Brandon O'Dell's Page

This is probably the most often asked question by restaurant owners, managers and chefs. If you are smart enough to be calculating your actual food and liquor costs by performing a physical inventory, then you are half way there. This article will discuss a very important part of controlling food and liquor costs, one that most restaurants [...]

Through the coordinated effort of a food service friend and veteran, and others who have donated time and resources, a program has been started to send portion control packaged condiments to our brave soldiers fighting in Afganistan and Iraq. While I haven’t had the pleasure of tasting the MRE’s made for our soldiers to eat, I’m told that [...]

One of the most frequent questions I hear soon-to-be, and existing, restaurant owners lament, is how much to pay a manager. “Most” owners asking this question are working owners. After being in the business for awhile, owners start to realize that they can’t be in all places all the time, and still be able to market [...]

I just finished reading my pre-publication, review copy of The Chef’s Commandments: Maximize your kitchen’s profitability by J.A. Mendez from Pineapple Publications. Good read. To be honest, I have to tell you that I was interviewed for this book, and the publisher used some of my blogs and articles for content, so I may be biased. Either way, [...]

When opening a new restaurant, you are going to have to make assumptions about all your expenses and your head counts regardless of whether or not you price by gross profit. Since you will already have those assumptions, it only makes sense that you set prices so that you will collect enough markup (gross profit) [...]