Achieving consistent food quality is one of the toughest challenges for any operation. With all the different cooks, menu options, and unforeseen hiccups, it’s easy for a chef's vision to get derailed at any given moment. Here are a few tips to help achieve consistent food quality from your kitchen staff.

Pictures speak a 1000 words:

With the launch of every new menu item. your culinary team should have access to images of the dish. These images are equally important for the service staff. Laminate them and display the images in a strategic location so everyone can view them.

Host A New Menu Tasting Session:

Prepare your new menu items with your culinary team and then taste them. It’s vital that the service staff are present at these tasting sessions. Remember that the service staff are on the front lines and are often asked by customers for their personal recommendations.

Provide tasting spoons at every station:

Before service it should be standard practice for the culinary management team to taste all the sauces/dressings etc. Even if these items were tasted when they were originally prepared, they should still be tasted before the start of every service. Certain items like fried calamari should be tasted every time before plating to check for texture and seasoning.

Standardized recipes:

You don’t stand a chance of having any food quality consistency without a binder full of standardized recipes. These standardized recipes are also important to achieve accurate food costing.

Trim down your menu:

Keep it simple! I’m a big fan of one page menus with daily specials. This sends a message to your customers that you are focused on freshness and quality. Your culinary team will benefit from having a simplistic prep list and being able to focus on execution, instead of trying to be everything to everyone. These are just a few ideas. Let's continue the conversation by posting comments below. I look forward to hearing your ideas.