1、InterContinental Hotels Group?自助餐指南Buffet Guidebook Confidential InterContinental Hotels Group Table of Contents Introduction: Buffet Guidebook.3 Why Breakfast Buffet Standards?.3 What is the Purpose of this Guidebook? .3 Are You Sure You Want to Offer a Buffet? .4 Benefits of Buffets.4 Buffet Cauti
2、ons.4 Twelve Ideas to Control Buffet Costs.6 Ten Ideas to Increase Buffet Sales.8 Ten Ideas To Enhance Buffet Displays.9 Sample Ideas for Breakfast Buffet Hot Offerings.11 Buffet Standards Checklist.12 Holding Times Rotation Chart.13 Buffet Standards .14 Exceptions .14 Definitions.14 Merchandising &
3、 Signage.14 Cold Buffet.15 Fresh Fruit.15 Cold Cereal.15 Dairy.15 Bakery.15 Cold Display.16 Full Buffet.16 Eggs.16 Breakfast Meats.16 Potatoes.16 Service.17 Beverages .17 Buffet Guidebook Confidential InterContinental Hotels Group Introduction: Buffet Guidebook Why Breakfast Buffet Standards? For ye
4、ars we have had a program and Standards to support the breakfast menu: Best-4-Breakfast. However, a significant percentage of the Holiday Inn system offers a breakfast buffet, in addition to the Best-4-Breakfast menu. Why have breakfast Standards that cover only a portion of the breakfasts being ser
5、ved? With the renewed emphasis on breakfast the launch of “Morning matters” it was important to correct this inconsistency. These Standards were developed, critiqued, and reviewed by the Holiday Inn F&B Council, a group of multi-unit F&B executives from the franchise community. These executives repr
6、esent more than a third of all Holiday Inn hotels in North America. What is the Purpose of this Guidebook? We dont necessarily recommend that you offer a buffet. In fact, the next section will walk you through a rationale for serving buffets. Sometimes it makes sound business sense to offer a buffet
7、, sometimes it does not. For those of you offering buffets, this Guidebook is intended to assist you with your buffet performance. We include ideas for controlling costs, enhancing displays, and promoting buffet sales. Additionally, weve attached some tools for your use: a checklist to make sure you
8、re in compliance with the new Standards, and a buffet holding time form, to help you monitor the holding times for each product. Of course, weve included the Breakfast Buffet Standards, also found in the “Morning matters” Mangers Guidebook, for reference. To help you promote buffet sales, we have in
9、cluded an ordering form for PMO (Promotions Made to Order). And finally, there are 12 pages of display pieces, to give you ideas on how to enhance your own displays. These catalogue pages from Wasserstrom were developed specifically for Holiday Inn hotels the items were hand-selected by a core group
10、 of F&B Council members. NOTE: you are not obligated to purchase from either PMO or Wasserstrom. These pages are included herein as a convenience for those who would like to take advantage of their services. We hope you find this useful, and welcome your comments as always. For any breakfast need, f
11、eel free to contact us at 1-888-4-BREAKFAST. Buffet Guidebook Confidential InterContinental Hotels Group Are You Sure You Want to Offer a Buffet? Best-4-Breakfast is a menu approach to breakfast foodservice. The objective of Best-4-Breakfast is to improve the consistency and quality of the breakfast
12、 offerings system-wide. Many of our hotels feature a buffet breakfast for a variety of business reasons. In addition, several hotels feature a Sunday brunch buffet with a heavy breakfast item focus. Benefits of Buffets Buffets can be a good idea and often make good business sense. Here are some exam
13、ples: High Volume. Hotels averaging several hundred guests on a given day may well need a buffet to handle the volume. International Guests. A buffet cuts across language barriers. Large Groups. Groups such as bus tours may be easily accommodated by buffets. Weekend/Leisure Guests. Some research exi
14、sts which indicates a preference by consumers for buffets (e.g., Sunday Brunch) when they are on leisure time. Control. As clearly stated in the “Morning matters” Managers Guidebook, the guest wants to be “in control” of their experience. A buffet offering puts the guest fully in control. However, n
15、one of these reasons should necessarily compel a hotel to have a buffet seven days a week. Hotels should consider the costs of buffets, and develop a sound business strategy accordingly. Buffet Cautions While buffets are often popular, they can also “backfire” on you. Here are some reasons why: 1. L
16、ess Service Contact. Most operators believe that buffets save labor. This may not apply to the kitchen it probably doesnt. But it does apply to service personnel, your guest contact people. You may wish to consider that the food cost savings from shifting the sales mix to a menu more than offsets th
17、e cost of another service person. From an employee point of view, tips on menu service may be higher. CAUTION: do not let “buffet service” deteriorate to “cafeteria service” or “limited service”. Attention to the guest should not suffer, just because a buffet is offered. Proper execution of the appr
18、opriate “Morning matters” Service Signatures will help in this regard. 2. Poorer Quality. Buffet food is pre-cooked and often held beyond ideal times. The new Standards try to address this, but even so, items “freshly prepared to order” will always be Buffet Guidebook Confidential InterContinental H
19、otels Group better than the same or similar items cooked and held for 15, 30, 45 or more minutes. (Note: to address this concern, some operators offer full buffets with no eggs on the buffet all eggs are “cooked to order” but are included in the price of the buffet. This procedure meets the Standard
