Plan and cost basic menus

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 Background history
Originally menus would have been written on a board like a chalkboard; known in
French as ‘carte’ which gives us the term ‘a la carte’ meaning ‘from the board’. Over
the years, a menu has also been known a ‘bill of fare’ meaning a list of dishes’

In the beginning, many dishes had specific names; many of these dishes are now world
famous and have come to represent a standard for those dishes. The dishes were often
named after places or famous people.
 
Examples:

• Beef Wellington.
• Lobster Thermidor.
• Crepe Suzette.
• Bomb Alaska.
• Steak Dianne.
• Tournedos Rossini.
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 Fusion - The term ‘Fusion’ is used to describe menus and dishes that use ingredients
and cooking styles from different parts of the world blended together to create a new
and exciting dish.

Ethnic menus - A large proportion of restaurants in Australia, are restaurants based

upon the cuisine of a particular country. i.e. Thai restaurants, Chinese restaurants,
Greek, Italian restaurants, Indian restaurants etc.

Regional menus - Many countries have large, diverse populations and diverse styles of
foods in different areas of the country.

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 Activity 1
You are required to write a list of seven well known regional dishes:
 
1. _____________________________Region _______________________________
 
2. _____________________________Region _______________________________
 
3. _____________________________Region ______________________________
 
4. _____________________________Region _______________________________
 
5. _____________________________Region _______________________________
 
6. _____________________________Region _______________________________
 
7. _____________________________Region _______________________________
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 Classical Menu vs Modern Menu
Menus and dining have changed a lot in Australia over the past 25 years. Dining
out was once done only for special occasions and was much more formal in its
nature. Many people in the hospitality industry say that we have now become a
‘café culture’ with people eating out much more often and dining in many cases
has become very casual.

Meals, entrées or desserts are sometimes now served in a tapas style of dining
where the customer chooses a number of small dishes and plates of food for the
table to share.

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 Type of venue
 
• Cost – A cheaper cost tends to indicate a more casual venue and a less
complicated food style. An expensive cost tends to indicate a more formal
venue and a more complex food style.
• Location – The location of a venue can give customers a particular
expectation of the venue and the food. A restaurant that is part of a five-star
hotel in the city creates different customer expectations to an outer suburban
restaurant.
• Reputation – The reputation of a venue creates an expectation as to the type
of food on the menu, the standard of service and the ambience of the dining
room.
• Menu – The style of menu offered.

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 Type of venue
 
• Cuisine – Venues become known for the type of food that they serve. A fine
dining restaurant might be expected to have a 14 course degustation menu,
while a café is expected to serve a good breakfast.
• Chef – We now have ‘celebrity’ chefs running multiple restaurants, and this
creates an expectation as to the type of food that the restaurant serves, the
standard of the food and the experience the customer will enjoy.

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 Customer profile
Types of customers:
 
•Tourists
•Families
•Business people
•People celebrating an occasion
•Wedding couples
•Private functions
•Hungry
•High income

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 Local area
A menu will also need to take into account your local area and the type of people
in that local area. This may include demographics such as:
 
• religious groups
• age groups
• students
• ethnic groups
• athletes
• tourists
• high income/low income
• locals/regulars

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 Activity 2

Use your workplace or other food business in your area as an example. Briefly
detail the profile of the venue and the venues customers:

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 Types of Menus
Table d’hôte menu: This type of menu is commonly used for functions as it
provides a set price per person, and the limited menu enables fast service from the
kitchen.

A la Carte menu: An A La Carte menu is a larger menu giving the customer a

larger choice than a table d’hôte menu.

Banquet menu: Many banquet menus are in fact table d’hôte menus, however,
often the guests are not given a choice of dishes.

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 Types of Menus

Buffet Menu: A buffet is a type of service where the food is presented on a large
table and guests serve themselves food from the buffet table before sitting at their
dining table.

Degustation menu: A degustation menu is a menu of many small courses of the

chef or venue’s signature or seasonal dishes.

Sharing menu: There is quite a popular modern trend towards a sharing style of
eating rather than each customer at the table ordering their own personal dishes.

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 Activity 3

Give two examples of venues in your area that offer degustation menus:

1_________________________________________________________________

_________________________________________________________________

2_________________________________________________________________

_________________________________________________________________

Give two examples of venues in your area that offer Table d ‘hote menus:

1_________________________________________________________________

_________________________________________________________________

2_________________________________________________________________
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 Specials board
This can serve a number of purposes such as:
 
• To add extra variety to the dishes being offered to the customer.
• To try new dishes and see how they go in terms of popularity and the ability of
the kitchen to produce that dish.
• To make use of ingredients that are fresh in season right now and may only be
available for a short period.
• To make use of ingredients that the chef has only been able to obtain a limited
supply of and cannot be made a part of the regular menu.
• Chefs can use a special board to steer customers to dishes they want to sell for
various reasons
• To add a special dish associated with a theme or special event.

