Your Food Doesn’t Taste Right and You Can’t Remember the Recipe. Solve These Problems by Making SOPs to Make Your Business Prosper!
Your food doesn’t taste right. The customers complain. Your food cost is out of control and you make no profit. The chef quits or is being difficult or has been in an accident and can’t come to work. There’s no one to cook. Your restaurant has to close. These are all problems no restaurant wants to encounter, but they are bound to emerge if the restaurant doesn’t create a standard recipe or what the restaurant industry calls standard operation procedures (SOP).
S.O.P – If you ask us whether SOPs are necessary, our firm answer would be, “Essential and vital”. This is because making SOPs not only prevents substandard food flavor problems, it also helps you control the food cost because the SOPs will specify the amount for all the ingredients you need. They can also help manage the restaurant’s operations because, even if you’re having a problem with the chef or you don’t have a chef, a new chef can just come in and start making your restaurant’s menu items right away.
A big problem in making SOPs.
The next question is, “If your restaurant has not made any SOPs and all the recipes are with the chef, how do you convince the chef to put the recipes in the SOPs?” We believe this is a problem that makes many entrepreneurs hesitate to ask the chef. They’re afraid of causing a misunderstanding, so they keep delaying making the SOPs.
We have to say this is a common problem. The chef is afraid that his/her role or bargaining power is being reduced. A solution for existing restaurants that haven’t made any SOPs and are afraid of asking the chef to reveal the recipes is you have to explain to the chef the importance of SPOs and that the chef’s role and status will not be affected. On the other hand, SOPs can make the chef’s job easier. The chef’s role will be raised to a food quality supervisor. In the future, if the restaurant branches out, the chef will have a role in training assistants or branch chefs and training will be made easier if there are SOPs.
SOPs must be done properly and should include all the details.
Once you’ve come to an understanding, you can start making SOPs. Creating a standard recipe isn’t just about food. You also need to include the processes for managing each type of ingredient, for example, receiving vegetables and trimming them. What are the methods and steps for trimming vegetables? How do you store the vegetables after trimming, inside or outside the fridge, in an ice box, by wrapping them with paper or putting them in a Ziploc bag? You need to add the details for each of the steps and processes because they affect the cooking process.
As for food preparation SOPs, you also need to include all the details such as the containers and equipment used and the size and looks of the ingredients which are connected to ingredient management. You also need to specify the amount and weight using international standards, for example, instead of using cups, use grams to prevent errors when measuring and leveling the top. The temperature also has to be specified in detail. In addition, one SOP many people overlook is the dish decoration SOP. How do you decorate or arrange a dish? You need to specify all the details so that every dish you serve up has all the same standards.
Once you’ve created an SOP, you need to try doing every step of the SOP to see if the food’s flavor, colors and looks are the same as in the SOP.
Example SOP Form
Let’s say your restaurant sells fried chicken with sticky rice. You can write the SOP as follows:
Primary Equipment
- A large iron wok.
2. A long-handled spatula.
3. A long-handled strainer.
4. A stainless-steel tub (for marinating chicken), 38 cm.
5. A set of steamer basket and steamer pot.
6. Measuring spoons.
7. A knife for cutting the chicken.
Secondary Equipment
1. A cup for containing the rice water.
2. An ice box for containing the sticky rice.
3. Mortar and pestle
Ingredients for the Fried Chicken
Aro Frozen Chicken Bone in Leg 1 kg.
Savepak Tempura Flour 200 g.
Water 200 ml.
Thai Garlic 100 g.
Savepak Pepper Powder 2 tsp.
Aro Green-lidded Seasoning Sauce 1 tbsp.
Aro Salt 1 tsp.
Aro Sugar 1 tbsp.
Aro Chicken-flavored Seasoning Powder 1 tbsp.
Aro Palm Oil 2 L
Ingredients for the Steamed Sticky Rice
Aro Khiew Ngu White Glutinous Rice 1 kg.
Instructions for Frying the Chicken
- Cut the chicken lengthwise and marinate it with the garlic, pepper, seasoning powder and half of the tempura flour mixed with water. Mix well and let it marinate in the fridge for 30 minutes.
- After 30 minutes, take out the chicken. Mix in the remaining half of the tempura flour mixed with water and mix well.
- Set the wok on the stove, pour in the oil and heat it until hot. Put in the chicken and fry it until golden brown. Take the chicken out of the oil and strain it. Now it’s ready to be sold.
Instructions for Steaming the Sticky Rice
- Rinse the sticky rice 1 – 2 times and then let soak for at least half an hour.
- Wash the steamer basket with water until it’s soaked and then pour the sticky rice into the basket. Wait until the water is drained from the rice.
- Add water into the steamer pot. Add pandan leaves for fragrance. Place the steamer basket on the steamer pot and cover with a lid. Steam the rice for about 15 minutes. Then, open the lid and flip the rice. Pour the rice water onto the rice to rinse it and then steam for another 15 minutes.
- Once the rice is cooked, sprinkle a little water on the threshing basket and then pour the rice on it. Spread the sticky rice so the steam leaves the rice. The rice should be soft and not mushy. Now it’s ready to be dished up into servings of 100 grams on banana leaves.
Click to watch a video on how to make sticky rice and fried chicken at
If you’ve written it down and the employees still don’t read it, you can make it into a video.
This is another problem. The restaurant writes SOPs in a book or on paper, but the employees still don’t understand it, such as in the case of foreign employees. A simple solution is to change from paper to videos. Record every step in detail from start to finish so you can show it to the employees for them to watch, learn and follow. It helps them to understand it more easily. However, you should still have the paper SOPs on hand because by the time you watch it from beginning to end and understand it, the customers might not be waiting anymore.
What should you do if you don’t want to make SOPs because you’re afraid the recipes might leak out?
We’re bringing this up because we believe that a lot of you are probably operators who have your own recipes and won’t make SOPs because you’re afraid that the employees would sell them or open a restaurant to compete with you. In the end, the owner has to spend all their time in the kitchen. The solution for this is fairly simple, just make a sauce base with the ingredients and specify the amount of the sauce base needed and no one will know what ingredients or brand you used.
In conclusion, what are the pros of having SOPs?
It can help the business owner have a better living and more time. It’s easier for employees to work. It’s faster. Once the cost is under control, profit will follow. When you expand the business, you don’t have to worry about the recipes being off or it’s not hard to create a franchise. Most importantly, the customers get to eat food that’s up to standard every time. It might be a bit lax sometimes, but it’s within the acceptable range. Therefore, if you don’t already have them, make some!
Furthermore, if you don’t know how to start making SOPs, we recommend you take our free online course “Systematically Creating Standards for Your Restaurant” which will help restaurateurs learn how to control their restaurant’s standards so they always have quality and consistency, from how to greet customers to their services, their preparation and cooking processes so that the taste and looks of the food are the same every time, and how to establish inspection standards.
Click to read other articles here:
- How to Select Recommended Menu Items to Generate Profit for Your Restaurant
- Does Your Restaurant Have Too Many Items on the Menu? We’ll Share with You How to Trim the Menu to Boost Your Sales!
- How to Start Filing Tax Documents After Opening a Restaurant
- Slow Serving Time, Wrong Orders, Customer Complaints! You Need to Fix Both Your Storefront and Kitchen
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