Par levels that survive a Friday night

A par level is the amount of something you want on hand at the start of service. Set it too low and you 86 a dish at 7pm; too high and you're binning it at close. Most kitchens set pars once, by feel, and never revisit them — which is why Friday runs out and Tuesday overproduces.

Start from sales, not vibes

For each prepped item, look at how many you actually sold on a comparable day over the last few weeks. Your par should cover a normal day of that weekday plus a small buffer — not your best night ever. "Enough for the busiest Saturday we've had" is how you guarantee waste on every other day.

Par by day of week

A single par for all seven days is the root of the problem. Friday and Tuesday are different restaurants. If your tool lets you, keep day-aware pars; if it doesn't, at least review them weekly and adjust the two or three items that swing the most.

Make counting frictionless

• Count by station or fridge, in the order someone actually walks — not alphabetically.
• Count the real unit (trays, tubs, bottles), not grams nobody weighs mid-rush.
• Let the count sit next to the par, so "1 of 3" is obvious at a glance and the gap gets prepped.

When the count-versus-par is visible on the line, prep decisions stop being guesses. The par tells the closing shift what tomorrow needs, and the variance between counted and expected tells you where stock is quietly walking off.