According to research, the average annual turnover rate in the food service industry is around 75%. Naturally, the numbers are lower in family-owned restaurants and higher in fast-food joints. The reason for this can be attributed to inflation (read more about restaurant inflation), dynamic working conditions, and various other factors. In order to fight the high turnover rate, eateries need to develop thorough training programs for all positions. Creating restaurant recipe cards can significantly help train waiters, chefs, and other back-of-house (BOH) staff members. In this post, we’ll shed some light on what restaurant recipe cards are and how eateries can benefit from them. Make sure to also check our posts on the latest trends in sustainable restaurants and our guide on restaurant customer acquisition.
Key takeaway: Restaurant recipe cards are an integral part of the employee training process in the food service sector. Thanks to them, eateries can have consistency, limit food wastage, and educate staff members more easily.
What Are Restaurant Recipe Cards
These are informal standardized documents used by restaurant and catering businesses to train staff members. Restaurant recipe cards include information such as ingredients and the way to prepare a dish. Not all eateries use these documents but the ones that do can have them in physical and digital form. Diners that use them usually include more than just the recipe. Allergens, portion size, photographs, plating instructions, and beverage pairing are optional but vital elements of restaurant recipe cards. They can help new staff members more easily learn different menu items, how to upsell customers, and how to cross-sell beverages alongside meals. In some cases, restaurant recipe cards also include a cost breakdown and profit margin. However, that’s more suitable for digital recipe cards that can be integrated along with the inventory management system as prices of ingredients can vary based on seasonality and various other factors. Recipe cards can also be used for cocktails, espresso drinks, and other menu items.
How to Use Restaurant Recipe Cards
The primary way in which eateries use them is to train new staff members on how dishes are prepared and what drinks they can be paired with. However, it’s not enough to just print the recipes on a piece of paper. Instead, restaurant recipe cards should be one of the parts of a thorough onboarding and training process. They should be regularly updated when menu changes occur and to properly calculate profit margins on menu items.
Furthermore, coffee shops, bars, and other establishments can also create recipe cards for beverages and cocktails if they wish to ensure consistency and easier training of new staff members.
Recipe cards can also be used when scaling a food service business by opening new locations or benefiting from the franchising model.
How to Make Restaurant Recipe Cards
Nowadays, thanks to the latest restaurant technology trends, there are various tools that help chefs, restaurant managers, and business owners to easily create restaurant recipe cards. These solutions can be found in professional restaurant management software. In addition to restaurant recipe carts, the seamless creation of QR codes for restaurant menus and various other templates is also crucial to guarantee restaurant success.
Small restaurants that don’t use modern restaurant technology can download a restaurant recipe card template, print it in several copies, and write down the ingredients and preparation instructions for different menu items.
Benefits of Using Restaurant Recipe Cards
Creating recipe cards is not mandatory but it can help a restaurant business scale and grow. Here are some of the benefits of using restaurant recipe cards.
- Enhanced quality assurance across different locations and shifts;
- Consistency in taste and presentation on all menu items;
- Streamlined staff training;
- Reduction of food waste and better control of costs;
- Makes scaling a food service business across multiple locations easier.
Other Templates Food Service Businesses Can Use
If you’re looking for a template for restaurant recipe cards, you might want to know what other document templates a food service business can use. Here’s a list with a few examples.
- Inventory sheets;
- Cleaning schedules for equipment, dining area, and the kitchen;
- Opening and closing checklists that include all procedures;
- Employee shift schedules;
- Food cost calculators;
- Employee evaluation forms and templates;
- Job descriptions for roles with high turnover rate;
- Menu engineering sheets that analyze popularity, profitability, and other KPIs for menu items;
- Temperature logs for freezers and refrigerators;
- Allergen checklists;
- Employee and customer complaint forms;
- Reservation log templates;
- Prep lists to guide daily or weekly tasks of prep cooks.
Frequently Asked Questions about Restaurant Recipe Cards
Restaurant design ideas, information about buying wholesale restaurant supplies, and tips for increasing wholesale sales – these are just some of the useful articles on our website. You’ll find plenty of resources for various niche markets on BlueCart. Check out our answers to common questions regarding restaurant recipe cards.
Where Do Restaurants Get Recipes?
Food service businesses can get new recipe ideas from multiple sources. Cookbooks, professional culinary trade shows, and input from chefs are the main sources for new recipes. However, restaurant businesses can also explore online resources like recipe websites for ideas. When doing menu design and engineering, it’s important to pick recipes that fit your restaurant's style and customer demand. For example, an eco-friendly restaurant might have more veggie options on its menu or other recipes that are considered sustainable. On the other hand, a casual dining BBQ eatery is likely to search for meat-oriented recipes and dishes.
What Is a Restaurant Recipe Book?
Some diners keep all their recipes (or restaurant recipe cards) in a single recipe book. This makes the organization and management of recipes easier. A restaurant recipe book might also refer to a book that contains the recipes for the most popular menu items. It can be sold as restaurant merchandise or to improve email marketing efforts by collecting emails for a free restaurant recipe eBook. Check out other ways to improve a restaurant's marketing. There are also publishers that offer recipe cookbooks with collections of the most common recipes in different types of restaurants.
How to Train Restaurant Staff?
Employee training is very important in the restaurant industry due to the high turnover rate in the sector. That’s especially true for fast-food joints and other types of food service businesses that have an even higher annual turnover rate than the average. In order to train restaurant staff, managers need to have a thorough and well-developed training program. Restaurant recipe cards can help in that regard, but they are only one component of the whole program. On-the-job training is considered the best approach. It can also be combined with video tutorials, online courses, and classroom instructions to cover theory-based knowledge.
BlueCart: Where Restaurants Can Find Reliable Suppliers
Our wholesale ordering software can help food service businesses order products in bulk from various wholesalers. Whether you’re looking for a broadline distributor or a specialized one, BlueCart is the platform that will help you connect to the right suppliers, easily compare products, and order them with just a few clicks. With multiple solutions for wholesalers, BlueCart is one of the best options for wholesale distribution companies that wish to automate certain processes while expanding their B2B sales. Schedule a demo and see how BlueCart connects suppliers with food service businesses.