Posted by Sam Sears, CEC on August 29, 19100 at 20:28:49 :
In Reply to: Re: Catering Quandry? posted by Timothy Banning on August 29, 19100 at 19:37:02 :
: Sam and Ron,
: It is my guess that you will have the same dollar cost for labor on upscale menus and that will translate to a lower percentage cost.
: Just as an example (with numbers take out of thin air): If you charge $10 per plate for a pasta item at 25% food cost, and $30 dollars for a lobster plate at 50% food cost. It takes the same labor (more or less) to prepare, serve, and clean up for both plates. Minus the food cost You have $7.50 for the pasta as opposed to $15.00 for the lobster to pay these same cost.
: Percentages are great tools for analyzing Profit and Loss statements and as a starting point in developing menu items but experience and knowledge of the market are just as important in costing a menu.
I must respectfully disagree, the raw labor costs (not percentages) is normally much higher with higher end menus & products.......I can have a pantry person prep a standard picnic ( beans, pot salad, watermelon, relish trays, brownies & cookies, & burgers & dogs cooked on site) for about 100 pp in 4 hours or less.....but if I were serving saffron vichyssoise, broiled rock shrimp stuffed w/ caviar, baby greens w/ org tarragon dressing, duck breast w/ duck demi & date sauce, braised root veggies, plantains, & coconut ginger torte for say 35, it would take two of my best people probably one whole shift, making twice what that pantry person makes....so raw labor dollars will be higher w/ the more complex menu & much lower w/ a simple menu....now the percentages will be dramaticly different, but you cannot take percentages to the bank, you are very much correct that percentages are just a starting point, now let me say this also, if you have say a buffet dinner menu w/ salad, entree, veg, starch, bread, dessert for 50 pp and anayize the labor costs cs. the same menu @ 150 pp, your labor percentages will be much lower w/ the larger # of guests, from economizing motion & production techniques.....just my thoughts......Sam Sears, CEC