Without a deliberate system and stringent controls in place, food & beverage costs can easily run amok. Oversized portions, reckless comping policies, excessive ordering of perishables, or simple pilfering by staff can all sink your bottom line.

 

F & B cost control may be less glamorous than running front-of-house activities or dreaming up new menus. It is, however, no less important to the future of the business than the work the chef does night after night.

Cost Control Mechanisms and the Food and Beverage Environment

A large part of hospitality management is about nothing but keeping costs within reason. In fact, F & B expenses are often the largest in a hotel following labor costs.

 

Fortunately, there are a number of established procedures for keeping these accounted for and under control:

• Standardized recipes and portions.
• Adequate supervision of staff.
• Maintaining accurate records of past expenditure, forecasting demand, and ordering prudently.
• Inventory control. appropriate storage, and waste management.
• Vendor selection and relations.
• Assessing labor costs and employee productivity.

 

Some of these aspects are specific to the food and beverage department of a hotel. Others, however, have far wider applications in the hospitality sector generally.

What This Course Will Teach You:

As this is an intermediate-level course, a working knowledge of restaurant and hotel operations is assumed. In roughly three hours, the following subjects will be covered:

• The rationale and scope of the F & B cost control process.
• Common processes and techniques to manage costs.
• Just-in-time ordering and PAR inventory management.
• Performing spot checks and statement analysis to discover problems.
• Cost control reporting.

Obvious waste is not the only possible sign of an F & B department that’s not in control of its spending. Working through the material in this course will enable you to notice more subtle signs and sub-optimal procedures, boosting your restaurant’s profitability and setting you up for success in a hospitality career.