When restaurants focus more on delivery channels to increase in-store sales, or some open Ghost Kitchens that focus on delivery sales only, some days sell well, some days don't sell out, what to do with the remaining ingredients? 'Chef Wilment Leon' will share techniques and tips on storing ingredients from the first day of purchase, which can extend the shelf life of ingredients, maintain freshness several times, and not leave any leftover food waste. This is a way to save a lot on the cost of buying ingredients. And emphasize the delivery method that maintains the quality of the food and is clean and safe according to Food Safety principles so that consumers have confidence in every dish.
How to make a delivery menu to survive, Chef Wilment Leon's edition
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Find ingredients available in the market, buy ingredients that are easy to find and not in short supply, and then create new menus. We have to change our business model to survive.
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Take the ingredients and things you have and modify them into a menu that is suitable for delivery. For example, if the restaurant used to have 40-50 menu items, now only 10-20 menu items are left.
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Considering the temperature of the food delivered to the consumer's home, in the past, the food would be cooked and served immediately. Within 5 minutes, the customer could eat it. But now the game has changed. Customers have to wait at least 30 minutes - 1 hour. Therefore, many food production processes have to change in order to make sure that customers will not have health problems after eating.
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Don't stock up on ingredients. Make menus day by day to prevent bacteria. Thailand's weather is hot. Ingredients delivered at unsuitable cold temperatures can harbor bacteria. For example, pork. The first thing to do when transporting is to check if the pork is cold or not because the heat can cause bacteria to build up in the pork. Even though the pork is still cold, it is not enough. It must be put in ice as quickly as possible.
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Protect the temperature according to food safety standards. After cutting, cook and cool as quickly as possible. The temperature must be below 5 degrees Celsius and above 60 degrees Celsius. Therefore, the range in the middle of 50 degrees Celsius is very dangerous. You must try to keep the ingredients at this temperature for as short a time as possible. This will slow down the growth of the bacteria. You can put them in the refrigerator and then reheat them when the customer orders.
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Cold delivery. When packing in a box, everything must be cold. For example, the noodles will be very cold and customers can heat them in the microwave. They can also be stored in the refrigerator for up to 2 days. At Coal Bistro & Bar (Chef Wilment's restaurant), all the menu items are cooked in advance and put in the refrigerator to cool as quickly as possible. When customers order, we will reheat them. The heating method must be at least 90 degrees Celsius, which will maintain the flavor and prevent germs.
Techniques for storing specific parts of meat that can be frozen 
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Separate the packs into portions, 1 pack per 1 Portion, such as poultry, red meat.
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Store in the refrigerator at a temperature below 5 degrees Celsius.
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When an order comes in, it can be easily taken out and thawed in the microwave for about 1 minute. After thawing, it must be cooked as quickly as possible. For example, if there are 5 shrimps per portion, pack 1 bag and freeze it in the freezer. This way, it will last for a month without any bacteria sticking to it.
Techniques for storing vegetable ingredients
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Keep at a temperature between 10-18 degrees Celsius because if it is too cold it will wither and rot. It can be stored in a normal refrigerator.
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It needs to be cleaned thoroughly, possibly by using vegetable washing liquid, which some recipes mix with baking soda to remove any bacteria that is stuck on it, or by washing with plain water, but try to wash with cold water, washing at least 3 times: the first time to wash off the soil, the second time to remove any unwanted items, and the third time to wash and drain.
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How to pack a bag : Use wet tissue paper to wrap it. Pack it in a plastic bag and put it in the refrigerator. The paper will be moist and prevent the vegetables from wilting quickly. This way, it will last longer.
Separate stock refrigerators and sales refrigerators
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The first part is for operations. One part is divided for storing items, for example, if raw materials are set to be sold 100 times per day, this refrigerator should be able to hold 100 sets. Another part is for raw material stock. This way, you don’t have to open and close the refrigerator often, which will make the shelf life longer than usual.
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If it is a normal refrigerator, the temperature is less than 5 degrees Celsius, buy or make ice yourself and pack the meat in ice and put it in the refrigerator. This will help increase the temperature by several degrees, easily extending the time for 2-3 days.
This content alone may not be enough for restaurant owners. We recommend an online course on professional ingredient storage techniques with Chef Wilment Leon, which will teach you the correct methods of storing each type of ingredient and keeping it fresh at all times so that customers get good quality food. Whether it's storing fish, shrimp, poultry, and red meat, or storing herbs, salad vegetables, and mushrooms, these are important things that restaurant owners need to know! Register for free and study for free here.
