Kitchen Prep List Template and Par Levels Guide

Every kitchen has a prep list, even if it only exists in the head chef’s memory. The trouble with a list in someone’s head is that it goes home with them. When the chef is on leave, the kitchen over-preps some items and runs out of others. A written kitchen prep list with par levels fixes this. It tells each cook what to prepare, how much, by when, and how to label it.

This guide covers how to forecast from sales history, set par levels per station, write prep sheets by shift, handle labelling and holding times under SFA guidance, choose between batch and à la minute preparation, and use POS data to keep the list accurate. A sample template is included near the end.

What a prep list and par level are

A par level is the quantity of a prepared item you want ready at the start of a service or day, for example 4 litres of laksa gravy or 60 portions of marinated chicken. A prep list is the daily instruction that closes the gap between what you have and the par.

The basic formula is simple:

Prep quantity = par level − usable stock on hand

“Usable” matters. Stock that has passed its use-by time, or that will pass it before the next service, does not count. That is why labelling and prep lists belong together.

Prep lists are different from purchase orders. Ordering raw ingredients relies on stock counts and supplier lead times, which our restaurant stock take guide covers. The prep list sits one step later: it turns ingredients already in your chillers into components ready for service.

Forecasting from sales history

Par levels are only as good as the forecast behind them. See how to predict covers from your sales data. Start with your sales data rather than instinct.

1. Pull item sales by day of week. Take at least four to six weeks of item-level sales from your POS. Look at each weekday separately, because a Tuesday lunch and a Saturday dinner are different businesses.
2. Convert dishes into components. Use your recipes to turn dish sales into component quantities. If you sell 80 bowls of laksa on a Friday and each uses 350 ml of gravy, you need 28 litres of gravy for Friday.
3. Adjust for known events. Public holidays, school holidays, nearby office closures, festive periods, rain and promotions all shift demand. Note them in the forecast rather than relying on memory.
4. Split by service. Break the day into lunch and dinner, or into dayparts for all-day outlets, so each shift preps for its own demand.
5. Include all channels. Dine-in, takeaway, QR orders and delivery orders all draw from the same prep. Leaving delivery out is a common cause of mid-service shortages.

Keep the method simple. An average of the last four same weekdays, adjusted for anything unusual, is enough for most outlets. Check the forecast against actual sales each week and you will quickly see whether it tends to run high or low.

Setting par levels per station

A par level should be set for each station, because each station has its own storage space, holding limits and people. A typical Singapore restaurant might have:

• Wok or hot line: sauces, marinated proteins, cut vegetables, aromatics.
• Grill or fry: portioned proteins, batters, coatings.
• Cold or salad: washed greens, dressings, cut fruit.
• Noodle or soup: stocks, gravies, blanched noodles, garnishes.
• Drinks or dessert: syrups, jellies, cut fruit, whipped toppings.

For each item, set the par as the forecast quantity for the service plus a small buffer for variation. Keep the buffer small for items with a short use-by time and larger for items that hold well. Then check the par against three limits: the space available in the station chiller, the time the item can safely be held, and how long it takes to prepare more during service. If an item can be prepared in a few minutes, a lower par with a top-up during service may be better than a large batch.

Write pars by day of week. Many kitchens keep one par for weekdays and a higher one for Friday to Sunday, which is a reasonable starting point.

Prep sheets by shift

A prep sheet for each shift turns pars into tasks. A good sheet shows, for each station:

• The item and its par level for the coming service.
• The on-hand count, filled in by the cook at the start of the shift.
• The prep quantity (par minus usable on hand).
• Who is responsible and the time it must be ready.
• A tick when done, plus the label check.

The morning or opening shift usually handles stocks, sauces, marinades and anything that takes long cooking or cooling time. The afternoon shift tops up for dinner based on what lunch used. The closing shift counts what is left, discards anything past its use-by time and writes the counts for the next morning. This fits naturally into your restaurant opening and closing checklist.

Order tasks by lead time. Items that need cooling, marinating or soaking go first. Quick cuts and garnishes go last, closest to service, so they stay fresh.

Batch vs à la minute preparation

Not everything should be prepped in advance. Decide for each item whether to prepare it in batches or à la minute (to order).

Batch prep suits	À la minute suits
Stocks, gravies, sauces and curry bases that take long cooking	Items that lose quality quickly, such as fried food, soft eggs and dressed salads
High-volume components used across several dishes	Low-volume dishes where a batch would mostly be wasted
Items that hold safely and consistently	Items with short safe holding times once cooked
Peak services where ticket times matter most	Quieter periods when cooks have time

Many kitchens use a mix: the base is batched, and the final step is done to order. For example, the laksa gravy is made in the morning, but noodles are blanched and bowls assembled when the order arrives. Getting this balance right is one of the most effective ways to speed up kitchen ticket times without over-prepping. Rempah-based menus depend on this split; see our guide to opening a Peranakan restaurant in Singapore.

Consider smaller, more frequent batches for items with short holding times. Two half batches, one before lunch and one before dinner, often produce less waste than one full batch in the morning.

