By Erin J. Shea, Associate Editor

Caesar salad is among popular choices at Saladworks, where staff is trained in portion control to keep food costs in balance. Vibrant presentation of entrée salads, such as Max & Erma’s Shrimp Stack, helps sell cost-effective menu options.

At Saladworks, what constitutes an ounce is in the eye of the beholder—or, as is so often the case, the worker who wields the tongs.

“We don’t weigh our portions,” explains Paul Steck, senior vice president and chief operations officer for the Conshohocken, Pa.-based chain. “We rely on standardized equipment to portion out items. One grab of chicken with our tongs should be about 2 ounces.”

That’s the beginning of inconsistency. “If we get someone who is a little heavy handed, he or she may end up grabbing 3 ounces’ worth,” says Steck.

While changing commodity prices are a factor in the battle to control food costs, operations such as Saladworks are to some extent at the mercy of a philosophy that asks them to choose between doing things as intended or changing a system entirely. While over-portioning challenges a chain’s food-cost, that’s a price it says it gladly will pay.

“Our customers don’t want to see us weighing food,” Steck says. “If we took things behind the scenes, to measure everything beforehand, it wouldn’t work well with [the experience] we’re trying to give our customers.”

Controlling food costs requires that operators show moxie, operational discipline and creativity. While locking in contracts with suppliers continues as ammunition against fluctuating food prices, the largest restaurant chains use imagination to get the most out of their money while still maintaining customer satisfaction.

Train Gang
To err is human, to train is divine, a truth that is plainly seen in any kitchen.

“We don’t have robots working for us,” says Steck. “We have to make a game out of training our team to be able to pick up our equipment and know intuitively how large portions are.”

Saladworks food costs are based on specific recipes, Steck says. Despite this, with dozens of salads from which to choose, and a “create-your-own” option available, the human error variance plays heavily into the chain’s bottom line.

“We sell upwards of 500 salads a day,” he says. “When you spread that over 75 units, the costs add up pretty quickly.

“We accept some of this variance knowing that we have real, live human beings making salads in front of our customers.”

Frequent visits to the stores to train staff on portion control helps, Steck explains. “I’ll walk into a store, have an employee pick up a pair of tongs and show me how close the portion they grabbed is to the correct portion,” he says of the process. “Constantly working with employees on portioning out everything from lettuce to proteins is the best way we know how to control food costs while keeping our philosophy the same.”

It’s a Lock
Even with a menu that rarely varies, Qdoba Mexican Grill knows something about change.

“Any day, month or year is different in terms of market expectations,” explains Eric Grundmeier, vice president of supply chain for the Wheat Ridge, Colo.-based fast-casual chain. “It’s important for us to remember that different food items have different costs for various reasons.

Grundmeier says Qdoba, with more than 200 locations, pays close attention to the mix of ingredients used in menu items. Because nearly all items share similar components, the chain bases food costs on the overall mix of products. “We don’t tend to make menu pricing changes or decisions based on food cost issues,” he says. “For us, that’s the cost of doing business.”

But within that food cost control model, how does Qdoba meet an unexpected customer taste trend with the potential to complicate things?

“In the last couple of years our customers have taken to adding the queso flameado cheese to just about everything,” Grundmeier says. “The amount of that product and the percentage of entrées it was used on grew immensely.

“There became an awareness that spread.”

By evaluating the actual popularity of the cheese versus the cost, Qdoba realized that the addition had potential.

“We realized it was a way to add to the entrée cost,” he says. “There was a slightly higher food cost involved but it ended up raising the ticket average.”

Close Calls
Ronnie Hankamer has reason to rejoice. After several years that have found Houston-based Marble Slab Creamery struggling with the higher costs of sugar, milk and butterfat to create its signature ice-cream mixture, 2006 has been kind.

“We have been fortunate in that the pricing from our dairies began going down in February,” says the chain CEO. “Hopefully pricing will remain this constant for the remainder of the year.”

For years, some Marble Slab franchisees have dealt with rising dairy costs by adjusting prices during the off-season, when business is slower and the demand for ice cream isn’t as great. Though dairy prices are declining, Hankamer says dairy farmers are beholden to USDA pricing requirements, which means what goes down will surely go back up.

“A lot of it is out of their hands,” he says of the dairy pricing. “There are times when we have to take a look at alternatives on other areas of the menu.”

While freshly baked cookies, brownies and pies are available at a number of Marble Slab locations, ice cream remains its draw. Hankamer says the chain often looks to the mixes available and works with suppliers to assure a volume discount or a different ingredient.

“We tend to absorb the costs,” he says. “We don’t have a lot of products to fall back on and in most cases we just grin and bear it.”