Walk around the casinos in Las Vegas and Atlantic City and you’ll notice the price of their buffets is so significantly low you wonder how they turn a profit. Reality is that many don’t make a profit, and the low priced buffets are merely a draw card to pull in potential gamblers which will hit the tables or poker machines shortly after dinner. Not every buffet restaurant has the luxury of gambling to subsidise the food and beverage departments operating costs. Working out how to cost the buffet is one thing, the other is working out how to make a profit out of it.

You’re probably saying to yourself “Well, I already make a profit from my buffet”, but could your profit be bigger? A profitable buffet requires a defined strategy to succeed and there are many factors which contribute to the bottom line. These include, but not limited to; ordering and using seasonal ingredients, cost effective purchasing, flexible and innovative menus, portion control, labour costs, presentation, controlling wastage and finally outsmarting the diner. 

No matter whether you’re running an a la carte or buffet restaurant you have to be smart about purchasing seasonal ingredients. Not only because they fresher and taste better when they are in season, but because they are cheaper when they are in abundance.  Think about how good tomatoes, peas and bell peppers are in summer months compared to the winter months and think about how asparagus, cauliflower and spinach is in spring time opposed to autumn. Make a point of changing the menu every three months as the seasons change.

Having a balance between inexpensive ingredients and highly priced ingredients is always a challenge. There is no doubt that dishes using expensive ingredients will help in promotion of the buffet, but care needs to be taken on the delivery. Everyone loves culinary delights like truffles, caviar, saffron and wagyu beef, but these are not suitable for buffets and will destroy your profit margin in an instant if you are aren’t careful.

Although it doesn’t have to be high priced ingredients, it could be the way that your kitchen brigade uses regularly priced ingredients that cut into profits. Think about preparing something basic like a chicken stock. I’ve seen some restaurants use fresh whole chickens, onions, carrots and celery to make the stock. A more cost effective method is using frozen chicken bones and scrap vegetables from around the kitchen. It’s often the basic things that end up costing you dearly. 

Apart from using seasonal produce and avoiding high priced ingredients, another way to reduce costs and increase profit margins is to buy in bulk. This is ideal for ingredients which can be frozen or are non-perishable. I found that when I ordered by the pallet instead of the unit, some suppliers would give me 20% off the listed price which is a considerable saving for buying in one transaction. On many occasions they even allowed me to pay on my terms over the period of a month which helped with cash flow. Over the years I’ve been able to save thousands of dollars when suppliers ring me desperate to move a pallet of something that’s been cancelled by another restaurant. I always used to ask for it at cost. Nine times out of ten they agreed just so they didn’t have to carry it in stock. A quick tweak to my dinner buffet menu and my margin just increased again.

A few years back, I was Executive Chef of a restaurant where we had to change the buffet menu daily. This was unfortunately a necessary evil, as we were on a remote island resort with a closed customer base of guests and I was forced to keep the food fresh and exciting. However its amazes me that some buffet restaurants change their menu every day. The costs and logistics of ordering different ingredients, let alone costing each dish must make their head spin. Add to this the training costs and time required.

So what’s the best solution? I’d recommend developing a menu with rough ideas and estimated food costs for each space on the buffet. It could be a chicken dish, fish dish, potato or vegetable dish,  but have a rough idea. Then after you’ve got your basic menu developed and costed, you can start to tweak and change the menu depending on the seasons. If tomatoes are cheap, then do a fresh tomato sauce with the chicken and a tomato salad in the cold section. If sweet potatoes are cheaper than Idaho potatoes, serve a sweet potato mash. This methodology will only work if you set clear price points for sous chefs to follow.

Typically the dessert section provided individual portions of slices, cakes, gateau’s or mousses on buffets. However in the past few years, providing items pre-plated has certainly increased in popularity for buffet restaurants. You’ll see items such as salads, pastas and even things like sushi portioned controlled by a chef behind the buffet. This serving method allows you to nicely present and even garnish a portion, as well as the ability to count and provide a rough costing of the dish against the average portions. There is also a sort of physiological barrier here, as diners will feel guilty asking the same chef for another portion.

Being able to control the size of the portion is an essential element in not only providing enough portions for the seating, but the ability to accurately control the flow of that item during service. A good example here is everybody’s favourite the expensive roast prime rib. Some chefs can carve 20 portions out of a prime rib, and then others will first cut the prime rib in half length ways and effectively double the amount of portions. It’s a matter of guiding and educating your staff as to the portion sizes and weights you’ve budgeted for. Also instruct carvery chefs that instead of offering two or three slices per person, have you’re chefs just offer one slice. You’ll soon see realise you’ll might be able to reduce the amount if prime rib each evening, hence contributing to lower food costs.

Apart from actual plated portions or portion control, have you ever given thought to the size of the utensils guests use? I’ve been to buffets where the spoons and slices are so big that guests actually take much more than they should, subsequently increasing the portion size per person and the overall costs of the buffet. When did you last do an audit of dishes and their accompanying sized serving utensil? The savings here won’t be blatantly obvious, but it’s definitely worth reducing the number of large utensils on the buffet.

Have you every wondered why as soon as you arrive at a Sizzler restaurant they serve everyone at the table a complimentary slice of their signature cheese toast? Well apart from being a nice gesture, the slice of cheese bread which tastes great is designed to fill you up before you head to the buffet. Other restaurants use extra large glasses of chilled water or post mix to increase your intake of liquids throughout the mean resulting in you eating less. I’ve heard of restaurants on arrival even serving large bowls of filling soup before the buffet. One rumour which I couldn’t prove was to serving shrimp unpeeled, placing a physiological barrier as many diners feel it’s too hard to peel them. These strategies may seem underhanded or shrewd, but when you are offering an all-you-can-eat buffet, outsmarting the diner can definitely mean the difference between loss and profitability.

There is no doubt that buffets require less staff at service times than a la carte restaurants. But be aware that it still does require a number of staff to prepare mise en place for a buffet. Also if you’re going to pre-plate items before service or have chefs carve or cook portions to order you will have increased staff costs.

Controlling wastage is something that’s often hard to avoid. During service periods a good tip is to have larger bain marie pans during busy periods and alternate these with smaller pans in quieter times. This should help manage wastage during service periods. Chefs should be aware of restocking items towards the end of service for the sack of it looking good. After the buffet has closed, the strategy should be first to identify what can be kept and used for the next day. If it can’t be used for guests, could it be sent to the staff cafeteria? Basically if it’s been in the bain marie for sometime it can’t be re-used. If this is the case, then you’ll need to weigh and record accordingly. The wastage report will help you manage yields and assist in the ordering process as well as controlling portions.

So here’s a final recap to make your buffet profitable.

1. Purchase ingredients when they are in season and at their best


2. Avoid expensive and premium products where possible


3. Source bargains from suppliers; buy in bulk to reduce costs


4. Create flexible menus which allow for season changes


5. Produce smaller sized pre-plated portions


6. Concentrate on portion control of servers and carvery staff


7. Reduce size of serving utensils to reduce guests taking too much


8. Endeavour to use left over uncooked food the following day or in staff cafeteria


9. Ensure kitchen staff weigh and record any wastage


10. Sounds harsh, but develop a strategy to undermine the diner

This article appeared in the April edition of America's Chef Magazine.