I wanted to share the results of our recent Asian Food Fest event that we cooked for.

Profit

The Breeze cooked 13 racks of ribs in one batch. Each rack made on average of 5.5 servings (about two bones). We sold each serving for $5, giving us $27 per rack in revenue.

We ordered the ribs from our local Kroger at $3.99, which was retail price. Each rack averaged about 2.75 pounds, or $11 per rack. We used about $20 of wood and charcoal per batch, or $1.50 per rack. Total cost per rack: $12.50.

So our profit was $27-$12.50=$14.50 per rack. We sold 50 racks in 4 hours, netting us $725 over 4 hours.

What went well

Using Yeti coolers to store hot ribs. Nathan got us some top of the line Yeti Tundra Team Coolers
(they were similar to the Breeze… so well insulated it kept a perfect temp!). We used the coolers as warmers, and they worked really well. In fact, when taking ribs out of the cooler, you had to be careful to step back so you didn’t get hit by the blast of hot air.

The Breeze. This is a given, but the Breeze held a perfect temperature. We only tweaked the damper maybe 3-4 times over the two days. Nathan refilled the wood/charcoal chute a few times without getting his hands dirty, and emptied the ash try on the fly. The Breeze just kept chugging away, making perfect ribs every time. As I mentioned before, the ribs were a big hit at the festival.

Improvements for next time

Buy ribs wholesale. I’m sure we could’ve gotten a better deal buying wholesale, and probably would’ve gotten higher quality ribs. The ribs we got were inconsistent, some were meaty and some were lean. There were also a fair number that had a lot of fat in it.

Cook more ribs! We guessed that we could’ve sold 3 to 4 times more ribs than we cooked. We could’ve had the unit going constantly overnight.

Have a second Breeze unit. We didn’t expect to sell out so fast, and our second unit was in the shop getting some tweaks added to it. Needed to get it ready because we’re lending it to a competition team next week! That would’ve doubled our capacity.

We’re guessing we could’ve made $2100-$2800 worth of profit over two days of cooking. Not a bad payout. This got us thinking we should have some units available for rental for people to cook at outdoor events like this one.

That’s about all I can think of. Please feel free to contact us or comment if you have additional questions!