MovieChat Forums > Ramsay's Kitchen Nightmares (2004) Discussion > Fresh food costs too much!

Fresh food costs too much!

posted 8 years ago by d_henderson1810
4 replies | jump to latest

Ramsay insists on restaurants buying fresh every single day, and offering it up that night. He is against anything that is frozen.

But frozen food is cheaper. It costs more to go to a market, buy fresh, estimate how much of each ingredient will be needed. Otherwise, you throw out a lot if not enough customers order that particular dish.

Waste costs money. A lot of these restaurants don't have the money to spend on buying fresh food EVERY FRIGGIN' DAY.

It is alright for Ramsay, he is a millionaire. But most of the people he helps are in financial trouble, only for him to order something that gets pretty expensive if done every day.

Unless you predict the dishes that will be ordered that night, you end up with unused ingredients, which must be thrown out.

Maybe, instead of restaurants wasting more money, how about Ramsay walk in their shoes a bit, or customers lower their expectations of wanting fresh food all the time.

[–] mechafi 8 years ago

Of course Ramsay aims to increase the prices as well. He tries to turn all those restaurants into fine dining places or gastropubs that can charge serious money. The point is that if you serve food taken from the freezer, it is kind of a "downward spiral": Your restaurant just ends up being a cheap, lousy bistro and people are going to pay even less, which means you have to cut back even more and more. He tries to establish an "upward spiral" instead: serving relatively expensive food made from relatively expensive ingredients will spread the word and eventually bring wealthier/more customers who are able to pay.

But I think he is cautious enough not to overdo it so more "hearty" places don't have to serve nouvelle cuisine to flourish. He is, however, somewhat adamant that you can't "stay in the middle". Either you go down and serve junk food and frozen food or you have to stay always on guard and improve your performance and your dishes.

[–] SkiesAreBlue 8 years ago

If restaurants served frozen food, I may as well stay at home and cook a decent meal myself. Gordon trims down the ridiculous amount of dishes on the menu. When you get regulars coming in you soon get the feel what will be good and what's not. Saving immediately on food that was thrown out before. Serving good fresh food in smaller portions means the plates get licked clean. People are prepared to pay for that.

SkiesAreBlue

[–] d_henderson1810 8 years ago

But your restaurant may not last long enough to find out what regular customers eat. In fact, if you are struggling, chances are that you don't have regulars.

Besides, what's wrong with junk food or frozen food restaurants. Something like McDonalds, KFC, or Burger King makes much more than some of these fine dining places.

You are better off buying a McDonald's franchise. You make more money, and get more guarantees, as McDonald's do everything to make you succeed, since it is their brand name out there, and your failure is seen as their failure.

The fact is, there is a huge market for cheap, "quickie" food. That is why the U.S. have an obesity crisis. Why deal with a restaurant with no brand name, when you can make more money running a McDonald's, where customers are less demanding and is more likely to succeed.

[–] SkiesAreBlue 8 years ago

Well first of all when I open a business, which I have done, I do my homework and check out the lay of the land. What is needed, what will work and how much (time, money etc) will it take to get it off the ground. People in the food business can be a bit more passionate about what they serve and the trend is generally good food. Thank goodness we have a better mentality to eating out and the trend is usually for a good pub or bistro. Fine dining is a treat and we choose restaurants carefully. Fast food places have known to fail too under bad management and not all places accept fast food franchise, refusing them into town.

SkiesAreBlue