3 Outlets. 1 Central Kitchen. 5 Mistakes.

This wasn’t a failure.

But it wasn’t a smooth win either.

A Restaurant group specialized in Pav-Bhaji asked me to help build their first central kitchen.

3 branches.

Same menu.

One hub.

Sounded efficient.

 Reality?

The group backed off at the last moment, but I had the entire plan drafted in 2 months of back-and-forth calls.

Win for me, since I made an entire plan (which was workable)

What I saw as potential traps and how I could have solved them 👀

🔸 Dispatch Delays

 No fixed dispatch time.

 Knowing transport driver,s they would show up late.

 Food reached mid-lunch - cold and congealed.

📌 Fix: Daily dispatch planner with SMS alert system.

 Could still fail when staff skipped entry in system.

🔸 Reheating Nightmares

 Outlet team didn’t know how to reheat.

 Jain sauce split. Laddi pav went dry.

📌 Fix: Created a finishing SOP video.

 Outlet 2 watched it. Outlet 1 didn’t. (Humans... ) 

🔸 Stockout Panic

 No buffer stock.

 Outlet ran out of lasun chutney by 6:30 PM.

 They tried using chopped garlic instead. 😑

📌 Fix: Introduced par level system.

 Still broke during long weekends. (need more practise)

🔸 Recipe Dilution

 Outlet chefs “tweaked” the recipe to save time.

 Result: Guests started saying,

 “Why does this pavbhaji taste better at the other branch?”

📌 Fix: Colour-coded portioning + surprise audits.

 Quality improved - but loyalty damage was done.

🔸 Blame-Passing Between Teams

 Outlet says central sent wrong stock.

 Central says outlet stored it badly.

 Everyone points fingers. No one learns.

📌 Fix: Item-wise handover sheet, It actually worked. 

Simple. Old-school. Effective.

By Week 6, things would have stabilised.

 Not perfect. But better.

The biggest lesson?

Central kitchens don’t remove chaos. They just shift where it shows up.