Cut your ingredient costs and increase profit

KEY INSIGHTS

• Maximising your use of ingredients can help balance out your overall costs
• Find multiple applications for the same ingredient
• Look out for cheaper ingredients that you can substitute onto your menu
• Plant-based is in demand and can be a high margin menu option to consider 
• Cheaper cuts of meat are perfect for pizza and pasta 

With ingredient costs on the rise, there’s more pressure on profit margins than ever. And you can only raise your prices so much – once customers decide you’re too expensive, it’s difficult to get them back through your doors.

The smart alternative to raising prices too high is to try to do more with less. Optimising your menu by maximising your use of ingredients can help balance out your overall costs.

Restaurateur and Executive Chef Mark Normoyle, co-owner of Luna’s Food & Wine Bar and St Kilda Beach Pizzeria, has recently redesigned his menus with this in mind. “The aim is to make use of ingredients across multiple dishes rather than just one,” he explains. “For example, we make up grated carrots and use them in a garnish for lamb – we also mix them with lentils and other ingredients as a side dish, we mix them into a soup, we pickle them and serve on pancakes and we use them in our vegetable stock.

“While we all know prices have gone up, there are still some cheaper ingredients out there, so my advice is also to look out for them and see where you can make substitutions. For example cauliflower was really cheap, now it’s expensive so the smart chefs are looking for the next bargain. Right now that’s avocado, which is why you’re seeing so much of it on the menu. You’ve got to stay on the lookout!”

For pizza and pasta dishes, Mark points out key protein ingredients such as beef, lamb and pork are all getting pricier. “In order to be able to offer meals with those ingredients you need to balance out your total food cost with other menu choices made from cheaper ones. At the same time you need to ensure those dishes look and taste great so they’re enticing for customers.”

One way to do this is to focus on plant-based meals, which are not only on trend but can be created with cheaper ingredients. “We’ve added a Vietnamese style turmeric pancake to the menu which we serve with the pickled carrots I mentioned earlier, plus fried tofu and lime dressing – it presents beautifully, tastes great and is very cost-effective. Meals like this have broad customer appeal – they don’t just appeal to vegetarians but to the growing market of flexitarian diners.” Offering a selection of meat-free pizzas can also help balance out your ingredient costs.

Mark also recommends looking at cheaper (“secondary”) cuts of meat. “Shoulder and cheek cuts are cheaper because they take longer to cook, but you can braise them overnight in the oven and when you come in next morning the meat will just pull apart. They’re great for pizza and pasta as they regenerate really well – you can reheat them and they’ll stay nice and moist and tender.”

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