How can you use problem solving skills to create a better restaurant menu?

Know your audience, know what your team does best and whatever you do, do it better than your competitors! Tasteful design, Cool presentations, Studied cost calculations and menu engineering.

This will definitely help us to come to a conclusion to make a menu to satisfy our guests and will definitely give us comfortable revenue

What I have found to be helpful is knowing what is around you demographic-wise, and not only that, you need to test menu items that work and don't work. To accomplish that, you need to look at what sells and what doesn't. Another thing that helps is receiving feedback, whether it's from a guest or servers.

I Absolutely agreed with the example. My Opinion is: As we know it is generally in different hotels and restaurants that when the guests/Customer they give negative feedback mostly associates they say the guest/customer x he/she is complaining about this and this... Actually it's not a complaint it is an opportunity to the firms/ organizations or companies to know what the guests need that will help the company (hotel or restaurant) to design the right menu to their customers.

Have a clear idea of what demographic you want to serve, what kind of service are you offering to them, ask yourself how revenue and profit are built based out of these choices. Once these decisions are made, ask yourself how to add value to your “product”, keep it focused, don’t detract from your plan is. Stay relevant. You can make money selling wine and a distinguished dinner or a bunch of sandwiches with beers. But hardly you will be able to do both. Get a lease that is relevant to your objective.

One thing I have found helpful is incorporating the same ingredient across your menu items. This helps to reduce food cost and waste as you navigate inventory and see how you can negotiate pricing when you are buying in bigger quantities.

One very practical thing here is looking deeper into the status quo, ideal status and/or competition. Analysis is better achieved through extensive research. Variables of research and analysis for a better menu would be availability of ingredients, target market preferences, best pricing in the market and intended profitability or image among others.

The commodities and futures market should be a class for all restaurant owners. Especially nowadays where food supply and food chain dynamics have changed drastically.

Those are the foundational approaches to operational basics. But to maximize the profit margin of a dish, a Smart Chef will simply set a budget for his menu ingredients, and work magic by sourcing outside the box! Sticking to schematics in this industry will sink a ship quicker than key drop purveyors. Being able to do your own sourcing, whether from local independent markets or “Pooling” with fellow Chefs from other restaurants, can create a big margin of profit for that day Donald Trump has a reservation in house!

It all boils down to money at the end of the day. Gone are the times of low prices and now eggs are madly expensive. There has to be a line drawn as to where we're comfortable as an establishment to say that yes we're going to collectively try to curb costs to maximize profits. When it comes to costing a menu, as much as we would love the absolute best ingredients, we may not be able to afford them. This is where rotation of ingredients and sourcing of cheaper, fresher items that would not typically have a long shelf life. These are your backbone. Buy low and sell reasonably high!

La passion permet de reproduire les gestes des dizaines puis des centaines de fois, afin d'affiner, de perfectionner sa recette jusqu'à ce qu'elle soit équilibré en saveur et en texture pour une expérience de dégustation unique. On devient alors capable de reproduire la même recette, à l'infini à l'identique en utilisant tout ses sens. La cuisine devient alors un art pour celui qui s'en donne les moyens.

Step 3 should come before step two! Why would you stock a restaurant with product you may not use based off public perception? You wouldn’t. You utilize budgeted costs for “Menu Research/Development, and incorporate into costs of Training and Development for Launch Day.” In regular operations of successful Fine Dining or even Upscale Formal, Crew Meetings are held before each service to taste and review chefs specials, created to introduce a customer to fresh alternative choices that will or won’t be included in menu improvements. Then you source your ingredients, factor labor, and operational costs, into the mix for pricing that isn’t a shock to the customer you just retained from Joes Crap Shack charging $10 less for twice the dish!

Muscle memory dictates that if you do it a handful of times, you'll be able to do I a million times. In turn you will also get better and refine what you do as you repeat the process over and over again until you get it where you want it to be.

No hay que ser tímido a la hora de experimentar en la cocina, se realista y trabaja con lo que tienes, no intentes crear algo que suponga demasiados ingredientes nuevos a añadir a tu ya sobrecargada despensa, si es algo que te gusta y piensas que funcionará, dalo a probar, pero ten en mente que deberás sustituirlo por algo ya existente en la carta y que no esté funcionando. Esto va a favorecer muchos aspectos, a cualquier cocinero se le cambia la cara cada vez que ve ese bote de alguna salsa que usa solo para un plato en particular, que no sale nunca y que ocupa un espacio que podría usar para optimizar y reorganizar espacios. Dale herramientas y espacio a tu chef, el/ella sabrá compemsarte con creces.

