Unless you operate a high-end restaurant with a limited or specialized menu, chances are your kitchen could benefit from the addition of some pre-made or frozen components. Scratch ingredients have the advantage of freshness, but carry some notable drawbacks. Fresh, raw goods can be very time consuming to prepare, especially for a small staff. Furthermore, it can become difficult to get a consistent flavor that customers come back for when using only fresh ingredients. As any restaurant owner can attest to, however, the biggest problem with fresh ingredients is the food waste. What isn’t prepared and eaten quickly goes bad and must be thrown out, which means a loss in profit.
To address these problems, most restaurants in Portland, OR use some wholesale foods that have been pre-made or frozen. A busy restaurant that offers a wide variety of items on the menu can quickly bake, boil, fry, or dish up a huge variety of pre-made items. Served as dishes that stand on their own, such as soups and frozen desserts, or as key ingredients, like stocks or pre-cut meats, you’ll find they improve the efficiency of your kitchen. They are also great as add-on items like pre- or par-baked breads or potato salads.
By combining frozen foods and pre-made items with fresh, local ingredients, restaurants can maintain fresh, delicious taste while reducing food waste, increasing efficiency in the kitchen by reducing the prep time of popular items, and maintaining consistency of flavor and the look of their dishes.
A perfect example would be a hearty breakfast of Eggs Benedict or Biscuits and Gravy with local farm-fresh eggs, dairy, and meats. You probably bake your own biscuits at the restaurant, but may benefit from stocking pre-made English Muffins for the Eggs Benedict. When it comes to Hollandaise for the Benedict and gravy for the biscuits, utilizing pre-made sauce bases can help maintain consistency and reduce prep time in the kitchen. Good quality sauce bases are easy to use and can be modified quickly by chefs for a unique edge or specialty dish.
Wholesale distributors can also supply your restaurant with tasty pre-made soups, like clam chowder, which you can quickly prepare right from the package as a starter or side-dish, or make it your own by adding extra potatoes, butter, or clams for a “signature” flavor. The same can be said of frozen desserts, including cakes, pastries, and of course ice cream.
McDonald’s Wholesale aims to reduce food waste and increase efficiency in professional kitchens throughout the Portland, OR area by providing a huge variety of delicious, healthy pre-made, canned, and frozen foods. See our catalog to start thinking about how you can improve the efficiency of your kitchen, increase profits, and be a more environmentally friendly business by reducing food waste.