Two major food distributors here say they've stepped up efforts to help their recession-pinched customers operate more efficiently, including by using in-house chefs to help them come up with new, economical menu items.

The distributors, Sysco Spokane Inc. and Food Services of America, both for years have offered various tools to their customers to aid them in areas such as managing food and labor costs, marketing, and developing new menu options. They say, though, that the tighter margins those customers have been enduring recently due to rising food and gas prices have spurred them to put an even greater emphasis on such services.

Sysco Spokane distributes food products across Eastern Washington and North Idaho to restaurants, hotels, hospitals, schools, caterers, and other businesses that prepare food. The company offers its customers a variety of consultation services through its business-resources department. That department's goal is to assist its customers in all aspects of running a food-oriented business.

Food Services of America's Spokane warehouse also offers its customers such assistance, says Scott Cohen, its business solutions director.

"It's based on the need of the customers," and therefore requires a custom approach, Cohen says. "So if they want to increase the number of patrons in their restaurant, we work on that."

Among their services, both distributors have in-house chefs whose role is to help customers come up with new menu ideas and seasonal dishes, depending on when certain ingredients are more available that could cost less to prepare.

"If produce prices are high, we look at what alternatives we can help (a customer) with to give them a profit and offer a different item that's outside of the box a little bit," says Kristen Backsen, Sysco's business review manager.

Less than a year ago, Sysco hired Chef Alexa Wilson, a 23-year veteran of the restaurant industry, to aid its customers in effectively using the products they order from the distributor. Wilson's resume includes serving as executive chef at Prospectors Bar & Grill and Wild Sage American Bistro, among other Spokane-area eateries.

One of Wilson's main roles is helping Sysco's customers come up with new menu ideas, as well as helping them lay out a menu effectively to highlight their most popular or profitable dishes, which is referred to in the industry as menu engineering.

"When you walk into a restaurant, their most valuable tool is their menu," she says. "Menu engineering takes into consideration people's thought process when they are looking at a page, and our goal is to make sure (the restaurant's) most profitable item is the most often chosen."

She says that in the food industry, what's considered a highly successful restaurant will have a profit of between five and seven cents of every dollar spent there by patrons. Yet, she says that many restaurants haven't changed their prices in recent years to reflect inflation and rising operating costs, and thus could be losing money.

"It's a small margin of profit, and it's impacted (restaurants) more and more by not changing menu prices," she says.

Food prices currently are the highest they've been in 20 years, Wilson contends, and she says that when consulting with one of Sysco's restaurant customers, she encourages them to review their menu at least on a quarterly basis.

Wilson adds that Sysco's business-resources department also helps its customers utilize social media and other Internet tools, such as blogging and website planning, to promote their business.

"We encourage them to use the Internet, which can be huge not just to put out discounts, but to explain to the general public who they are and to create an identity," she says.

Sysco's business-resources department has been available to its customers for about eight years, says Mike Porter, the department's director.

"We want to be more to them than just ordering and dropping off groceries," Porter says. "They struggle every day pricing things and generating profits."

He says that all of Sysco's warehouses in the U.S. have a business-resources department, but that hiring an experienced chef to work directly with its customer is a newer concept for the company.

Sysco offers its customers what it calls business resources profitability workshops that take place at its Post Falls headquarters. Backsen says that the workshops are tailored to the customer's needs and to address any concerns they may be having.

Before a workshop, she and Wilson say the business resources department spends time researching the business in one of a number of ways to prepare for the meeting.

"That could be going there and eating there, meeting their chefs and owners, and looking at reports of what they've historically purchased," Wilson says.

Backsen says that most of Sysco's customers' workshops average about two hours.

Food Services of America's Cohen says it's had a chef available to work with its customers for almost 20 years, but that its business-services department is a fairly new concept and was created by consolidating other departments into one during the last two and a half years.

"A lot of broad-line distributors provide additional services besides selling food," Cohen says. "The reason for that is to help them be successful in this economic climate. We are trying to be more of a resource for them, especially the independent operators."

Wilson says she believes that her years of experience working as a restaurant chef greatly benefits Sysco's customers because she's ordered and worked with the products in a kitchen.

"My knowledge is what happens to the product when it comes out of the can and how it will perform in the kitchen, and more importantly, will the customer be able to make money with that product," she says. "The idea of having a food geek in this room is fairly new; it's changed the perspective."