Overview: What to Make, Not How to Make It

Most people think of creating Kitchen Production Formulas like writing a recipe. For example, the recipe for Grandma Sally's Homemade Macaroni and Cheese may include pasta, cheese, milk, seasonings, temperatures, and step-by-step cooking instructions.

Kitchen Production Formulas are different. They assume your kitchen already knows how to make the food. What your team needs to know is what to make and how much to make.

This is where Prep Items come in. They give your kitchen a clear list of the finished items and quantities needed for the day's orders, without filling the Production Report with cooking instructions.

For Grandma Sally's Homemade Macaroni and Cheese, the kitchen does not need the recipe on the Production Report. The Prep Item simply tells the team that 3.5 quarts of finished Mac & Cheese need to walk out the door.

The key thing to remember is that you are not creating a Formula for the Prep Item itself. You are using the Prep Item when building a Formula for each Menu Item you sell.

Menu Items, Prep Items, and Formulas

These three pieces work together, but they each do something different:

Customers see Menu Item names. Your kitchen sees Prep Item names. The Formula connects the two.

Use the Language Your Kitchen Uses

Name Prep Items using the words your team already uses during production. CaterZen does not display Prep Item names to customers, so they do not need to match the marketing language on your menu.

For example, your customer-facing menu may say Grandma Sally's Homemade Macaroni and Cheese, while the kitchen may simply call it Mac & Cheese.

A good Prep Item name should be:

• Easy for the kitchen to recognize
• Specific enough to prevent confusion
• Consistent with similar Prep Items
• Written in the language used during daily prep

Pick one name and stick with it. You do not want Mac & Cheese, Mac and Cheese, and Mac N Cheese showing up as three different Prep Items when they all mean the same thing.

Decide How Much Detail the Kitchen Needs

A Prep Item can be the finished item or one piece of that item. Start with the amount of detail your kitchen actually needs.

For the Classic BBQ Buffet, the Garden Salad formula could simply produce:

• 1 full-size pan of Garden Salad for every 20 guests

If the kitchen already knows how to build that pan, this may be enough. If the team needs separate quantities for lettuce, tomatoes, cucumbers, or dressing, those components can be added later.

More detail is not always better. You want a Production Report your kitchen can quickly work from, not one that feels cluttered or takes forever to maintain.

Search Before Creating a New Prep Item

Before you create a new Prep Item, take a second to search for it. It may already be there. When building a Kitchen Production Formula:

• Go to Admin > Configure Kitchen and Production Report Settings > Build a Kitchen Production Report.
• In the PLEASE CHOOSE field, type the name of the Prep Item.
• Review the results carefully.
• Select the result labeled PREP.

Do not select a result labeled Menu Item or Option when you are trying to add a Prep Item to the formula.

If the correct Prep Item does not exist, type the name you want to use and click the blue Prep button to create it.

Why duplicates matter

CaterZen can only combine quantities when the formulas use the same Prep Item. If one Formula uses Baked Beans and another uses Bakd Beans, CaterZen treats them as two different items. Your Production Report will show two separate lines instead of one total.

That quick search helps keep your reports clean and lets you reuse the same Prep Item throughout your menu.

Create a Prep Item Once, Then Reuse It

The same Prep Item can be connected to many Menu Items, even when the formulas are different.

For example, the Prep Item Pulled Pork might be used in:

• The Classic BBQ Buffet at 6 ounces per person
• A Pulled Pork Sandwich sold by the each, with 5 ounces of Pulled Pork for every sandwich sold
• An à la carte order with Pulled Pork sold by the pound

You do not need a different Pulled Pork Prep Item for each one. Use the same Prep Item and let each menu item's formula handle the quantity.

At the end of the day, it does not matter how the Pulled Pork was sold. To your kitchen, it is all the same Pulled Pork. Because every formula uses the same Prep Item, CaterZen can add everything together and give the kitchen one total amount to prepare.

Use Units That Make Sense to Your Kitchen

Use the unit that makes the most sense to your kitchen. Think about how the team prepares, portions, or counts the item.

