How Do I Write Prep Lists From What We'll Actually Sell?

Thirty beef cheeks and twenty steak frites on Saturday’s forecast means 4.8 litres of jus, not whatever the sous wrote down last night. That is the whole method behind a restaurant prep list built from sales: start with what you expect to sell, work out the components, net off good stock already in the walk-in, and round each job to a full batch for the station that makes it. A sheet copied from yesterday, or a fixed par, over-preps a quiet Monday and runs short on Saturday.

Every chef has seen both ends of it. A tray of braised short rib binned on Tuesday because Monday was dead. Hollandaise run out at 11am on a Sunday because the brunch rush was bigger than last week’s. The sous writes the list from memory at the end of the night, the morning crew preps what is written, and nobody checks it against the bookings.

What should a restaurant prep list be based on?

A prep list should be based on forecast sales for the day, not on habit or a fixed par. Forecast portions per dish are the starting point; everything else follows from them.

The inputs that matter:

• Sales history for that day of the week, from your POS.
• Bookings for the shift, plus your usual walk-in rate.
• Functions with a confirmed menu and guest numbers.
• What is already prepped and still within its shelf life.
• Recipes and batch sizes: how much one batch of a sauce or a braise makes.

Day pars are a useful middle step. A day par is a prep par that changes by day of the week, so Saturday’s par for focaccia is higher than Tuesday’s. They are better than one par for the whole week, but they still miss a big booking or a wet Sunday. The same trade-off applies to stock, as our comparison of par levels and forecast ordering shows.

It is worth the effort. Up to 60% of an average café’s bin is filled with food, according to RMIT research for End Food Waste Australia. Over-prepping is one of the most direct ways that bin fills, because prepped food has a shorter life than raw stock. Cutting it pays back, too: a Champions 12.3 review of 86 catering sites in six countries found the average site got a 6:1 return on its investment in reducing food waste, and 64% had recouped that investment within a year. Our guide to reducing food waste and measuring it in dollars covers the rest of the bin.

How do you turn a sales forecast into prep quantities?

Turn a sales forecast into prep by multiplying forecast portions by the amount of each component per portion, subtracting what is on hand, and rounding up to whole batches. Do it component by component, not dish by dish, because one sauce or base often goes into several dishes.

A worked example

These numbers are made up. Say a bistro forecasts Saturday dinner like this:

Add a buffer of 10% for spillage and seconds: 4.8 × 1.1 = 5.28L.

The walk-in already has 1.5L of jus made Thursday, still within its use-by.

Jus to prep = 5.28 − 1.5 = 3.78L.

The kitchen makes jus in 2L batches, so round up: 3.78 ÷ 2 = 1.89, which is 2 batches (4L).

In Excel, put total forecast need in B2, buffer % in B3, on hand in B4 and batch size in B5. This gives the number of batches:

Do the same for every component that is prepped ahead: braises, sauces, dressings, doughs, portioned proteins, picked herbs. Start with the ten components that are most expensive or most often wasted.

A few practical rules:

• Use shelf life, not just quantity. If the jus on hand expires tomorrow, do not count it toward Sunday.
• Watch shared components. A béchamel used in a lasagne and a croque needs one line that sums both.
• Keep the buffer honest. A buffer that grows every time the kitchen runs out once is how over-prepping starts again.

How should prep be split by station?

Split prep by station so each section sees only its own list, in the order it should be done. A single long list on the pass gets skimmed; a short list per station gets finished.

A typical split:

• Larder / garde manger: dressings, picked herbs, salads, cold sauces, desserts if pastry is not separate.
• Sauce / sauté: stocks, jus, butters, reductions.
• Grill / proteins: portioning, marinating, brining, trimming.
• Pastry: doughs, bases, creams, garnishes.
• Fryer / sides: blanched chips, battered items, veg prep.

Then order each station’s list by time. Long jobs go first: stocks, braises, doughs that need proving. Short jobs that lose quality, such as picked herbs and cut fruit, go last, close to service. Mark anything that needs a shared piece of kit (the combi, the big pot, the mixer) so two stations do not plan to use it at the same time.

For tips on writing sheets people follow, see how prep sheets conduct kitchen harmony.

How do functions fit in?

Functions fit in on their own timeline, planned back from service, rather than being added to the daily prep list. A function has a fixed menu and a fixed guest count, so its prep can be planned days ahead and should not compete blindly with à la carte prep.

For a function:

1. Explode the menu into components: guests × amount per portion, rounded to batches.
2. Work back from service. A braise for Saturday might be cooked Thursday, portioned Friday and reheated Saturday.
3. Put each task on the right station’s list on the right day.
4. Check the overlap with that day’s normal prep and service, especially shared equipment and staff.

Bookings work the same way, feeding the forecast rather than sitting in a separate diary; our guide on using bookings and functions to plan ordering and prep goes further. Getting function quantities right matters: End Food Waste Australia reports that in catering, 20% of the food served is never eaten.

How Restaurant AI Manager helps with prep lists

Restaurant AI Manager, Open Pantry’s AI restaurant operations software (Open Pantry is an Australian ordering and operations platform for food and beverage suppliers and the restaurants they supply, founded in 2018), builds prep lists by station from the day’s forecast and functions, rounded to batch sizes. The forecast comes from POS sales, bookings and functions, which you can add by hand, CSV, calendar feed or forwarded email.

A confirmed function, such as an 80-guest wedding, gets its own prep timeline. Prep sits in one task list alongside orders, counts, invoices and checks, and it is built for phones on the floor. You can see it working in the free live demo, which needs no sign-up, or read about demand forecasting.

In summary: a restaurant prep list built from sales

A good restaurant prep list starts from forecast portions, breaks them into components, subtracts what is already prepped, and rounds up to batches. Split it by station and time, and give functions their own timeline. Prep to what you will sell, and the bin gets lighter.