennies. We all know there are plenty of items that we make a killing on and some items you might take a beating on, but please don't jeprodize what you work hard to build everyday just to save a few cents. As you can tell I am passionate about EVERYTHING that I create, I put my heart and soul into all of my dishes and the comments from my customers make me feel very satisfied and proud. I have worked for chefs that take pride in serving frozen soups, that's not me. I walked out of a well paying Sous Chef position because I caught the Head (?) adding "ButterIt" (YUK), to my scratch made Cream of Broccoli. I threw my apon at him and said "Make your own f-ing soups". I went home and my wife (God Bless her) said " I was waiting for you to do that". Now that Chef comes into MY place for lunch. :)
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Permalink Reply by Bryan Wray on
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If your customers are used to soup from scratch, they'll notice a huge difference when you start using pre-made crap instead. You'll lose customers or your reputation will slip and that's when the pennies will really start to disappear. Cutting quality is no way to save time and eventually money. If the opener gets there an extra half an hour earlier every day it would cost you in the neighborhood of $5 a day, or $35 a week, totaling $1820 a year. Start "yearing" out some of your other expenses and you'll see how small $1820 really is. (For example, if your coffee costs you $7/lb and you are wasting 2g off of the top of the shot when you distribute your grounds you are losing 3 cents/shot. At 300 shots per day that totals $9.25 in waste. At the end of the year that is about $3375, which is quite a bit considering how little 2g of coffee is.)
If the opener doesn't have enough time to prep the soup, then some of the duties should be done the night before by the closer. Simply write out what you put into each batch and take notes of which batch customers preferred more. Maybe the difference between batch one and batch two is two cups of potatoes vs. two and a half cups of potatoes, but if you log that difference then you have a reference point, otherwise your efforts are lost.
As you start logging all of your ingredients and solidifying your recipes, figure out which ingredients don't have to be prepared immediately before going into the soup. Have those ingredients prepared and stored the night before so that the opener simply has to just add them to the soup, not measure, prepare and then add them. If the ingredients can hold for more than one day than make larger batches of them at a time. The difference between carrots chopped 10 minutes before going into a soup and carrots chopped 2 days before going into a soup are going to be unnoticeable by customers.
Talk to your supplier/distributor. They usually have people that will come in and offer up solutions for just such problems for no cost. We have multiple meetings with different reps from Sysco every month or couple months, just so we continually are streamlining our methods and maximizing our production and time.
HTH
-bry
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Permalink Reply by Thomas Ervin-Ward on
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Soup is our highest profit food item. It takes 10 minutes to dice and fry the vegies, which then go into a slow cooker. We make garlic bread from yesterdays unused bread. Buy vegies that are in season, add some good vegie stock and some pearl barley and you are laughing. Made too much? Freeze half and use it next week. You wont make money from premade soups. Cost $5AUD to make ($10 with labour), sell at $6AUD a bowl (which is cheap in a cafe), sell 10 from each batch that is $55 profit for $5 outlay.
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