It’s easy for menus to become more and more elaborate, as everyone adds their ideas and favourites. Before you know it, prep and service times are longer, and labour and food costs rise. This can be a problem for individual restaurants, and a major issue for franchise operators.

In this interview Ken Burgin talks with chef Richard Robinson of Food Associates in Sydney. He works on the development of recipes and menus for foodservice businesses of all types – maximising flavour, simplifying production, reducing labour costs and ensuring that the recipes contribute to the business concept.

We talked about how he analyses a recipe, what items can be outsourced, and skilling up your workforce so they all work quickly and efficiently. We also discussed supply chain issues, flavour shortcuts and making sure special diets are handled in the easiest way possible. This is an interview to share with everyone in the kitchen!