Stop throwing money in the bin. Daily waste log, root-cause categories, weekly review, and one fix per week until the leak closes.
Reading time: 9 minutes. Setup time: 30 minutes once, then 5 minutes a day plus 15 minutes weekly.
Cooked or prepped more than was sold. Fix: tighten prep par levels against last week's actuals, not last year's habits.
Items went bad before use. Fix: FIFO labels, smaller ordering cycles, fridge layout discipline, daily stock walk.
Cut wrong, burned, dropped, wrong recipe. Fix: station checklists, prep spec sheets with photos, supervisor sign-off on high-cost items.
Wrong order sent, modifier missed, allergen mistake. Fix: expo checklist, modifier visibility on tickets, double-check rule for allergens.
Customer left it on the plate. Fix: review portion size, ask servers what guests complain about, consider smaller / larger options.
The biggest mistake: logging waste but never reviewing it. The log is worthless without the weekly fix routine.
