As Chefs, we are always tasked with cutting back on labour costs. The simple solution is to just start trimming back employee hours, but if you’re not careful this can have adverse effects on service and food quality. The first thing you have to do, as a Chef or GM is analyze what is happening in the kitchen before, during, and after service.

The general rule is skilled labour should always be doing skilled tasks. So if your lunch crew is coming in at 9 am to get set up for lunch service at 11:30 am, what exactly are they doing? Is your skilled line cook peeling vegetables & potatoes for the daily feature? Tons of money can be saved by hiring apprentices/prep cooks to put away orders and take care of basic prep. In smaller operations this could be your dishwasher who doubles as a prep cook. Give these young stars a career path. They should aspire to reach skilled line cook status within your operation in a few years. As skilled cooks move on, you’re prepared with young stars that are ready and willing to fill their spots.

When it comes to saving on labour you also need to look at your menu. What items are taking the longest to prep? I’m a big fan of our fully cooked and cleaned Mussels. We all know how time consuming it is to clean the beards off each shell. Also the shelf life of fresh mussels is 2 days at best. Here is a product that will reduce waste and reduce kitchen labour without sacrificing quality. More info on how to prepare our fully cooked mussels can be found here.

White clams are another item that most restaurateurs avoid because of the labour needed to thoroughly clean each clam. These bad boys come in fully cleaned and fully cooked in the shell. Simply warm them up in your customized sauce to order. No waste no hassle! More info can be found here.

Fish & Chips can be profitable when done right. I’ve seen a lot of restaurants use up a ton of labour with battered fish mise en place. They lightly pre-fry the fish before service, cool them down and then to order they place the fish back in the deep fryer. Then what happens with the left overs??  If this sounds familiar you should consider consulting with one of our seafood specialists to find a product that suits your needs.  High Liner has quality battered fish products that have that "back of the house" look and taste without all the labour or waste. Check out our entire battered fish portfolio here. Some of my favourites include Big Bobs® Beer Battered Natural Cut Cod Fillets, Yuengling™ Lager Battered Haddock Fillets, & Battercrisp ® Fast Fry Cod Portions.

Stay hungry my friends!