We are all aware that food cost is one of the greatest expenditures of a restaurant. The success of a food business therefore depends crucially on whether the restaurant owner can manage and control inventory in the most cost-effective manner.
It is very common that chefs by their experience is good enough to draw up food menu that look sensible without referring to any statistical results. They do not care too much about how to balance between profitability and popularity of menu items or any seasonal effects on menu planning. All are based on random decision making.
Taking cheese as an example, western restaurants use cheese in main dishes, side dishes, semi-finished products or dipping sauce. But, usually there are no detailed records of how much is purchased, how much is used, where the cheese is used and how much is on hand.