Suppliers have been the downfall of many restaurants. Choose a reasonable supplier with good-quality produce and you’ll be off to a good start, but choose the opposite and you’ll be in store for a whole host of headaches. Expensive supplies can negatively impact your bottom line, while those with bad-quality food can destroy a restaurant’s reputation.
Fruit and Vegetables
According to the British Hospitality Association, 44 per cent of Brits want to eat more vegetables when eating out, so this is an important product to source correctly. Fortunately, there are several ways you can source these types of produce. The first is to check out local suppliers and to get your fruit and vegetables directly from farmers you’ve found at your nearest farmers’ market. Alternatively, you can buy from big food companies or from smaller local stores.
Meat
You can choose from your local farm or butchers or a larger speciality store. The benefits of a larger store are that they have better sensing to pick up on possible harmful bacteria thanks to the fact that they are larger and can invest more in technology. The advantages of sourcing meat directly from a farm is that you’ll be able to pick the best quality, in addition to supporting the local economy.
Dry food
These include anything from nuts and flour to rice. You’ll probably have to buy these foods in bulk but they can last a long time, especially if you store them in a catering fridge like the ones found at https://www.fridgefreezerdirect.co.uk/catering-equipment. You will find these at the larger food companies that specifically supply restaurants. If you’re looking to find some of these suppliers and see what they can offer, it’s a good idea to attend some of the larger food fairs throughout the year, such as the Speciality Fine Food Fair in London.
Beer and wine
You can source these drinks in a few different ways. Firstly, you can buy well-known beer en masse from a big supplier, or you can source craft beer from a smaller supplier. You could also make a contact with a specific brewery to sell their different types of beers, or you could do a combination of all of the above. The same applies to wine, which can be bought directly from a winery or from private suppliers.
