What Is a Dessert Company? What Can One Do for You?

In the food service industry, every dollar and every minute counts. While the dessert menu is a delightful place to serve the sweet cravings of your customers, there’s a harsh reality to it: for most restaurants, made-to-order desserts just don’t justify the costs. Bakers and confectioners are artisans in their own right, requiring plenty of space in a kitchen and a long list of ingredients each day.

There’s an easy solution for most restaurant owners — partner with a dessert company. Dessert suppliers for restaurants can make your dessert menu a standout (and profitable) place.

How Can a Dessert Company Help Your Restaurant Business?

Some of the biggest names in food service get their desserts from Steven Charles; a dessert company is more than just a supplier, and we know firsthand why.

Let’s start with some more obvious examples of how we help our partners.

Support the Supply Chain

Anyone who’s worked in the restaurant business for some time knows that one of the greatest challenges is finding reliable suppliers with quality products. Because of the specialty nature of desserts, this challenge can become even more difficult to deal with. The list of ingredients for a compelling dessert menu can be overwhelming to deal with on your own, but a dessert company will already have a supply chain ready to churn out delectable dishes. Reputable suppliers seek out rare and responsibly sourced ingredients to make desserts fresh and exciting.

Ready to Scale

Since demand in the food service industry changes from season to season and day to day, restaurants must be prepared to call on suppliers immediately for fast changes to their orders. Whether your restaurant gains sudden success or you have a massive event coming up, you have to be able to scale in a snap. The more suppliers you have to work with in order to do that, the more likely it is that one of them will drop the ball. Working with a dessert company that’s already prepared to scale up your orders takes one more thing off your plate.

When you’re about to see a considerable increase in demand for your food, the right dessert company will be able to craft as many high-quality batches of desserts as you need.

The Benefits of Using a Dessert Company

Now that we’ve discussed some of the business implications of partnering with a dessert company, let’s talk about the benefits you’ll get when you do. Honestly, we can only really speak for ourselves here; these tie into the principles we hold dear at Steven Charles, and it’s what our partners tell us they love the most about working with us.

Delight Your Customers

There’s nothing quite like a lovingly crafted dessert. It’s delicate. Beautiful. Most of all, it’s absolutely scrumptious. That sigh after the first bite is what lit our passion for desserts, and it’s why we see our work as more than just a smart business move (although it most certainly is!). Desserts, eccentric and classic alike, connect with people on a level other types of dishes rarely do. They’re the perfect way to cap off a meal surrounded by those we love. If your goal is to leave a lasting impression on your customers, a mind-blowing dessert is hard to beat.

Get a Competitive Edge

And not just any restaurant invests in its dessert menu (although almost everyone should). The business that goes the extra mile wants to give its patrons a holistic dining experience. Many restaurants are known for their dessert menu alone, and that’s enough to pull in new customers. If you want that X-factor — the thing that brings more feet in the door than the place down the street — make your desserts to die for.

Show Off Your Brand

We said earlier that a dessert company is more than just a supplier; they’re a partner as well. Marketing is more critical to a restaurant’s success than ever. That’s why we offer made-to-order white-label services to put your brand right on each dessert. It’s always exceptional, and it’s unquestionably yours. Since a dessert comes at the end of a customer’s meal, your brand will be the last thing they think of before they leave. Right before “Wow, that was incredible,” of course.

What to Look for in a Dessert Company

If you’re on the hunt for a new partner, we have a list of things you should look out for. Make sure you’re asking tough questions about each of these when shopping around — a failure in any of these pillars can lead to disasters for your business.

Taste

If it’s no good, why bother? Any reputable dessert company will give you the chance to sample every dessert you want to test out for your menu. Look for a balance of flavors and a variety in texture, temperature, and presentation between each dish. Uniqueness doesn’t make a dish taste good on its own, so you’ll want to do thorough taste-testing to make sure it’ll bring in repeat buyers.

Quality

Without a trained eye and taste buds, this can be a tough one to screen for. There are many aspects to a product’s quality: sourcing, the team’s experience level, quality assurance measures, and transportation considerations are just a few. Here are a few questions to ask when you meet with a dessert company’s representative:

• How and where do you source your ingredients?
• How much industry experience do you have on your team?
• What quality assurance measures do you have in place?
• How do you protect your products during transit?
• What areas do you deliver to?
• How quickly can you turn around an order?

Consistency

Here’s where you’ll need to get some outside opinions. Can they provide references and other clients who have experience with their track record? Any dessert company will say they’re consistent, but you don’t want to find it lacking after you’ve already signed a contract and changed the menu. Ask around and research the company’s reputation to better understand how it operates. It’s also important to ask the company’s representative about their quality control measures and how they keep each dish consistent for their clients.

Food Safety

This last one is the most important — protecting your customers’ health is critical. While it might seem like a given that every food service company keeps safety their top priority, it’s a topic you can’t afford to avoid.

Ask potential partners to walk you through how they keep their products safe, from ingredient storage to delivery. They should be able to give you step-by-step details for a given dish. When it comes to delivery, most dessert companies will deliver their products within a certain radius, but ask for clarity on their range. If the company uses a third-party service for product distribution, look into that business as well. Food safety truly is the most important pillar in a restaurant — you can’t be too careful.

How to Get Started With a Dessert Company

Partnering with a dessert company is the best way to boost sales while providing an unforgettable dining experience to your guests. And if you’re in the market, we’d love to talk to you.Steven Charles will work with your restaurant to deliver an unforgettable dining experience. We can help you grow your business and improve your operations. Our culinary innovators love designing incredibly delicious and memorable dessert menus, so take the first step toward dessert perfection. Get in touch.