20、s.) 3. Poorer Value. Perhaps your buffet is “value-priced”. However many operators price their buffets to cover food costs, and that includes a level of waste. More to the point, research indicates that “value” in the family dining restaurant category is driven by quality and service, not by low pri
21、ce. 4. Higher Food Cost. Cost is difficult to control with buffets. A survey conducted by the Best-4-Breakfast team in 1999 discovered Breakfast Buffet costs ranging from 27% to 97%. When buffet cost gets out of hand, the “easy” solutions are: Higher price (resulting in poor value) Reduce quality (r
22、esulting in poor value) Reduce selection (resulting in poor value) (You may find the next sections of this Buffet Guidebook helpful, in regard to these challenges.) 5. Cash Control. A cost-related issue is cash control. Breakfast servers can easily pocket cash from cash buffet sales, except where el
23、aborate check-control procedures are in place. Ask yourself, why dont family dining restaurants that specialize in breakfast offer buffets? Cracker Barrel, IHOP, Perkins, Bob Evans, Dennysall offer menus exclusively. Finally, dont forget to develop a juice pricing strategy to complement your buffet
24、(or no-buffet) decision. Youll find plenty of information with cost tables in the “Morning matters” Managers Guidebook, to help you conduct a thorough analysis. After youve evaluated all of the above “benefits” and “cautions”, you may well determine that a buffet is right for your hotel. In that cas
25、e, the next step is to ensure that you have the right strategies in place. Buffet Guidebook Confidential InterContinental Hotels Group Twelve Ideas to Control Buffet Costs 1. Consider offering a Cold Buffet only, serving hot items to order. A variation of this idea is to offer the cold buffet for $X
26、.XX “with any entre” from the Best-4-Breakfast menu. Or, try the reverse: offer any omelet or egg dish “cooked to order” for $X.XX with the Cold Buffet. Offering the Cold Buffet only still addresses the guest desire to be “in control”, and its ideal for your “Breakfast Grabbers” and even perhaps you
27、r “Breakfast Skippers”. 2. During the first and last hour of service use half pans versus full-pans. Remember, the guest pays the same amount of money for a buffet five minutes prior to close, as the guests who enjoy the buffet in the middle of a rush. The Standards do not allow for a lessening of s
28、ervice during non-peak hours (see suggestion number 3). So, using smaller containers will help you manage over-production and waste while maintaining your buffets bountiful appearance. 3. Optimize your buffet hours of operation. Perhaps your breakfast meal period spans 6:00 am 11:00 am. Why not clos
29、e your buffet at 9:30 am? Or 10:00 am? If it makes business sense. Note: if you select this route, the new Standards require you to post your buffet hours of operation “at or near the restaurant entry, indicating the breakfast buffet hours”. 4. Track your product usage and waste, this will reduce ov
30、er ordering and over production of product. This will also create a history for your buffet, which will assist you in production. 5. Involve your employees with goals / good communication. Good communication and specific goals will create a culture of “team” in your operation. Do your cooks know the
31、 cost of a pan of eggs, or a pan of sausage? Consider developing a kitchen incentive for reducing food costs for the buffet, with an emphasis on reducing over-production and waste. 6. Use of “Cook to Order” for egg dishes. This idea was mentioned in “buffet cautions” above. By eliminating the chaffi
32、ng dish for eggs and going to cook to order only, two things are accomplished. Not only will you reduce waste as everything will be made to order, you will also ensure the late arriving guest get a Fresh product something that is not always typical of a late arriving buffet guest. 7. Cross utilizati
33、on of product. Some of the products you use on your buffet can be used for different meal period or modified to be usable for the next days buffet service. An example of this might be cut fruit, this might be used as a garnish for luncheon or dinner plates. Be sure that items that are not discarded
34、are transferred to clean containers, labeled, dated, and held under refrigeration at 40 degrees or below. 8. However, beware of “false savings”. Using the example in #7, above, if you have a fresh fruit garnish on your lunch or dinner entrees, only because of your breakfast buffet, then the cross ut
35、ilization is not really saving money. Further, utilizing substandard products because you offer a breakfast buffet can lead to overall reduced quality for your menu. For example, using two-day-old stale bacon for bacon cheeseburgers. 9. Dont use food for display. Would you purchase decorations that
36、have to be discarded the next day, or after 3 days? When you use food to decorate your buffet, you may be doing exactly this. Please see Ten ideas for enhancing your Buffet display for alternative ideas on displays. Buffet Guidebook Confidential InterContinental Hotels Group 10. Proper serving utens
37、ils. Ensure that the serving utensils you use on your buffet are not oversized promoting large portions on the guests plate. Note: dont forget the new Standard requiring decorative utensils: “An appropriate decorative (not kitchen) utensil such as a slotted spoon or tongs must accompany each item”.
