Portion Control

Portion Control

Portion control is to control the quantity of food served to each customer.

Why?

·        To know how much food to order

·        To know what yield is obtained from each food item

·        Helps to calculate the cost of each dish on a menu therefore its selling price

·        To ensure each customer receives a meal that is uniform in quantity and standard.

Portion sizes can be determined by:

·        Number of courses to be served

·        Size and design of crockery

·        Type of customer

·        Menu pricing structure.

Portion sizes can be controlled by:

·        Buying food of specific portion size

·        Training staff on how to control portions and why it is important

·        Using appropriate utensils, equipment and measures to serve food

·        Supervising staff during service.

Portion Sizes

Portion sizes will be a debatable point all the time.

Generally speaking the more expensive the meals the smaller the portion sizes.

This might sound strange but the more expensive the menu item the better quality;

·        Finer breeding in the animals

§  Hand raised cattle are more expensive than range fed

·        Limited number available

§  Popularity may make it hard to obtain so the price will be higher

·        Seafood tends to be more expensive when stocks are low.

Below is an average size used in good quality restaurants:

Meat, Fish and Poultry

·        150g in pastry or similar

·        180g pure meat i.e. fillet steak

·        200g sirloin, rump

·        250 – 300g T-bone, whole trout, flounder.

Vegetables

·        Two serves of at least 50g each

·        Used to be meat, 2 vegetables plus a farinaceous item.

Farinaceous

·        Potato, pasta, rice, lentils

·        100g for a main meal

·        30 – 75g for an entrée.

Shellfish

60- 90g per entree portion depending on how rich the overall dish is and what else is served with it.

Soup

200 - 250ml per entree portion.

Sauce

20 - 50ml per portion depends on the richness of the sauce.

Portion control can be by size and not weight.

The more slices the more profit. But will the customers be happy with the serving size.

Customers expect a large slice of cake but most of the time they cannot finish the cake because the serving size is too large.

But if you charged them the same price for a smaller piece they will think it is too expensive for what they are paying.

Cakes

·        20 cm: 8 – 10 portions

·        25 cm: 12 portions

·        30 cm: 16 portions.

(All of the above depend on the thickness and richness of the cake)

To obtain good portion control the chef/cook needs to know the yields for various raw and processed products they work with, therefore it is important to make a habit of regularly counting, measuring and weighing food products in the Kitchen when working with them.