Pelican › Guides

The Pelican guides for professional kitchens

Practical knowledge on purchasing, supplier ordering, stock and food cost, written for head chefs, sous chefs and owners who want a calmer, cleaner ordering process. With free templates for order lists, stocktakes and mise en place.

Guide

Restaurant purchasing: the complete guide

The big picture of purchasing: capture needs, bundle orders, choose suppliers, check deliveries, store stock, control costs. With links into every detail.

Read the guide →
Basics

How to organise restaurant stock ordering: the complete guide

From paper chaos to a clear routine: the four steps of clean stock ordering, the typical mistakes and how to fix them.

Read the guide →
Template

Order list template: free Excel and PDF for restaurants

Free order list to download: Excel with drop-downs and an example sheet, PDF for printing. Pre-sorted by category, no sign-up.

Get the template →
Systems

Restaurant inventory management: what small businesses really need

What an inventory management system does, how much maintenance it takes and why ordering is the better starting point for most kitchens.

Read the guide →
Storage

Restaurant stock management: keep stock under control without the hassle

Fixed storage spots, FIFO, minimum levels instead of constant counting and an ordering round that starts in the store. No expensive software.

Read the guide →
Stocktake

Restaurant stocktake: process and free template

Who needs a stocktake, how count day works in five steps and the free Excel and PDF stocktake sheet that makes counting faster.

Read the guide →
Kitchen practice

Mise en place: meaning, process and checklist

What the term means, how prep works in a professional kitchen and the checklist that makes sure nothing is forgotten before service.

Read the guide →
Order guide

Restaurant order guide: what it needs, and why templates fail

Items, units, par levels, product categories: what belongs in a good order guide, and where Excel templates break down once the whole team is involved.

Read the guide →
Order list

Kitchen order list: the four fields every order sheet needs

How to structure an order list that actually works in service: item, quantity with unit, category and who added it. Plus Excel vs. WhatsApp vs. app.

Read the guide →
Choosing a tool

Restaurant supplier ordering app: the four tool types compared

Marketplace, send-to-supplier tool, inventory suite or team order list? The tool types explained, with six criteria for picking the right one.

Read the guide →
Digital

Restaurant digital transformation: where to start?

Which areas you can digitalise, why projects fail and why ordering is the lowest-risk place to start. With a one-week plan.

Read the guide →
Suppliers

Restaurant suppliers: how to find, choose and manage them

The main supplier types, how to find and compare good suppliers and how to keep several of them under control day to day.

Read the guide →
Suppliers

Organising supplier orders: rep visits without the chaos

Go into the rep meeting prepared: a sorted list, clear quantities and a stronger position when it comes to prices.

Read the guide →
Calculator

Food cost calculator: percentage, recipe costing and menu pricing

Free online calculator: food cost percentage, per-dish costing and menu pricing with VAT. Right in your browser, no signup.

Open the calculator →
Cost control

Controlling food costs: order history, not gut feeling

The simplest lever for cost control: knowing what was ordered, when, from whom and at what price, without an inventory system.

Read the guide →
Team

Multilingual kitchen teams: one order list, every language

Tomatoes, pomodori, Tomaten: how mixed-language brigades order without duplicates, missed items or the chef acting as a translator.

Read the guide →

Read enough? Bring Pelican into your kitchen.

Create your business, invite the team, order by voice. Free for 30 days, no new hardware.