A prep cook in Phoenix convinced me to weigh my pasta portions

Been cooking 12 years and always eyeballed pasta servings. Last Tuesday a new prep guy, Marcus, said I was costing the owner about $40 a night in extra product. He weighed a plate of spaghetti at 6 ounces against my usual grab, looked like half as much. I thought he was nuts until I ran a shift using a scale for every portion. We went through two fewer boxes of pasta that night, and nothing got sent back for being skimpy. Anyone else switch to weighing stuff that you thought you had nailed by feel?

2 comments

2 Comments

oscarm245d ago

Six ounces looked like half as much" is honestly messing with my head right now. I've been slinging pasta for years and I swear my hand is a scale, but now I'm wondering how many boxes I've burned through without noticing. The fact that nobody sent anything back is the wild part... customers really don't know what a proper serving looks like, they just know if the plate feels full. Might have to grab a cheap scale and test my own pour tomorrow, cause $40 a night adds up stupid fast.

schmidt.blake4d ago

Remember that pasta absorbs water while it cooks, so six ounces dry will look way smaller once it's cooked and plated. Honestly, most customers judge by the volume in the bowl, not the weight on the scale. Still, grabbing that scale is a smart move, but just make sure you're weighing it dry before it hits the water.