Introduction
To speak of the menu of a food service is to speak of the fundamental basis of the establishment, since the success of the food service depends largely on the type, variety, flavor and quality of the dishes offered there.
For this reason, it is extremely important to have clarified the concepts of food service and style in order to define the menu.
Designing a menu is not only deciding what dishes to offer, but it involves more planning than that, since it includes from the costs of raw materials to the costs of salaries and other services.
This work summarizes the steps for a correct elaboration of a menu.
Development
The menu can be defined as the ratio of the different foods that make up a dish for a fixed price with limited possibility in choosing different dishes.
This word dates from the year 1717, since in the 15th century, in France, the “Escriteaux” began to be used, which were long lists of ingredients to prepare a dish and were intended for cooks. Menus began to be used in Paris before in the first restaurants and it is a derivation of the Latin “minutus” or small and they were already smaller lists.
The menus are usually prepared by the chefs in conjunction with the owners of the establishment.
At the beginning, when planning a food service, it is extremely important to be clear about the type of food that is going to be offered and from there start to prepare the menu. These styles could be like Mexican, Italian, Chinese food, etc. Defining the style of the dishes also defines the provision of utensils, equipment, furniture and raw materials, as well as the capital that needs to be invested, up to the design of the entire food service premises.
To have a correct menu, it is important to give a fair price to the dish that is offered and this price must be considered based on the costs of all the raw material that is used for the preparation and perform some calculations such as the sum of the costs of other services such as staff salaries, rent or other expenses that are generated to obtain the real price and this must be adjusted to the current state of the market in order to compete with other establishments. The price should not be at the discretion of each person but must carry out a whole costing process.
A characteristic of the menus is that they are divided and organized by sections such as entrees, desserts, drinks, salads, main dishes, etc. These sections are organized and differentiated by colors, type of letters and sometimes they are separately.
Within these categories we can include some subcategories that are more attractive to diners such as: our pasta, house specialty, fish, our stews.
To describe the dishes that are on the menu, it is important to give them a name that is either common or original and creative, and under that name a small description should be placed that encourages the diner to choose that dish.
When it comes to designing the menu, the colors, images and typeface should be in line with the style of the food service, since colors or letters outside the style of the service would be an indirect factor of choice.
Menus can be printed on paper and then laminated or lined with some type of waterproof plastic to protect them and avoid more menu printing costs.
As a rule, the name of the food service, the address or the telephone number must appear on the printed menus, indicating whether the dish corresponds to a breakfast or lunch.
To maintain the validity of the food service once the menu is already established, it is to create a different concept or one that is easily distinguished from the competition and that this concept allows prices to be adapted to those of the current market. Since location is also important to define the concept or style, it is not recommended to be so different. You have to make sure that the concepts that are being proposed are profitable and that they are in fashion like healthy fast food restaurants since there are times when such an innovative concept can be too much for potential customers. One piece of advice that can be given to food services is to give the dishes they prepare there easy to pronounce names so that people can get used to it more easily.
It is recommended to include real images of the dishes with an excellent presentation that awakens the customer's appetite, using colors such as red, orange or yellow to make them more attractive.
conclusion
Carrying out this work, we can see that the elaboration of a menu not only implies defining the concept or style of the food service, but we must also take into account the current state of the market.
Customers have the ability to decide which dish to order, although food service owners can persuade them to buy a certain dish using eye-catching images or colors to attract their attention.
References
- Steps to make a menu. Website. Accessed on June 6, 2015. Available at: http://www.menuspararestaurantes.com/pasos-para-disenar-el-menu/Hotelera Edith. Preparation of menu cards. Website. Published on May 11, 2014. Retrieved on June 6, 2015. Available at: http://es.slideshare.net/hoteleraedith/elaboracin-de-cartas-menShannen Huffington Davis. Menu engineering. Website. Published on September 17, 2010. Accessed on June 6, 2010. Available at:
