Reducing food waste saves both costs and prevents money leakage. And if we talk about countries that manage raw materials intelligently and reduce food waste very effectively, Japan will definitely get this position.
Today, Chef Por Benjawan Sansathian, a Japanese food expert from Makro HoReCa Academy, will tell us an interesting history, solve the mystery of why the Japanese are a good example in this matter, and provide How-To and examples of menu ideas to reduce Food Waste according to the Japanese way. This is so that entrepreneurs can apply it to reduce food waste in their restaurants effectively. It will also help reduce costs, reduce money leakage, and effectively stimulate sales.
“Japan is a country that is very strict about using raw materials efficiently and not leaving any leftovers. It is already in their culture. As you know, Japan is a cold country with long winters. They can only grow rice once a year. In ancient times, Japan had a problem of not being able to grow enough to meet its consumption. Millions of people starved to death. So, Japanese people are very strict about using raw materials. They try to use raw materials efficiently. This is something that is embedded in their culture.”
The hardships of ancient times have caused the Japanese people to…
1. Know and process and preserve food so that it can be stored for a long time, such as miso, pickles, sake, soy sauce, mochi flour, and various types of flour, etc.
2. Have a culture of using raw materials with appreciation and strictness, resulting in the least amount of food waste.
“In order to make the most of the ingredients, the Japanese will use preserved or processed foods to create the most valuable dishes. However, if they serve the same menus repeatedly, people will get bored. Therefore, the Japanese know how to innovate and create dishes from the available ingredients, giving them a variety of differences. They also carefully decorate them beautifully when placed on a plate. There is an art to eating them, which is the origin of ‘Food By Eyes’ or ‘beautiful food for the eyes’. It is also a ‘Teishoku set’ or Home Made food that your grandmother or mother carefully cooks for your family to eat, making it both beautiful and delicious, and nutritious.”
Teishoku: Homemade set meals
1. Cook with care, taking into account nutritional value.
2. It is a set meal that includes a main dish, side dish and soup. It is flexible enough to use the ingredients left over from yesterday, such as adding them to soup or cooking them as side dishes.
3. In addition to serving Teishoku at home for family members to eat, we can also see that most Japanese restaurants like to serve this type of set meal. The main reason is so that the restaurant can be flexible in using the remaining ingredients to cook the menu, which will help manage the ingredients so that there are no leftovers and create more SALE and sales.
“In Japanese culture, there are many signature dishes whose names in Japanese often have a translation or meaning of ‘favorite’. However, when viewed from another perspective, it is found that they are created from the desire to manage ingredients with the least amount of waste.”
Example of a Japanese menu for managing leftover ingredients
1. Miso Soup is a food that can be cooked in many different ways. It can use almost any type of meat and vegetables.
2. Okonomiyaki (Okonomiyaki) or Japanese pizza. 'Okonomi' means 'like' and yaki means 'grill'. It is a popular menu that can help manage leftover ingredients efficiently. Because just mix the ingredients with flour and fry them on a pan. You can add vegetables and meat.
3. Nimono (Nimono) or boiled food such as pork, fish or vegetables can be boiled and seasoned with mirin, soy sauce or sweet or salty sauce. Then decorate the plate beautifully.
4. Sukiyaki (Sukiyaki) Suki means like, yaki means grilled. It is a menu that grills meat on a pan first and then adds sauce to make it taste delicious. It is also a menu that can use any meat and vegetables that you like to make food.
“It can be seen that these four Japanese menus are good examples of flexible cooking of ingredients to prevent food waste. In addition to helping Japanese housewives save money for their families, it can be seen that Japanese restaurants generally like to use these menus as menus in their restaurants as well.”
“Many restaurants may have a fixed regular menu list, but if we look closely at most Japanese restaurants, we will find that quite a few of them have a special dish of the day each day. This is one way that reflects the cleverness of Japanese restaurant operators in managing leftover ingredients.”
This special menu may be included or organized as a discount promotion. It is beneficial in many ways, such as helping with flexibility in using ingredients, not letting them get old and spoiled. And if it is a free Complimentary dish, it will make customers feel special and good about the restaurant. When they see that it is worth it, they will come back to use the service often. Or even if it is a daily special menu that is priced lower than usual, it is still considered a promotion that helps increase sales, draws people into the restaurant, and makes the restaurant have more sales.
“It’s better than letting the ingredients rot and become food waste without any benefit. Thai restaurants may be able to adapt this idea. For example, a la carte restaurants may give away a special soup of the day or ask customers to pay a little more. Or they may create a special menu of the day using leftover ingredients. This will definitely help boost sales!”
“Japanese restaurants are very strict about managing and using ingredients because food waste causes waste, which becomes a leak of money. Therefore, Japanese people tend to plan well from the beginning, starting from thinking up menus wisely, buying ingredients wisely, and then managing them wisely.”
1. Good planning (Smart Planning) has been well thought out from the beginning, such as what is the concept of the shop? What are the foods sold? There has been detailed thought to the point of how many types of protein are used? What menus can be made from each type of meat and each part? What colors are the ingredients? Because it will affect the beauty.
2. Buy ingredients wisely (Smart Buying) It is not always good for the restaurant to buy ingredients cheaply. Often, we find that paying a little more for good quality ingredients that do not waste a lot of money (think of cabbage that you buy cheaply and then have to remove the outer skin, only half of it can be used). In addition to wasting money, you also have to waste energy and time in managing and storing resources. Therefore, you should buy ingredients from suppliers that you can trust in their quality and are ready to replace the product immediately if you find that the quality is not as desired.
3. Good management (Smart Management) In addition to good planning, there must also be good management. When you know what ingredients are left, have a list of recipes for the menu prepared to deal with those ingredients before they are thrown away, so that they can be used immediately. Including always having a good inspection of what food waste there is, how much, what causes it, and at what step of the work, so that employees are always alert and help prevent food waste that will cause money to leak out.
“When you have a good plan, buy ingredients wisely, manage wisely, and go into detail, I can assure you that your money will not leak away to food waste. Don’t forget to try to apply the Japanese food waste management concept to your restaurant!!”
Click to read Zero Food Waste Program to reduce costs, increase profits, and reveal the secret recipe for reducing food waste.
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What is food waste? Reduce costs, increase profits, you can do it! If you understand Zero Food Waste
You can follow the Zero Food Waste Program to reduce costs, increase profits, and reveal the secret recipe for reducing food waste via Facebook: Makro Horeca Academy and website.
To increase know-how, increase ideas for restaurant operators to develop their business to be strong and able to 'survive' in the current situation and learn how to reduce food waste which will help reduce costs and create more profit with online content about food waste and methods of managing and reducing food waste.
We also have a highlight activity, Zero Food Waste Workshop, which is a special workshop that is open for interested people to join for free on November 11, 2020. You can follow the details on Facebook: Makro HoReCa Academy.
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