Ben Nicholls, food and beverage operations manager Accor Sydney Olympic Park, shares his pantry secrets and kitchen tricks.
Much like the rest of the hospitality industry, the arrival of COVID-19 forced Nicholls to take a fresh look at the way he ran his businesses.
As manager of a casual brewery in Sydney, as well as overseeing the opening of an upscale restaurant, he was quick to realise that he could no longer rely on a level of business from in-house guests. So instead, he turned his focus to the locals.
Nicholls shares some of the clever tricks he implemented across Bacar Restaurant and The Brewery Bar + Kitchen.
Build in flexibility to the menu
Menu flexibility is a great way to reduce waste and manage cost, but it must be done right.
Bacar Restaurant launched on 15 May at Pullman Hotel Sydney Olympic Park with a three-course menu that changes every week. Nicholls says his strategy is to make the most of seasonality and serve ingredients when they are at their best price, and flavour.
This approach provides flexibility, meaning he can tweak the menu in order to suit what’s left in the pantry. “If we’re running out of an ingredient on a Saturday before we’ve gone into service, we can just change it up quickly,” Nicholls says.
Plan for leftovers
Bacar Restaurant also offers catering. Rather than ordering in ingredients specifically for catering, Nicholls plans the menu around what would be left over from the Bacar menu. “Whatever we use in that three-course menu that week, we order a little extra and then use what’s left in a catering menu for local businesses. It’s minimising our food waste and our cost percentage on food has been exceptional,” Nicholls says.
The catering team also keep MasterFoods salad dressings on hand to help speed up bulk preparation, with Italian, Ranch and Caesar dressings all proving popular.
Keep a keen eye on your pantry
The Brewery Bar + Kitchen, a Novotel Sydney Olympic Park venue has a comfortable pub atmosphere. Located close to ANZ stadium, it is positioned as the place to go for a pre- or post-game feed. This means it faces busy service periods and needs to turn around tasty meals, fast.
Nicholls wanted to speed up service and his first step was to check what was in the pantry, where he found his secret weapon – MasterFoods Smokey Barbeque Sauce. The venue’s smokey chicken wings are marinated in the sauce for 24 hours, before being placed in cryovac bags and cooked sous vide to 65 degrees Celsius. Next, they are taken out of the bag, excess moisture is removed, and they are fried. Finally, the wings are tossed with the Smokey Barbecue Sauce and served with a little extra on the side. “It’s super easy and means the staff don’t have to think about it too much,” Nicholls explains. “And everybody loves the sticky wings.”
For more pantry secrets, download MasterFoods’ rogue magazine here.
