Sample result
Portioning Standards Builder for Restaurants
The owner asked this:«I have two locations and not one spec sheet with a gram weight. The chef plates from memory and my food cost lands at 34%. I want the written standard for my three fastest-moving dishes, with the tool for each line, ready to hang at the pass on Saturday.»
① The standard, component by component
Three dishes, fourteen lines. Each with its net gram weight, the tool that delivers it and what the portion costs.
| Dish | Component | Net gram weight | Prep waste | Tool that delivers it | Band | Portion cost |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bandeja de la casa | Ground beef | 120 g | 6 g drained | Nº12 ladle, levelled | ±8 g | $6,240 |
| Bandeja de la casa | Chicharrón | 70 g | — | Tongs, 2 pieces | ±7 g | $2,940 |
| Bandeja de la casa | Cargamanto beans | 200 g | — | 200 ml scoop, struck | ±20 g | $1,200 |
| Bandeja de la casa | Rice | 130 g | — | 130 g ring | ±13 g | $416 |
| Bandeja de la casa | Fried plantain | 50 g | 12 g of peel | 2 counted pieces | ±1 piece | $467 |
| Bandeja de la casa | Avocado | 30 g | 18 g stone and skin | 30 ml spoon | ±5 g | $900 |
| Bandeja de la casa | Egg · arepa | 1 + 1 | — | Counted piece | 0 | $1,120 |
| Sancocho de tres carnes | Three-meat mix | 260 g | 22 g of bone | Tongs + 1 g scale | ±12 g | $9,100 |
| Sancocho de tres carnes | Broth | 300 ml | — | 150 ml ladle, twice | ±25 ml | $600 |
| Sancocho de tres carnes | Pot vegetables | 150 g | 30 g peeled off | Drained spider | ±15 g | $958 |
| Trucha al ajillo | Trout fillet | 220 g | 95 g bone and skin | 1 g scale, no exceptions | ±6 g | $12,100 |
| Trucha al ajillo | Garlic sauce | 45 ml | — | 45 ml ladle | ±5 ml | $980 |
| Trucha al ajillo | House salad | 90 g | — | Tongs, one grab | ±10 g | $760 |
And the line that moved was not the protein. With the weights the kitchen was plating from memory, the bandeja came to 33.0% food cost and the sancocho to 33.2%: both above the 32% set by the house costing rule. The correction never touched the ground beef or the three-meat mix — it touched the avocado, the rice, the beans and the broth, the lines where 20 g do not show on the plate and do show at month's end.
| Dish | Food cost before | Food cost with the standard | What gave |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bandeja de la casa | 33.0% | 31.6% | Avocado 40→30 g · beans 220→200 g · rice 150→130 g |
| Sancocho de tres carnes | 33.2% | 31.4% | Avocado 40→30 g · vegetables 180→150 g · broth 350→300 ml |
| Trucha al ajillo | 31.1% | 31.1% | Nothing: it already fitted |
② The band is not set by the industry: it is set by the tool
Before writing "±8 g" somebody had to measure what the levelled nº12 ladle actually delivers. Five servings in a row, same hand, same ladle:
| Serving | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | Range |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ground beef (g) | 118 | 124 | 121 | 127 | 119 | 118 – 127 g |
SUPUESTO: no industry portioning tolerance is used here, because it shifts by cut, by supplier and by country. The ±8 g band on 120 g comes from the measured spread of the tool itself: the levelled ladle moves 9 g between the shortest and the longest serving, so a ±3 g band would be broken every day and would flag nothing. If Sazón de Origen wanted to work at ±3 g, writing a tighter band does not help: the line has to move to a scale, the way the trout already has. And the other way round: opening the band to ±20 g would take the bandeja back to 33% with the standard "met", which is the quietest way to lose margin — the band decides what gets seen, not what gets plated.
That is why the trout goes on a 1 g scale and not on tongs. 6 g of fillet cost $330; 20 g of beans cost $120. The tool is chosen by what the gram costs, not by what the portion weighs.
③ The card that hangs at the pass
Half a page per dish, laminated, at eye level for whoever plates. It reads standing up, one metre away, in 3 seconds: which is why it carries no costs, no waste figures and no explanations.
``` BANDEJA DE LA CASA SAZÓN DE ORIGEN ───────────────────────────────────────────────────── Ground beef ........ 120 g nº12 ladle, levelled Chicharrón ......... 70 g tongs · 2 pieces Beans .............. 200 g 200 ml scoop, struck Rice ............... 130 g 130 g ring Plantain ........... 2 pieces Avocado ............ 30 g 30 ml spoon Egg · arepa ........ 1 + 1 ───────────────────────────────────────────────────── If in doubt between over and under: SCALE. ```
The same card, word for word, at both locations. The 2024 site gets no "adapted" version: if a line there has to differ —another chicharrón supplier, another cut— the difference is written down along with who authorised it, and stops being a habit to become an exception with a name.
The full example has 1 more part(s): you see them inside the library, with your account.