Guides / Operations
The day-to-day of running the place. Routines, knowledge, equipment, training, shift handovers, supplier relationships.
A café opening checklist should take 30 to 45 minutes and cover fridge and freezer temperatures, hot water at the handwash, allergen checks on overnight deliveries, til float, and a sign-off on the previous night's close. Done properly, it becomes the daily evidence an EHO will ask for.
Read MoreA good café closing checklist covers stock, prep, fridge and oven shutdown, cleaning sign-offs, waste, lights, alarm and locks. Done properly it takes 45 to 75 minutes, and the test is simple: if tomorrow's opener walks in and swears, you got it wrong.
Read MoreA proper shift handover carries five things: prep status, equipment status, live customer complaints, deliveries due, and staffing changes. It must be both written and verbal, takes ten to fifteen minutes, and the outgoing shift owns it. The long handover across days off is where most failures happen.
Read MoreGood hospitality staff onboarding starts before the first shift, gives every day of week one a named owner, and ends with signed sign-offs for allergens, food safety basics and a fire walk. Anything less and you will lose people in the first fortnight, usually for reasons that are entirely your fault.
Read MoreHospitality supplier management is less about getting good prices and more about being ready when a supplier lets you down. The three failures that hurt are late deliveries, silent ingredient changes, and sudden collapses. Each needs a backup plan, a documentation trail, and a quarterly review you actually sit down and do.
Read MoreA kitchen knowledge base is the single place your recipes, prep methods, allergen swaps and unwritten house rules live. Paper binders rot fast and walk out the door with senior staff. The fix is a searchable, versioned digital system that every cook can reach from the pass, on a phone, when they need it.
Read MoreA proper restaurant equipment maintenance schedule covers annual gas safety and PAT testing, TR19 extraction cleaning, refrigeration services and grease interceptor pump-outs, plus daily temperature and visual checks. Each item has its own cadence and legal weight, and skipping any of them is how a Saturday turns into a closure.
Read MoreA staff routine that survives turnover is written down, signed off by the team who run it, and pinned where the work happens. Habits leave with the head chef. Systems stay. Build them with your team, review them quarterly, and treat them as living documents, not laminated wallpaper.
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