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The Pelican guides for professional kitchens

Practical knowledge on purchasing, supplier ordering, stock and food cost, written for head chefs, sous chefs and owners who want a calmer, cleaner ordering process. With free templates for order lists, stocktakes and mise en place.

Guide

Restaurant purchasing: the complete guide

The big picture of purchasing: capture needs, bundle orders, choose suppliers, check deliveries, store stock, control costs. With links into every detail.

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Basics

How to organise restaurant stock ordering: the complete guide

From paper chaos to a clear routine: the four steps of clean stock ordering, the typical mistakes and how to fix them.

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Template

Order list template: free Excel and PDF for restaurants

Free order list to download: Excel with drop-downs and an example sheet, PDF for printing. Pre-sorted by category, no sign-up.

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Systems

Restaurant inventory management: what small businesses really need

What an inventory management system does, how much maintenance it takes and why ordering is the better starting point for most kitchens.

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Storage

Restaurant stock management: keep stock under control without the hassle

Fixed storage spots, FIFO, minimum levels instead of constant counting and an ordering round that starts in the store. No expensive software.

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Storage

Restaurant Receiving: Checklist, Procedure and Receiving Log

Invoice against order, count and weight, temperature, dates and labels: how to check every delivery in a few minutes and reject on the spot when something is wrong.

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Storage

HACCP plan for a restaurant: the 7 principles and a worked example

What a HACCP plan is, when a restaurant legally needs one in the US and UK, the 7 principles in kitchen language, a worked example and the records to keep.

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Calculator

Par levels: formula, calculator and kitchen examples

How to calculate par levels with delivery days and lead time, three worked examples, a par sheet and a free par level calculator.

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Calculator

Standardized recipe: how to write one and cost every plate

What goes on a standardized recipe card, how yield changes your plate cost, a full worked example and a free recipe costing calculator.

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Calculator

Yield percentage: formula, yield test and how much to order

How to calculate yield percentage from AP and EP weight, include cooking loss, find the real cost per usable kilo and order the right quantity. With a free calculator.

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Stocktake

Restaurant stocktake: process and free template

Who needs a stocktake, how count day works in five steps and the free Excel and PDF stocktake sheet that makes counting faster.

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Kitchen practice

Mise en place: meaning, process and checklist

What the term means, how prep works in a professional kitchen and the checklist that makes sure nothing is forgotten before service.

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Order guide

Restaurant order guide: what it needs, and why templates fail

Items, units, par levels, product categories: what belongs in a good order guide, and where Excel templates break down once the whole team is involved.

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Order list

Kitchen order list: the four fields every order sheet needs

How to structure an order list that actually works in service: item, quantity with unit, category and who added it. Plus Excel vs. WhatsApp vs. app.

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Choosing a tool

Restaurant supplier ordering app: the four tool types compared

Marketplace, send-to-supplier tool, inventory suite or team order list? The tool types explained, with six criteria for picking the right one.

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Digital

Restaurant digital transformation: where to start?

Which areas you can digitalise, why projects fail and why ordering is the lowest-risk place to start. With a one-week plan.

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Suppliers

Restaurant suppliers: how to find, choose and manage them

The main supplier types, how to find and compare good suppliers and how to keep several of them under control day to day.

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Suppliers

Organising supplier orders: rep visits without the chaos

Go into the rep meeting prepared: a sorted list, clear quantities and a stronger position when it comes to prices.

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Calculator

Food cost calculator: percentage, recipe costing and menu pricing

Free online calculator: food cost percentage, per-dish costing and menu pricing with VAT. Right in your browser, no signup.

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Calculator

Menu engineering: the matrix, a calculator and a worked example

How menu engineering sorts your dishes by popularity and contribution margin, what to do with stars, plowhorses, puzzles and dogs, and a calculator for your own menu.

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Cost control

Controlling food costs: order history, not gut feeling

The simplest lever for cost control: knowing what was ordered, when, from whom and at what price, without an inventory system.

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Team

Multilingual kitchen teams: one order list, every language

Tomatoes, pomodori, Tomaten: how mixed-language brigades order without duplicates, missed items or the chef acting as a translator.

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Team

Kitchen brigade system: roles, hierarchy and who orders what

Every role in the kitchen hierarchy, the classic stations, a brigade for a six person team and a clear split of who reports and who approves the order.

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