Labelling, date marking and holding times

A prep list only works if the food it produces is safe. SFA publishes guidance that applies directly to prepped items. Use it as the basis of your labels and holding rules, and check with your Food Hygiene Officer for anything specific to your licence.

Labelling

SFA’s poster on labelling food and ingredients says to label food and ingredients, such as semi-processed meat, seafood, sauces and food removed from its packaging, with:

• the name of the ingredient or food;
• the date opened or prepared;
• the expiry or use-by date (after opening); and
• the receiving date or batch number, to help with product tracing.

SFA also says to update labels when necessary, remove the original label when reusing a container, check the expiry date before use, and dispose of expired products. It explains that labelling makes it easier to follow a First Expire, First Out (FEFO) or First In, First Out (FIFO) stock rotation. SFA’s example label includes the time as well as the date, which is useful for items prepared more than once a day.

Temperatures and holding times

SFA’s proper temperature for hot foods poster describes 5°C to 60°C as the temperature danger zone, where bacteria that cause foodborne illness grow rapidly. It says:

• hot food should be kept above 60°C after cooking and during delivery, using hot-holding equipment such as a bain-marie or hot-holding cabinet, pre-heated before use;
• hot food should not be kept below 60°C for more than 4 hours after it was prepared, which it notes is a mandatory requirement for catering establishments;
• hot food intended for reuse must be chilled to below 5°C within 4 hours after cooking; and
• food should be reheated until the internal temperature reaches at least 75°C for at least 2 minutes, and can only be reheated once.

SFA’s December 2024 advisory on food safety practices adds that food operators should thaw frozen food in a chiller at 0–4°C, in a microwave, or sealed and submerged in ice water that is changed frequently; divide large amounts of food into smaller portions for quicker cooling and refrigerate immediately; avoid keeping ready-to-eat food in the danger zone for more than 4 hours; and store cooked and ready-to-eat food above raw food. It also reminds operators not to work beyond their capacity, which a realistic prep list helps with.

SFA does not set a single shelf life for every prepped item in this guidance. Set your own use-by time for each item, based on your food safety plan and supplier instructions, and write it on the prep sheet so every cook labels it the same way. More SFA posters are linked from its guidelines for licensed food retail premises, including one on transporting frozen and chilled food for central kitchens that send prep to outlets.

How POS sales data and recipe-level stock deduction feed the prep list

The most accurate prep lists are built from real sales. Your POS already records what sold, when and through which channel. Used well, it can drive the whole cycle:

• Item sales by day and hour give you the forecast for each service. Our POS reports page shows the kind of reports to look for.
• Recipe-level stock deduction means each sale deducts its ingredients by recipe. Comparing theoretical usage with your actual counts shows where the kitchen over-preps, over-portions or wastes.
• Recipe costing puts a dollar value on each prepped component, so a pan of unused sauce becomes a cost you can see, not just a bin.
• A kitchen display system shows what is being ordered in real time, so the station can see when a component is running low during service. Read more on our kitchen display system page.

Pair this with a simple waste log: what was discarded, how much and why. Over-prepping shows up as discarded items past their use-by time; under-prepping shows up as items marked unavailable during service. Both mean the par needs to change. Our guide on how to reduce food waste in Singapore restaurants covers waste tracking in more detail.

Sample kitchen prep list template

Copy this layout into a spreadsheet or print it for each station. The on-hand, prep and done columns are filled in by the cook each shift. Quantities shown are examples only.

Station	Item	Unit	Par (Mon–Thu)	Par (Fri–Sun)	On hand	Prep qty	Use-by after prep	Ready by	Cook	Done / labelled
Soup	Laksa gravy	litre	20	28			Set by chef	10:30
Wok	Marinated chicken slices	portion	50	70			Set by chef	10:30
Wok	Chopped garlic and shallot	tub	2	3			Set by chef	10:45
Fry	Portioned fish fillets	portion	30	45			Set by chef	11:00
Cold	Washed lettuce	kg	2	3			Set by chef	11:00
Drinks	Lime juice	litre	1.5	2.5			Set by chef	11:00

At the bottom of each sheet, add three lines: items discarded at close with quantities, items that ran out and at what time, and the name of the person who checked the labels. These notes are what you use to adjust the pars.

Reviewing and adjusting par levels

Pars are not set once. Review them weekly with the head chef, using:

• last week’s item sales from the POS against the forecast;
• the waste log and the “ran out” notes from each prep sheet;
• any menu changes, new dishes or promotions coming up; and
• stock count results against theoretical usage from recipe deduction.

Adjust in small steps. If an item was discarded three days in a row, lower the par slightly and watch the next week. If it ran out before the end of service, raise it slightly or add a mid-service top-up. Changing pars too far at once swaps one problem for the other.

When you change a recipe or add a dish, update the prep list, the par, the label instructions and the recipe in your POS at the same time, so forecasting and stock deduction stay accurate. Our inventory management page explains how this links to stock control.

ChaChaCha, powered by AppsPOS, records item sales by channel, deducts ingredients by recipe with each sale and shows recipe costing per menu item, so your prep list can start from real numbers. Its KDS routes orders to stations with prep timers. For other inventory details, such as wastage logging or unit conversion, ask us to confirm how they work for your kitchen. Contact us to see it in action.