A lot goes into restaurant food prep.
In other words, effective food prep strategies are at the center of everything you do. So how can you make sure you’re doing it right? To find out, we checked in with Back of House tech expert Spencer Michiel.
He tells us that “a whole new generation of technology vendors are using AI in restaurants to make smarter decisions about food prep – the procedures we follow, the ingredients we use, and even the way we’re training kitchen staff.”
Below, we take a closer look at exactly how sophisticated AI-powered tools now make it possible to plan for food prep with greater efficiency, precision, and cost-effectiveness.
If it seems like AI technology is working its way into every part of our industry, you’re not imagining things. Technology vendors are finding all kinds of new and exciting ways to use AI in restaurants.
And if you use these tools the right way in your restaurant, they can be a huge help in the kitchen – saving time, preventing waste, and improving profit margins.
Today, we’re taking a closer look at just a few ways you can start using AI to help with restaurant food prep right away!
Training is at the very root of effective restaurant food prep. Spencer explains that “your operation is really only as good as the team you have working in your kitchen. And that team is only as good as your training program.”
This is why leading tech providers are using AI in restaurants to customize, streamline, and simplify the training process. For instance, Opus makes it possible to quickly and easily build customized training modules and learning management systems for both new and veteran team members. Opus uses AI-based technology to help you create training materials and exercises built specifically for your unique staff-training needs.
One thing that sets Opus apart is an AI-based content generator that can provide training modules in more than 100 different languages. You can also customize your training modules according to specific back of house roles and individualized professional development goals.
The result of this more intuitive and personalized approach to training is a food prep staff that works with greater speed, fewer mistakes, and fewer food safety risks.
There’s a ton of knowledge and information that goes into running a kitchen smoothly – food storage protocols, proper handling of ingredients, standard safety procedures, details about specialized menu items, and much more. Spencer warns that “it can all be a whole lot to remember, especially when you’re working in a fast-paced kitchen where every second counts.”
This is a perfect example of an area where AI-based tools are helping to support rather than replace human workers. For instance, Science on Call uses an AI-powered, cloud-based platform that gives all staff members access to this wealth of knowledge and information.
With Science on Call, staff members can use a conversational AI chat feature to quickly access workplace policies, ask questions about recipes and ingredients, and clarify procedures for dealing with certain food allergies.
Science on Call’s AI chat technology can provide quick, clear and consistent answers to any questions that arise in the course of restaurant food prep. This can prevent errors, improve kitchen speed, and reduce safety risks for staff and customers.
One of the biggest challenges with restaurant food prep is knowing exactly how much to prepare with certain key ingredients. How many potatoes should you wash and peel for this weekend’s french fry orders? How much beef stock will you need for tonight’s soup special?
Planning and prepping key ingredients ahead of time requires a clear understanding of the demand you can expect for certain menu items. Of course, there are a lot of factors to consider – seasonal fluctuations in foot traffic, changes in customer preferences, the impact of pricing on the performance of certain menu items, and more.
AI technology can calculate these factors based on past performance, so that you can make food prep planning decisions based on hard data. For instance, kitchen task management platform PreciTaste offers a Prep Assistant feature that makes it possible to anticipate and prepare for demand with data-driven precision.
Not only that, but the Prep Assistant can then translate its precise demand predictions into AI-generated instructions that team members can view on kitchen display screens. PreciTaste says that this application tends to reduce daily food prep time by more than one hour a day per staff member while reducing food waste by a consequential 20 percent.
Certainly, the most dramatic example of how AI in restaurants is changing the food prep landscape is the rising visibility of robotics. A number of advanced technology vendors are finding ways to use AI-powered robots to lower labor costs and reduce the burden of repetitive tasks on your kitchen staff.
For instance, Nala Robotics provides an array of kitchen-ready robots that can be trained to handle tasks like preparing dishes, handling special requests from customers, and precisely tracking the ingredients it uses as it works.
Amazingly, Nala even offers a Tastebot that can identify basic taste profiles of the foods it prepares, compare them to pre-programmed sensor readings, and adjust recipes accordingly.
This type of kitchen support can dramatically reduce overall labor costs for your restaurant while allowing staff members to focus on quality control and customer-facing tasks.
Short-staffed busy shifts can lead to mistakes, cause kitchen delays, and lower customer satisfaction. Your best prep outcomes depend on properly staffing your back of house for every situation.
Spencer acknowledges that “making the right staffing moves can sometimes be a bit of a guessing game. That’s why a lot of restaurants are very happy to use AI-powered staffing tools. The good ones can take the guesswork out of scheduling.”
For instance, innovative data analytics vendor DYNE uses advanced algorithms to analyze items like customer profiles, transactional data, menu items, inventory, and staffing information. The platform processes these data points and provides you detailed insights so you know exactly how many prep chefs, line cooks, and dishwashers you’ll need for every shift.
Looking for other ways to streamline your restaurant food prep game? There are all kinds of ways to do it, including automated inventory management systems, recipe management tools, and all-in-one POS (point of sale) systems.
To learn more about your options, reach out today and schedule a free consultation with me or another Back of House industry vet.