The Busy Owner

Operations

How to write kitchen SOPs your team will actually follow

By Sulakshi (Sue) Pallethenna

Let me guess. Somewhere in your café there's a folder of procedures. It's beautifully typed. It took someone a whole weekend. And it's sitting on a shelf above the dry store, slowly collecting flour dust.

That's the problem with most SOPs (standard operating procedures). They're written to exist, not to be used.

A good SOP is different. It's short, it lives where the work happens, and a new starter can follow it on a busy Saturday without asking anyone. That's what we're going to build.

When a procedure is written down, a busy shift with someone new on the line can run smoothly. When it isn't, everyone ends up asking the one person who knows, and the whole kitchen slows down.

Why SOPs are worth the effort

When your team does things the same way every time, a lot of good things happen:

  • Every plate looks and tastes the same, whoever's on.
  • Your food cost stays accurate, because portions don't drift.
  • Training is faster, and you're not repeating yourself to every new starter.
  • Food safety is easier to manage, because the safe way is the written way.
  • You can actually take a day off.

That last one is my favourite.

Step 1: Start with the tasks that matter most

Don't try to write SOPs for everything at once. You'll burn out by task six.

Pick tasks that are:

  • High volume: your best-selling dishes and drinks
  • High risk: anything involving food safety, like cooling, reheating, cleaning and sanitising, or allergens
  • High cost: dishes with expensive ingredients where portion drift really hurts
  • Frequently done wrong: the task that always gets "forgotten"

Five good SOPs that people use beat fifty that nobody reads.

Step 2: Write it with the person who does the job

This is the secret most people skip. Don't write the SOP alone in the office. Stand next to the person who does the task best and write down what they actually do.

Ask them:

  • "What do you do first?"
  • "How do you know it's right?"
  • "What do new people usually get wrong?"

You'll capture the little tricks that make the difference, and the team will feel ownership because they helped build it. People follow rules they helped write.

It also helps to ask the person who does the task best to walk through it while you write it down. They'll often spot steps nobody else would think to include.

Step 3: Keep it to one page

If it doesn't fit on one page, it's either two SOPs or it's too wordy.

Follow these rules:

  • Numbered steps. One action per step.
  • Start each step with a verb. "Weigh", "Plate", "Wipe", "Check".
  • Plain words. Write for someone in their first week, who might be speaking English as a second language.
  • Exact measures. Not "a handful of rocket", but "20 g rocket".
  • Photos where they help. A photo of the finished plate does more than three paragraphs.

A simple SOP template

Here's the layout I like. Copy it and make it yours.

SOP: [Task name]
Section: [e.g. Breakfast / Coffee / Cleaning]
Last updated: [date]   Checked by: [name]

WHY IT MATTERS
[One line, e.g. "So every plate is consistent and costed correctly."]

YOU'LL NEED
[Equipment and ingredients, with amounts]

STEPS
1. ...
2. ...
3. ...

CHECK IT'S RIGHT
[What good looks like, e.g. photo of the finished plate, temperature, timing]

COMMON MISTAKES
- ...
- ...

SAFETY / ALLERGENS
[Anything critical, e.g. "Contains gluten, dairy and egg"]

An example: smashed avo on toast

This is an example to show the format. Adjust the portions, steps and allergens to match your own recipe.

SOP: Smashed avo on toast Section: Breakfast Why it matters: It's a best seller, so consistency keeps regulars happy and keeps the food cost on target.

You'll need: 2 slices sourdough, 120 g avocado (prepped), 30 g feta, 5 g dukkah, 10 ml olive oil, 1 lemon wedge, 3 g micro herbs.

Steps: 1. Toast the sourdough until golden on both sides. 2. Weigh 120 g of prepped avocado and season as per the prep sheet. 3. Spread the avocado evenly over both slices, right to the edges. 4. Crumble 30 g of feta over the top. 5. Sprinkle 5 g of dukkah across both slices. 6. Drizzle 10 ml of olive oil. 7. Add the lemon wedge and micro herbs as shown in the photo. 8. Check against the plating photo and send.

Check it's right: matches the plating photo, avocado reaches the edges, served within [your target time] of toasting.

Common mistakes: guessing the avocado instead of weighing it; too much feta; forgetting the lemon.

Allergens: gluten (sourdough), dairy (feta), sesame and nuts (check your dukkah). Always check the actual ingredients you use.

Step 4: Put it where the work happens

An SOP in a folder is an SOP nobody reads. Put each one right where the task happens:

  • Laminated cards above the station
  • A plating photo board on the pass
  • Cleaning SOPs inside the cleaning cupboard door
  • A QR code on the station that links to a short video or photo version

The goal is that someone can glance at it mid-task without walking away.

Step 5: Train with it, not just about it

Don't just hand a new starter the SOP and say "read this". Train with it:

  1. Show: do the task while they watch, following the card out loud.
  2. Do together: they do it while you watch and coach.
  3. Do alone: they do it on their own, then you check against the card.
  4. Sign off: once they've got it right a few times, tick it off on their training record.

This connects the card to the real task, so they trust it and use it.

Step 6: Keep it alive

SOPs go stale when the recipe changes and the card doesn't. Then the team learns the card is wrong and stops looking at it altogether.

  • Put a date on every SOP.
  • Update it the same day a recipe, supplier or piece of equipment changes.
  • Review them all regularly, for example every quarter, with the team.
  • Make it easy to suggest changes. If someone finds a better way, test it and update the card. Thank them in front of the team.

A simple habit helps here: whenever a supplier, recipe or piece of equipment changes, check whether an SOP card needs updating that same week.

Why teams ignore SOPs (and how to fix it)

"It's too long." Cut it to one page. Split it if you need to.

"It's not how we actually do it." Rewrite it with the person who does the job best.

"I couldn't find it." Move it to the station.

"Nobody checks anyway." Use it in training, spot-check against it and talk about it in team meetings.

"The boss doesn't follow it either." Ouch, but fair. If you skip steps, so will everyone else. Lead by example.

Save yourself some time

If you'd like a head start, my Café Profit Kit includes two editable SOP templates alongside a costing workbook, so your portions on the card match the costs in your numbers. But the template above works perfectly well on its own. The important thing is getting your first five SOPs onto the wall.

FAQ

How long should a kitchen SOP be? One page is the sweet spot. If a task needs more, break it into smaller SOPs, like "prep" and "plating", so each card stays easy to follow.

Should SOPs include photos? Yes, wherever they help. A photo of the finished plate or the correct station setup is often the fastest way to show what "right" looks like, especially for new starters.

Who should write the SOPs? Write them together: the owner or manager guides the format, and the team member who does the task best supplies the detail. This makes the SOP accurate and helps the team feel ownership of it.