Todas la recetas deben estar estandarizadas, pero hay que estar capacitado para adaptarse a la calidad de algunos ingredientes que pueden variar según la época del año, las frutas no son todo el año de la misma calidad, y muchas hortalizas tampoco lo son. Tener un chef capacitado para que sepa cómo mejorar ciertas preparaciones para conseguir un mejor resultado es fundamental. Yo prefiero usar el cambio de carta para probar nuevas recetas y redondearlas con tiempo para estar seguro de que es lo que quiero vender. Eh participado en la muestra de los cambios de carta al personal del salón y ver de ellos sus opiniones ya que ellos conocen más a nuestros clientes

I went to a restaurant that had made changes to their menu based on customer feedback and current trends. The menu had a good mix of classic dishes and modern takes on traditional cuisine. The server was very knowledgeable and offered suggestions based on my dietary needs. The restaurant had a suggestion box, which I used to leave a positive comment about my meal. I was surprised when the manager came to thank me for my feedback and asked for suggestions for new menu items. In conclusion, it's great to see a restaurant that takes customer feedback seriously and uses it to create a better dining experience. Overall, this was a positive dining experience, and I look forward to visiting this restaurant again.

Adaptation is a constant in the restaurant industry, and it's extremely important to continuously improve your menus while staying on trend. You can do this by harnessing the power of social media an community building. This is a potent strategy for keeping restaurant menus on trend through continuous customer feedback. Begin by cultivating an engaged online community around your brand across platforms like Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter. Encourage followers to share their dining experiences and preferences, creating a dialogue that extends beyond the physical walls of the restaurant. Leverage polls, surveys, and interactive content to directly solicit input on menu items, flavors, and culinary trends.

la tendance à la malbouf se change en snacking de luxe et de qualité. Malgres tout, le bio, le végétal devient et restera quand même un acteur important et incontournable pour composer nos menus dans le futur.

Que nada te maldiga tan fuerte como para que cierres la mente al cambio, y que nada salga tan mal nunca como para que tengas que minusvalorar tus ideales. Escucha atentamente cualquier comentario sobre tus platos, no significa que hagas cambios cada vez que alguien se queje o haga una sugerencia, lo cierto es que hay muchos clientes que no tienen nada mejor que hacer, pero la mayoría deben ser escuchados, aunque no sean expertos y no sepan formular una sugerencia o crítica de forma constructiva. Se muy observador, la cara y los gestos de tu público general es mucho más exclarecedora que los 4 que no tienen miedo a ofender con sus palabras, pregunta de forma activa si les gusta, y si hay algo que se pueda mejorar.

Escuchar al cliente es fundamental, para poder convertir un error (si lo hubiese) en una oportunidad de sorprender y afianzarlo, hay que estar abierto a las nuevas tendencias pero en mi opinión sin perder nuestra esencia, la gastronomía evoluciona y nosotros debemos evolucionar con ella para no quedarnos en el tiempo. Personalmente una forma de escuchar a los clientes es con las encuestas que mencioné anteriormente, que el personal del salón siempre este a la expectativa y pregunté por cómo fue su experiencia en nuestro establecimiento. Me gusta la cocina de autor y la cocina clásica, pero está se puede fusionar con técnicas e ingredientes de la cocina actual. No creo que esté mal seguir a los que están a la vanguardia.

Less is more. More or less. With less options comes more refinement of existing dishes. Trying to be something for everyone only confuses the vision. We aren’t for everyone creates an approach that is special and easier to appreciate on a personal level.

The menu needs to be attractive to your guests - but almost important as that is the complexity you have in your kitchen. How can you offer a versatile menu while keeping stock and workload for your staff at a minimum. A good example is Burger on the menu. It is quite easy to offer a huge variety with a set of basic ingredients. As vegan becomes more important, make sure that e.g. bun and sauces are vegan and can be used for meat and non-meat recipes so that you just need to change a few ingredients. Additionally make sure not to make the recipe too complex.

