Intro to Food

1
Intro to Food Beverage

• Chapter 6
• The Menu

2
What Youll Learn
Vary by Type of Operation

• Menu pricing styles
• Menu schedules
• Differences in menu day-parts
• Specialty menus
• Menu planning, design, and evaluation
• Pre/Post Menu Costing
• Menu engineering software

3
Menu Pricing Styles Schedules

• Menu Styles
• Table dhôte (also known as prix fixe)
• Complete meal for one price
• À la carte
• Menu items are listed and priced separately
• Combination
• Combine the Table dhôte and À la carte styles
• Menu Schedules
• Fixed menu
• A single menu used daily for a period of time
• Cycle menu
• A series of limited choice menus designed to
  provide variety

Non-Commercial Menus
4
Types of Menus

• Breakfast
• Simple, fast, inexpensive
• Lunch
• Easy, quick!, variety, less filling, smaller
  portions
• Dinner
• More elaborate, leisurely, include alcohol,
  desserts
• Specialty
• Childrens, Senior, Alcohol, Wine, Dessert, Room
  Service, Take-Out, Banquet, California, Ethnic

5
Menu Planning

• When planning your menu
• Know your guests
• What do they want to eat?
• What are they willing to pay?
• Who are they?
• Know your quality requirementsFlavor
• Consistency
• Texture
• Form/shape
• Nutritional content
• Visual and aromatic appeal
• Temperature

Who Plans The Menu?
6
Know your operation Theme, Cuisine, Cost,
Availability of Ingredients, Equipment,
Personnel, Volume, Sanitation, Layout
Sources for Menu Item Recipes

• Old menus
• Professional cookbooks
• Trade magazines
• Consumer cookbooks
• The Internet

7
Selecting Menu Items

• Typical Menu Categoriesorder of selection
• Entrées
• Menu core, consider preparation
• Appetizers and soups
• Number and variety
• Starches (potatoes, rice, breads) and vegetables
• Menu type, holding quality
• Salads
• Side dish or entrée?
• Desserts
• High profit, consider health-conscious
• Beverages
• Alcohol, non-alcoholic, wine consider your image

Cross Utilization!
8
Balance

• Review the menu for balance
• Business balance relationship between
• Food costs
• Selling prices
• Popularity
• Financial and marketing considerations
• Aesthetic balance foods should have appealing
• Colors
• Textures
• Flavors
• Nutritional balance
• Well balanced
• Health-conscious

9
Menu Design

• When designing a menu, consider
• Menu copy
• Headings major heads, sub-heads, menu items
• Descriptive copy appealing description of the
  items
• Supplemental merchandising location, payment
  methods, history
• Layout
• Sequence order popularity and profitability
• Placement appealing, white space
• Format size, shape, general make-up
• Typeface readable consider your style
• Artwork photos, drawings, etc
• Paper textured, gloss, opacity, color, coating
• Cover
• Simple communicates image, style, cuisine,
  pricing

Truth in Menu
10
Truth-in-Menu Considerations

• Grading
• Freshness claims
• Geographical origin
• Preparation
• Dietary or nutrition claims
• Portion sizes

11
Common Mistakes

• Menu is too small
• Typeface is too small
• Inadequate descriptive copy
• Every item is treated the same
• Missing items
• Clip on problems
• Basic property information is missing
• Blank pages

12
Evaluating a Menu

• Set goals for the menusuch as
• Guest check average
• Menu item sales
• Goals not met, identify the problem
• Not meeting standards
• No up-selling
• Etc
• Review sales history
• Production records
• Sales history reports
• Menu engineering popularity and profitability
  of each item

Menu Rating Forms
13
Menu Management Software

• Computer programs that help
• Plan, price, and evaluate menus
• Pre-cost menus
• Analyze a menus profitability and recommend
  changes before menu is produced (increased price,
  reduced portions, etc)
• Post-cost menus
• Analyzes menus based on actual sales
• Creates Ideal Food Costs
• Engineer menus
• Processes menu mix contribution margin for each
  item

14
Menu Mix

• Relates the sales of a particular menu item to
  the total number of items sold.
• Classifies menu items
• Stars
• High in popularity and contribution margin
• Plowhorses
• High in popularity, low in contribution margin
• Puzzles
• Low in popularity, high in contribution margin
• Dogs
• Low in popularity and contribution margin

Contribution Margin Food Cost - Selling Price
15
Quick Question

• When reengineering a menu, designers are most
  likely to
• Keep stars
• Remove puzzles
• Reposition dogs
• Reprice stars

Answer A
16
Quick Question

• After studying her menu, Malia decides to order a
  dinner that includes a garden salad, veal cutlet
  entrée with green beans, and a baked potato.
  Malia is most likely ordering from a(n)
• Cycle menu
• À la carte menu
• Prix fixe menu
• Table dhôte menu

Answer D
17
Quick Question

• Which of the following statements about menus is
  true
• The name of the restaurant is usually all the
  copy the menu cover needs
• Menu items should be listed on the menu in such a
  way that none of them stands out from the others
• Dinner menu items should be simple, quick, and
  inexpensive
• A menus back cover should be blank

Answer A
18
What You Know

• What are the three basic menu pricing styles?
• What is a fixed menu? A cycle menu?
• What are the three rules of menu planning?
• How should a menu be balanced?
• What is included in menu copy?
• What are some common menu-design mistakes?
• When evaluating a menu, what are the four
  classifications of menu items?