How does a restaurant know how much food to make each day?

Question

I watch random food shows like “Food Paradise” on Travel channel, and “Triple D” by the Mayor of FlavorTown himself. When they speak to the owner/cook, they say things like “oh we cook 400 lbs of BBQ a day” or “about 3000 pancakes each day” or whatever. How do they know that’s what they will use? Seems like a guessing game.

In: Other

Answer 1

They can project based on a variety of factors, like day of the week, weather, etc. by tracking past sales and noting trends. Many components can be held for a couple days, so they have some surplus if they get a run on an item while other things can be made on the fly. Other items, they may just run out… like BBQ that needs to be smoked for many hours.