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 Develop cyclic menus
• Mix up the menu, don’t be too predictable, avoid fish every Friday and a
roast every Sunday
• Cater to the demographic of people you have in the institution,
• Offer choice not just one standard meal for all.
• Consult a dietician on the nutritional balance of the menu and ensure it meets
the needs of the demographic of clients you have.
• Budget the menu to ensure it meets the food cost targets.
• Have a feedback and consultation mechanism in place to allow input from the
clients
• Review the menu operation and make adjustments if necessary after one
cycle.

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 Expert help
Dieticians
 
A Dietician is an expert in food and nutrition who advises on diet and nutrition
related matters.

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 Generate a range of ideas
Chefs use a number of sources to help generate ideas including:
 
• their personal experience
• cookbooks
• magazines
• local ingredients
• seasonal ingredients
• other restaurants / venues and menus
• popular market trends
• TV food / cooking shows
• customer requests
• previous sales data

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 Brainstorming
Brainstorming is a well known creative process that involves a group of people
discussing new ideas and solutions to problems. Kitchens use brainstorming for
developing new dishes and menu items.

Purchasing balance
When developing a menu, we also need to consider the wastage of food.

Past menus
Look at past menus from the venue for ideas.

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 Seasonal produce
Using seasonal ingredients gives the advantage that the ingredient is at its best and
usually also at its cheapest.

Local produce
Many venues are now making a greater effort to source food and products that are
produced in their local area and they use these as part of the narrative or story of the
venue.

Food miles
A ‘Food mile’ is the distance the food has been transported to reach the consumer.

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 Menu length
• The cost to maintain each dish on the menu.
• Availability of ingredients.
• The skill of the cooks and chefs preparing the food.
• Available equipment.
• Time available to prepare ingredients.
• Your type of customers.
• Religious or special dietary needs of customers.

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 Menu balance
• Have vegetarian options.
• Have gluten free options.
• Have healthy options.
• Avoid being dominated by one ingredient
• Avoid repetition of the same flavours
• Have some dishes which are old favourites and some dishes that are new and
interesting.
• Don’t put pork and bacon products in every dish as some people do not eat pork
products.
• Use a variety of cooking methods
• Avoid desserts being dominated by all fruit or all cream.
• Use a variety of spices

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 Mise en Place
In cooking, the term is used to describe the preparation that is performed before
starting the actual cooking process.

A cook will refer to the standard recipes for instructions of how to prepare the mis en
place and will refer to ‘par stock levels’ for how many portions to prepare. Par stock
levels give an indication from previous experience how many portions of an item the
cook thinks they will sell plus a bit extra.

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 Standard recipe cards
A standard recipe card forms the basis of a kitchen quality control program. It helps
ensure that each cook prepares each dish in the same way, giving a consistency of
flavour and presentation.

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 Yield testing
A yield test allows you to calculate:
 
• The real cost of the usable portions, compared to the purchase price of the whole
food item.
• The weight of the whole food item you need to buy, to obtain sufficient useable
portions for catering purposes.
 
It may be sufficient to carry out only one yield test for each type of food, because the
percentage of useable portions remains fairly constant. The information gained from
one yield test can then be used when ordering and preparing future supplies of that
food.

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 Calculating yields
 
The following procedure will help you to calculate the yield of a vegetable:
 
• Weigh the whole vegetable.
• Record the weight on a yield test sheet.
• Peel, core, trim or pare the vegetable and remove any inedible parts.
• Weigh the cleaned vegetable and record the weight.
• Weigh all trimmings and record their weight.

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 Activity 4
 
Calculate the yield % for the following foods:
 
Item tested: Iceberg lettuce
Original weight: 1.20.kg
Yield prepared weight: 0.80 kg
 
Item tested: Pumpkin
Original weight: 4.20 kg
Yield prepared weight: 3.30 kg
 
Item tested: Zucchini
Original weight: 2.0 kg
Yield prepared weight: 1.85 kg
 
Item tested: Potato
Original weight: 2.0 kg
Yield prepared weight: 1.7 kg

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 Food Cost
The food cost of a menu item expressed on a per dish basis, this is very important
when making a menu. A chef usually needs to calculate the food cost for each dish to
ensure the dish has been priced on the menu to allow for the cost of food, labour,
businesses expenses and profit.
 

