The parts of a takeaway nobody teaches you
I specialise in takeaways and delivery-only kitchens. Indian, peri peri, smash burgers, fried chicken — if it’s a small kitchen turning out a menu under pressure, I’ve likely worked with something like it.The food’s usually the part you’ve got covered. It’s the EHO inspection, the costings and the day-to-day processes that catch people out, and that’s where I come in.I run my own food business too. The processes I’ve got in place mean I can be away for up to a month at a time and it keeps running without me.
@setup2service on Instagram.
Takeaway, trading four years. Buying through seven separate suppliers with no minimum order quantities written down. Staffing running at 31% of turnover against a 20–28% benchmark for a takeaway. The menu was bigger than the volume justified, so it needed more staff than it could pay for.The owner knew something was wrong. He didn’t know what to look at. That’s most of the job. Not telling people things they already suspect, but finding the thing they’ve stopped noticing because they see it every day.
Who This Is For
Get in touch if any of this sounds familiar:
You're doing 70 or 80 hours a week and you can't see a way out of it
You've got an inspection coming up and you don't know what they'll pick you up on
You're busy every night but there's nothing left at the end of the month
You don't know your food cost percentage, or whether it's where it should be
Every shift runs a bit differently depending on who's on, and you can't rely on it being consistent
I specialise in independent takeaways and delivery-only kitchens. That's where my experience is, and it's who I do my best work for.
Do you feel like if you leave the kitchen, it won't run?
Most takeaway owners I speak to are doing 70 or 80 hours a week and can't see a way of cutting it down. Usually that's because the place only runs properly when they're standing in it.That's a training problem, and underneath it's a standardisation problem. If a dish comes out slightly different depending on who's cooking it, if the ordering gets done off the top of someone's head, if the paperwork only gets filled in when you chase it, then you can't step away. Nobody can be trained on a process that only exists in your head.I know it works because I've done it in my own place. I run a food business alongside this one, and the systems I've got in it mean I can go away for up to a month and it carries on without me. That's what the processes are for, and it's what I set up in other people's kitchens.
What I fix
EHO & compliance
Not knowing what your inspector will actually mark you down on until after they’ve done it
Paperwork copied from another business that doesn’t match how your kitchen really works
Cross-contamination risks built into your layout that you’ve stopped noticing
Allergen handling and labelling that wouldn’t survive being challenged
A rating in your window that doesn’t reflect what’s actually going on in your kitchen
Most low ratings have less to do with your food than people think. A cracked tile or a tired worktop knocks marks off just as fast as anything in the pans.
Costings, menu & profitability
Dishes on your menu you’ve never costed, so you don’t know if they make money
Not knowing your food cost percentage, or whether it’s where it should be
Portions that have crept up over the years without anyone noticing
Prices set a long time ago and never revisited while suppliers put theirs up
A menu bigger than your volume justifies, needing more staff than it can pay for
The same dish costing you a different amount depending on who’s on shift
Where I focus is the kitchen — portioning, waste, yields, buying and stock. I work alongside your accountant on the numbers side, not instead of them.
Ordering, storage and suppliers
Stock you’ve already got, ordered again because nobody could see it was there
Money sat on your stockroom shelves instead of in your account
Too many suppliers, and nobody checking whether you’re paying over the odds
Food going out of date before it gets used
Running out mid-service and binning stock in the same week
Most of the cash flow problems I find in takeaways aren’t in the bank account. They’re in the stockroom.
Also: new kitchen layouts. Fitting out from scratch is the one chance you get to avoid building the problems in. Once the kitchen’s in and running, they’re expensive to undo. Pre-opening only.
Inspection coming up?
If you've got a date in the diary, that's the one thing worth sorting before anything else. A rating goes in your window and stays there.
Ways to work with me
Package One
Get Running
A day on site. I install accountability software across every recurring process in your kitchen: opening and closing checks, temperature logs, cleaning schedules, whatever the kitchen runs on. Your staff are trained to use it before I leave, and I'll flag any compliance points I spot while I'm there.
For: owners who need the place to run properly when they’re not standing in it.
Package Two
Get Running & Know Your Numbers
Everything above, plus:
A costing session on a handful of your dishes, done together, so you walk away with the method
Recipe card breakdowns for the dishes we cover
Your ordering and stockroom flow organised so you’re properly managing cash flow
A proper look at compliance, not just a flag
Two 30-minute follow-up calls, one a week for two weeks
You’ll also come away with three numbers to work from: your food cost percentage, your staffing cost as a share of turnover, and how many suppliers you’re actually running.
For: owners who want the processes and the profitability sorted in one go.
Just want one question answered? I do remote sessions on a single problem — an inspection, or getting your head round costings. Ask me on the call.
Who I Am?
My name is Saif. I started this food business consultancy because I’ve been exactly where many first-time food business owners are. I had no prior catering, hospitality or management background, so I had to learn everything the hard way — through years of mistakes, trial and error, and figuring things out as I went.I still run my own food business today. That’s where all of this comes from — every system and process I teach is something I’ve had to make work in my own kitchen first. I’ve also worked with Indian takeaways, peri peri, smash burgers and fried chicken — mostly independent, owner-run businesses where the food is great, but the business side was never properly taught.That’s why I help first-time food business owners put the compliance, systems and processes in place that are so often missing. Because owning a food business shouldn’t mean working 60 hours a week with no end in sight. The goal is to build a business that can run without you — so you can be a business owner, not just glorified self-employed.
Why not just use AI?
Fair question. Here's the honest answer.AI's good at answering things — but only the things you think to ask it. If you don't know your prep bench next to the bin is a cross-contamination risk, you won't ask about it. If you don't know four dishes on your menu are running at a loss, you won't think to check.Knowing what to ask is the hard part, and that comes from years of standing in kitchens like yours.Use AI. Just use it after someone's pointed you at the right question.
How It Works
Message me
WhatsApp or the form. Tell me what's not working. Takes two minutes.
Free call
By the end of it you'll know at least one thing in your kitchen that's costing you money — whether you work with me or not.
I send you a price
What I'd do, what it costs, what you'll have at the end of it. From £500.
