Use Edible Scraps To Create Restaurant Family Meals

The “restaurant family meal” is a central event in many well-run restaurants.  Just before the dinner rush front of house and back of house staff gather to enjoy a well-cooked meal prepared by the chef.  The family meal is a great way to foster positive interaction and a feeling of camaraderie among your employees.  It also gives you a chance to get on the soapbox and talk about issues and work on training. During the year...

4 Strategies For Better Refrigeration Efficiency

Now that we are entering the hottest time of the year, it’s a good time to examine the refrigeration units in your restaurant and make sure they are operating as efficiently as possible.  No matter what you do, you’re going to end up spending more money on refrigeration this time of year than any other.  However, that doesn’t mean you should have to spend any more than absolutely necessary. Have you optimized your refrigeration...

Darden Group Driving Sustainable Seafood Practices

The Darden Group, which operates both Red Lobster and Olive Garden national chain restaurants, is understandably also the largest purchaser of seafood in the...

Greener and Cheaper: Restaurants Grow Their Own Food

You’ve heard about organic ingredients.  You’ve also heard about food miles and skyrocketing food costs.  Anybody in the restaurant business can tell you these issues have affected their customer’s tastes and their...

Restaurants and Farmers Work Together To Reduce Waste and Improve Crop Yields

San Francisco's food scrap collection program benefits farmers and restaurateurs San Franciscan restaurants are participating in a city-wide compost collection program that has collected over 105,000 tons of food scraps and yard trimmings in a single year.  All that waste used to end up in...

Green Consumers Still Going Strong

Every restaurant has had to deal with revenue and expense challenges over the last year.  And many have probably wondered whether green practices and products in their restaurants are worth their while, both in terms of cost to purchase and the time it takes to implement new products and procedures. If a new ...

Green Restaurant Tips: Recycling Feels Good

Unlike the tips previously offered in this series, recycling probably won’t save your restaurant or commercial kitchen money.  And recycling will probably add work to your schedule and headaches to your day.  So why recycle?  Well, there are a few very compelling reasons, and not all of them altruistic, for introducing a recycling program: Customers love it.  You’ve been reading other Going Green Tips and have started implementing...

Green Restaurant Tips: Energy Management Systems

Some chain restaurants have started using comprehensive, fully automated energy management systems (EMS) to help reduce energy usage in their restaurants.  Energy management systems have been around for a couple decades, but recent technological...