Se extiende irremediablemente la tendencia a alargar los nombres de los platos, un arma útil pero de doble filo, ya hemos mencionado antes que deberías enfocar tu negocio a un tipo de clientela, en algunos casos, tu público, lejos de apreciar la complejidad y el esfuerzo en estos nombres tan glamurosos, se van a sentir abrumados! Todo se percibe apetecible y llamativo, nada destaca, nada parece ser mejor o peor que cualquier otra cosa; de nuevo, puedes ser fiel a tus ideales y mantener este estilo, pero se observador, ayuda a tu cliente, hazle recomendaciones, al fin y al cabo es parte de tu trabajo ser su apoyo y guía, tiene que ser una experiencia positiva, no un tormento mental. Pregunta sus preferencias y aconseja en función a éstas.

Keep it simple, customers become overwhelmed with too many options, and in the end, they always choose the same thing. You must constantly evaluate your product mix, this allows you not only to make your operation efficient but also to train personnel faster. This action optimizes your inventories and reduces the product losses that you must have, but that do not have rotation. Experiment with In & Outs, that allow you to generate novelty but do not require major changes in your operation and supply chain.

Managing revenue and profit is the same as managing storage and space. Have a menu with enough components that will make it interesting, but no more that will make is unprofitable or impossible to manage inventory. Keep it fresh!

Les menus doivent changer au fils des saisons. De la tendance du moment. Cela permet à la fois que le convive ne se lasse pas, mais également de sortir de notre zone de confort et de rester en alerte

Keep analyzing your data, if your stuff is not selling, don’t waste your time making it. Make sure your menu is being relevant to your target audience. Keep it fresh.

The process of menu engineering encompasses all of the necessary systems to optimize a menus profitability while simultaneously keeping it current to culinary trends that appeal specifically to your customer base. This process tracks and identifies your high selling menu items in comparison to your highest profiting menu items. Menu items are placed into four categories based on high profit/low profit, high selling/low selling. Each category requires different actions for each item. Whether price increases need to be evaluated for high selling items with little profit or low selling and low profit items be taken off and replaced with items more aligned with your high selling items. Highest selling items need to be the highest profiting.

The same way different fruits and vegetables are available to a specific season, so should a menu. The main problem we face is that we do not have any innovators anymore because 80% of chefs are not really given the freedom to express themselves. Others include profitability issues where certain dishes are no longer making numerical sense for production. Availability of ingredients also comes into play and this does drive the cost up.

El cambio siempre es bueno. "Quien se llevó mi queso" lo explica muy bien. Anteriormente explique que el cambio estacional es propicio para el cambio de menú, me ha pasado enamorarme de algún plato pero que no funcionaba en el restaurant, hay que entender que cocinamos para agasajar, y muchas veces no todos nuestros platos van a ser apreciados como nos gustaría. Que no nos desanime eso, reinventemos el plato o dejémoslo para otro momento, que no sea un gasto de materia prima que no se vende.

It’s very important to have buy in from both FOH and BOH. Chefs should listen to the foh based on feedback from the guests. The foh should understand what the boh is trying to do through their food offerings. All parties must have open minds.

Pastry is a science. Understanding food reactions as well as cause and effect, when developing your skills will take you a long way. Try your best to not lean so much on products and other food stuffs that shortcut your path to your final dish. Develop your scratch skills and your knowledge depth of what single raw ingredients can do and can’t do. With that being said, certainly you have to use products to feed the masses for banquets and events. For creative and quality restaurant desserts is where you can really exercise and develop these skills that will continually payoff in your career

El personal motivado es fundamental. Si el personal está motivado y creamos un ambiente de creatividad y confianza ellos mismos harán que tú restaurant marque la diferencia. Me pasó estar trabajando en ambientes sumamente creativos y pensaba que no estaría a la altura, pero al tiempo me encontré entusiasmado a probar cosas nuevas y las personas creativas apoyan a crear, no ponen freno a quien quiere aprender. Si encuentras a alguien que frena la creatividad en tú restaurant quizás pienses que no sea un buen elemento. Alientalo para que disfrute la gastronomía y sea creativo. Te sorprenderás y el se sorprendería de si mismo.

I've always valued the importance of conducting market research. Not solely for the purpose of differentiating your menu offerings, but most importantly to maximize profit by ensuring that you are not leaving money on the table. If everyone around you is getting $15 for a dish, don't charge $10 for yours just because that price hits your ideal food cost. Get $15 if that's fair market value for what you are serving. Underpricing your menu can also send the wrong message to consumers. You might be serving a high quality product, but potential diners might assume that your product is subpar if it's priced below their expectation....

Agreed, I always looked at FOH and BOH staff as a married couple coming together for greater good of the children. The guests.