The Cheesecake Factory has 2.5% food waste [0] compared to 4 - 10% in the rest of the industry [1].

[0] https://aviyer2010.com/2012/09/05/the-cheesecake-factory-and... [1] https://www.upkeep.com/learning/how-to-calculate-restaurant-...

This tends to be true. But not in this case.

In an industry with famously low margins, wasting food is literally throwing away cash.

The bigger your throughput is the less food gets wasted because the variance of food needed for a day decreases. One restaurant with a big menu would be more efficient than two smaller restaurants with smaller menu.