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 Food cost recipe
To calculate the food cost of a recipe you need to add up all the cost of the
ingredients and then divide by the number of portions you get from that recipe.

Food cost percentage

To calculate the food cost % of a recipe we also need to know the selling price on the
menu.

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 Food Cost % - venue
Opening stock + Purchases – Closing stock = COGS
 
COGS 100
_______ x ________ = Food cost %

Sales 1

This % will vary from venue to venue, but it would be fair to say that a target of 25
to 30 % would be very common.

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 Choose menu items
•Popularity.
•Balance.
•Profitability.
•Season.
•Ingredient availability.
•Theme.
•Skill.
•Equipment.
•Time.
•Special needs.

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 Activity 5
Give one example of a dish that is highly labour intensive to prepare

Give one example of a dish that takes less labour to prepare

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 Pricing menu items

•Labour costs.

•Location.

•Capacity.

•Percentage.

•Mark up.

•Business expenses.

•Extra services.

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 Menu food costing
 
Food costings can also be made from a menu point of view, rather than a dish point
of view. Food costings from a menu point of view are suitable and useful for when
there is a set or limited menu choice for the customers and often a set food cost
budget to stick to.

•A la carte
•Cyclic menu
•Seasonal menu
•Set menu
•Table d’hote menu
•Degustation menus
•Ethnic menus
•Buffet menus

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 Activity 6
Choose one food business in your area and look at their menu and their pricing.
Have a think about why they price menu items the way they do and briefly explain
your thoughts on their reasons for pricing the way they do. Name the venue and give
pricing examples.

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 Menu ‘language’
In Australia, almost all menus are written in English, however many restaurants do
use foreign terms on the menu. An Italian restaurant, may use Italian terms and a
French restaurant may use French terms.

If a region or specific brand is described on the menu, it is imperative that it is an

accurate description.

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 Dietary requirements
Dietary requirements are now mainstream and need to be taken into account during
the construction of a menu and when the describing dishes on a menu.
There are common menu codes and descriptions that are used on many menus to help
identify dishes that are suitable for guests with special dietary requirements.

•GF – Gluten free.

•GFO – Gluten free option, this dish can be served gluten free, but the guest must
ask for this dish to be gluten free.
•V – Vegetarian.
•VO – Vegetarian option, this dish can be served vegetarian, but the guest must ask
for this dish to be vegetarian.
•VG – Vegan.
•DF – Diary free.
•RSF – Refined sugar free.

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 Popularity Index
Looking at what menu items have been sold in the past gives a chef a good indication
as to the type of menu items that are popular at that venue and can help a chef
develop new menu items that are similar to popular current menu items.

Number of particular dish sold 100

________________________ x ------------ = Popularity Index %
 
Total number of dishes sold 1

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 Poor selling menu items
The larger the menu the more poorer selling items you will have and the more time
and food you waste. Chefs need to identify poor selling items and remove them from
the menu or have the menu designed in such a way that food does not just sit there
waiting to be sold.

Customer feedback
• A waiter may get frequent requests for gluten free food.
• A waiter may get frequent requests for meals or desserts that do not contain nuts.
• Customers don’t seem to like the mango sauce.
• Customers think the duck portions are too small.
• Customers think the food is too spicy.

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 Collecting customer feedback
Formal feedback may include:
 
• Written customer surveys.
• Using the services of a research company.
• Using focus groups answering questions.
• Using statistics of sales and customers.
• Guest feedback forms.
 

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 Collecting customer feedback
Informal feedback may include:
 
• Talking to customers.
• Talking to staff.
• Talking to other people in the hospitality business.
• Reading industry magazines.
• Going to other hospitality businesses.
• Making notes of customer preferences.
• Social media.

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 Social media
Many venues now have social media accounts such as Facebook, Twitter and
Instagram and are featured on websites, such as Booking.com or TripAdvisor.

Because these are interactive sites where both the business and the public can make
comments, these sites can be a good source of customer feedback about your menu
and the venue as a whole.

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 Adjust menus
Ideally menu items should be:
 
•Popular.
•Profitable.
•Are interesting to the customers.
•Balanced with other items on the menu.
•Make use of ingredients that are in season and therefore high quality and cheaper.
•Suit the theme of the venue.
•Be made from ingredients that have a secure supply.
•Be of a type that suits the kitchen labour costs.
•Be of a type that suits the skills of the kitchen team.
•Be of a type that suits the equipment available in the kitchen.
•Are able to be priced to suit the market that the business operates in.

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 These PowerPoints are designed to match
Version 1 of the student resource.

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