In the Classic BBQ Buffet example:

For a 20-person buffet with two meats and two sides, the kitchen output would be:

• Pulled Pork: 4 pounds
• Chicken: 4 pounds
• Mac & Cheese: 3.5 quarts
• Baked Beans: 3.5 quarts
• Bread: 20 pieces
• Garden Salad: 1 full-size pan

The meats are divided between the two selections and rounded up to the nearest whole pound. Each selected side receives the full side quantity and rounds to the nearest half quart.

Organize Prep Items for Production Reports

Food Prep Categories keep similar Prep Items together on your Kitchen Production Reports. You might organize them like this:

For the Classic BBQ Buffet, Pulled Pork and Chicken would appear under Meats/Proteins, Mac & Cheese and Baked Beans under Hot Sides, Garden Salad under Salads, and Bread under Breads.

CaterZen adds matching Prep Items together within these categories, so your kitchen can see the total amount needed across all orders. If Pulled Pork is sold in several buffets, sandwiches, and à la carte orders, the kitchen does not have to add those quantities by hand. The Production Report combines them into one Pulled Pork total under Meats/Proteins.

That way, each part of the kitchen has a clear section of the report to work from, and no one has to review every order one at a time.

Your category names can match the way your kitchen works. Just use them consistently and place each Prep Item where your team would naturally look for it.

Use Nested Prep Items Only When They Always Belong Together

Nested Prep Items are helpful when one item should always be included with another.

For example, if every full-size pan of Garden Salad always includes one bag of croutons, the croutons may belong beneath Garden Salad.

Do not nest something that is optional or may be packed separately. For example, if cups are included with some Lemonade orders but not others, the cups need their own Formula or selection. They should not automatically be added every time Lemonade is produced.

A simple rule: Only nest a component when it should be produced every time the parent Prep Item is produced.

Edit or Rename an Existing Prep Item

To update a Prep Item name:

• Go to Admin > Kitchen Production > Prep Items.
• Open the PREP ITEMS section.
• Find the Prep Item and click Edit Item.
• Update the name.
• Scroll down and click Save This Information.
• If CaterZen displays a yellow cache warning, click the provided link to clear the cache.

Renaming a Prep Item updates its name everywhere that Prep Item is already used. Before changing it, confirm that the new name still makes sense for every connected Formula.

Find and Correct Duplicate Prep Items

If you spot two Prep Items that mean the same thing, do not delete one right away. First, make sure you know which Formulas are using it.

A safe cleanup process is:

• Decide which Prep Item will become the standard item.
• Temporarily rename the duplicate so it is easy to recognize on production reports—for example, Baked Beans - DUPLICATE.
• Run representative production reports or review the connected Menu Item Formulas to find where the duplicate is used.
• Replace the duplicate with the standard Prep Item in each affected Formula.
• Test the updated Formulas with sample orders.
• Delete or deactivate the duplicate only after confirming that nothing still depends on it.

This keeps you from accidentally breaking an existing Formula and makes sure future orders roll into one clean total.

Test Before You Build the Entire Menu

You do not have to build your entire menu before you know whether everything is working. Start with a small group of Menu Items that includes different choices, units, and rounding rules.

The Classic BBQ Buffet is a useful test because it includes:

• A choice of one or two meats
• Quantities divided between selected meats
• Two sides receiving full quantities
• Pounds, quarts, pieces, and pans
• Different rounding rules

Place a test order, then review the production reports your kitchen actually uses. Confirm that:

• Prep Item names are clear
• Duplicate lines do not appear
• Quantities and units are correct
• Items appear under the right production groupings
• The report includes enough detail without becoming cluttered

Once the reports make sense to your kitchen, use the same naming and organization as you build the rest of your Formulas.

Next Steps

Once your Prep Items are clean and organized, you are ready to start building Formulas for fixed quantities, per-person quantities, Customer choices, and rounding.

For an overview of the full workflow, see Kitchen Production in CaterZen: How Prep Items, Formulas, and Reports Work Together.

Need Help Building Your Kitchen Production Workflow?

If you would like help deciding which reports your kitchen should use or reviewing your Kitchen Production setup, book a Kitchen Production session with Jill Hammett.

Support

For additional help, refer to the CaterZen Support Center or contact our CaterZen Support Team.

Not a CaterZen customer yet? Discover how our catering software can streamline your business — click here to learn more!