38、11. Know your food cost. Costing a buffet properly requires some effort. You must first cost each pan and container on the buffet. For example, you must calculate the cost of a full pan of eggs, a full pan of potatoes, a full pan of bacon, etc. Then you must carefully count the number of pans that a
39、re taken from the kitchen to the buffet during a single meal period. Finally you must add all of the costs and divide this dollar figure by the total buffet revenue for the day. We recommend that you do this daily for one week, four times a year. 12. Eliminate juice and/or coffee from your buffet of
40、fering, this will help in gaining incremental sales which will help lower food cost. Note: we suggest that you accompany a change like this with a modest price decrease. See “OJ Pricing Strategies” in the “Morning matters” Managers Guidebook. Buffet Guidebook Confidential InterContinental Hotels Gro
41、up Ten Ideas to Increase Buffet Sales 1. Describe the buffet on your menu. Note: in 2003 you were able to do this only using an insert. If you ordered these inserts, then the menus you received during the week of September 29 have transferred your description to the back of the menu. If not, in 2004
42、 you will be able to list a full description of your buffet on the back of the menu. 2. Promote the buffet internally. Use PMO (Promotions Made to Order). Samples of their products and ordering information may be found in this Guidebook. Place attractive posters in your elevators, or near the restau
43、rant entry. Note: this does not free you from the Best-4-Breakfast requirement to place the new “Morning matters” poster at your restaurant entry. 3. Promote holiday brunch buffets. Many chain restaurants do not open on major holidays often their offerings are inappropriate for a holiday. This is yo
44、ur opportunity to gain share from area restaurants. Note: be sure to cross-promote weddings and banquets and your daily breakfast buffet during your holiday buffets. PMO sells attractive posters for all of your holiday needs. 4. Market the buffet locally using the handy postcards and mailers availab
45、le from PMO. 5. Be sure your buffet is balanced in all food groups and buffet standards are adhered to. 6. Dress up the buffet with “activity”. Omelet bars always add ambience to a buffet. Also use of Omelet Bar adds that made to order feeling to buffet. Note: be sure to dress up the cook! A tall ha
46、t garners attention. Kitchen uniforms are now available in a wide variety of designs and colors. 7. Price to sell. Smart pricing to value can make the difference. If a buffet costs twice as much as the All American breakfast, will it carry “perceived value”? Dont make your buffet so expensive that g
47、uests are “forced” to order from the menu. 8. Sell the buffet to groups. Large groups often find the buffet more attractive when booking hotels. 9. Sell the buffet to kids. The Kids Eat Free Standards require use of the kids menu. But some hotels offer kids the buffet for another dollar or two. 10.
48、Make your buffet selection interesting, and vary the offering. See the section Ideas for Breakfast Buffet Food Offerings, later in this Guidebook. Look for ideas on the Internet. (Have you seen ?). Buffet Guidebook Confidential InterContinental Hotels Group Ten Ideas To Enhance Buffet Displays Displ
49、ay enhancements create value and support higher prices. They add an impression of quality without increasing food cost. Many of the ideas in this section may be seen in the Wasserstrom guide located in this Guidebook. It is not mandatory to purchase any of these items, nor is it mandatory to purchas
50、e from Wasserstrom. 1. Use Decorative Nametags. These enhance the presentation and clarity for guests. They also allow for flexibility and variety, since items names and descriptions can easily be changed. You will see a variety of items for this purpose in the catalogue in this Guidebook, under “Ta
