Portion Control Checklist

Executive chef pulls the recipe binder or R365/MarginEdge spec sheets for grill, sauté, garde manger, and pastry. Each spec should list ingredient weight in ounces or grams, the portioning tool (e.g., #8 scoop, 4 oz ladle), and the plated yield.

Pull three random portions of each protein from the line (steaks, chicken breasts, burger patties) and weigh on a calibrated digital scale. Note any portion drifting more than +/- 0.25 oz from spec — that's the variance driving your actual vs. theoretical food cost gap.

Print the updated spec, post at the station with portion photo, and walk the chef de partie through the corrected weight and plating. Date-stamp the revision so the sous knows which version is current.

Rerun the plate-cost calculation in R365 or MarginEdge using current invoice pricing. Flag any dish whose food cost percentage has crept above 32% for menu review with the GM.

Sous chef leads a 10-minute drill at pre-shift: each cook portions one of their station's top movers blind, then weighs. Repeat until everyone hits within tolerance. Common offenders are sauce ladles, cheese on burgers, and fries.

Laminated photo of the plated dish with the correct portion next to a reference object (deli cup, ramekin). Place inside line-cook sightline at sauté, grill, and garde manger. Update photos when the recipe spec changes.

Any line cook with less than 30 days on station shadows the chef de partie for portioning approval on their first 25 tickets. Mentor signs off in the training log before the new cook plates solo.

Walk each station with the par sheet for portion tools (e.g., #8 scoop on rice, 2 oz ladle on demi, 4 oz ladle on soup). Replace bent, cracked, or unmarked tools — a worn-out #12 scoop measures closer to a #10 and silently over-portions every plate.

Use a 100g or 500g calibration weight on each scale (prep, line, pastry, dish). Any scale reading more than 1g off gets recalibrated or pulled. Log result on the scale calibration sheet — keep with the pest control and temp logs for the health inspector.

Color-code or label deli cups by recipe (2 oz blue cup = dressing, 4 oz red cup = guacamole). Eliminates the eyeball-it problem during a rush when cooks grab whatever cup is closest.

Count walk-in, freezer, dry storage, and bar against the par sheet. Use the same counter and same order of stations each week so timing comparisons are clean. R365 or MarginEdge will generate the count sheet sorted by storage location.

Pull the theoretical usage report from the POS sales mix multiplied by recipe specs. Compare to actual depletion from the count. Anything with more than 5% variance flags for investigation — usually portion drift, waste, or comp/void abuse.

For items running consistently over theoretical, tighten the par or break down the case size. Over-ordering creates the conditions for over-portioning — when a cook sees a full hotel pan of cheese, they use more cheese.

During Friday or Saturday rush, expo pulls three random plates before they leave the pass and weighs the controlled item (protein, pasta, scoop of starch). Records on the spot-check sheet. The point isn't punishment — it's the visible cadence that keeps the line honest.

Sous pulls the cook aside after the rush, walks them through the spec, and re-portions together. Document in the cook's training log. Repeat offenses move to a written corrective action.

GM scans Yelp, Google, OpenTable, and Resy reviews from the past week for portion-related comments ("tiny", "huge", "not enough", "too much"). Trend matters more than any one review — a cluster of "small portion" complaints on the same dish means recheck the spec.

Closing sous logs the day's waste into the waste sheet broken down by prep waste, line waste, plate returns, and spoilage. Weigh — don't eyeball. Categorize the cause: over-prep, over-portion, cook error, customer return.

Sort the waste log by item and cause. The top driver almost always falls into one of three buckets: over-prep on a slow night, over-portion on a popular plate, or returns on a dish that's mis-sized for the price point. Each bucket has a different fix.

Executive chef closes the loop at Monday pre-shift: this is what we wasted, this is why, this is what's changing. Pair the brief with the updated spec or tool from the earlier sections so the cooks see the connection between count, plate, and paycheck.