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When thinking about foods to put on your menu, what factors do you take into account?
When thinking about foods to put on your menu, what factors do you take into account?
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Robert’s Answer
Szarelle,
I apologize for the lead time,
your question "When thinking about foods to put on your menu, what factors do you take into account"?
Creating a menu has a lot of different facets included.
1. The area or location of your restaurant & What is the market value, and what are the trends showing?
Meaning, is your restaurant located in New England or California?
In New England or California, one would have great resources for fresh seafood (shellfish for example). In those areas you need to know the prices of the products and what the quality of the seafood may be. Sysco food service and most food services have a market trend report that will give you knowledge of not only the product, but its availability as well. So, if you were seeking 8-ounce cold water lobster tails, and saw that they were in high demand, you would not want them since they would be high in price. The same goes for produce, if you were looking at buying fresh broccoli and saw that the product had the global fresh broccoli market was anticipated to rise considerably within a time frame, you would want to stay away from the product, however, you may be able to go for a frozen variety, but you also may need to see what the quality and the price is.
2. Would you be able to use that product in other recipes on your menu? Cross utilization of a product will save you money overall.
3. What do the customers want? In a way you can find this out again with the location in mind, what type of food you are serving. Such as you may want to serve jambalaya in Wisconsin and serve house made cheese curds too. Or serving blackened sea bass in Ohio.
4. What food cost percentage will you be running on your menu? Normal is about 30-36%. So, based on a 30% food cost, if your menu served an 8-ounce beef tenderloin, with a vegetable of the day, and soup or salad. The tenderloin alone will cost you 10.00. So, if you add 5.00 to the cost (to include the vegetable and soup or salad), your total would be 15.00. So, can you sell this meal for 45.00? Depending on where you are, California, in a fine dining restaurant probably and maybe for 52.00. However, not in Black River Falls, Wisconsin.
So, building a menu has a lot of different avenues that you need to go through. The best way, as I said is to study the market trends for the items that you want to put on a menu. From there, price out the items, be diligent about it, even with the spices. so, if fresh dill was 9.00 a pound and the recipe call for 2 tsp of fresh dill, your price .09. Overall, if you price out your menu to the penny, you will have better returns on your investment.
If there is anything else I can help you with please let me know.
Executive Chef Rob Mingus
I apologize for the lead time,
your question "When thinking about foods to put on your menu, what factors do you take into account"?
Creating a menu has a lot of different facets included.
1. The area or location of your restaurant & What is the market value, and what are the trends showing?
Meaning, is your restaurant located in New England or California?
In New England or California, one would have great resources for fresh seafood (shellfish for example). In those areas you need to know the prices of the products and what the quality of the seafood may be. Sysco food service and most food services have a market trend report that will give you knowledge of not only the product, but its availability as well. So, if you were seeking 8-ounce cold water lobster tails, and saw that they were in high demand, you would not want them since they would be high in price. The same goes for produce, if you were looking at buying fresh broccoli and saw that the product had the global fresh broccoli market was anticipated to rise considerably within a time frame, you would want to stay away from the product, however, you may be able to go for a frozen variety, but you also may need to see what the quality and the price is.
2. Would you be able to use that product in other recipes on your menu? Cross utilization of a product will save you money overall.
3. What do the customers want? In a way you can find this out again with the location in mind, what type of food you are serving. Such as you may want to serve jambalaya in Wisconsin and serve house made cheese curds too. Or serving blackened sea bass in Ohio.
4. What food cost percentage will you be running on your menu? Normal is about 30-36%. So, based on a 30% food cost, if your menu served an 8-ounce beef tenderloin, with a vegetable of the day, and soup or salad. The tenderloin alone will cost you 10.00. So, if you add 5.00 to the cost (to include the vegetable and soup or salad), your total would be 15.00. So, can you sell this meal for 45.00? Depending on where you are, California, in a fine dining restaurant probably and maybe for 52.00. However, not in Black River Falls, Wisconsin.
So, building a menu has a lot of different avenues that you need to go through. The best way, as I said is to study the market trends for the items that you want to put on a menu. From there, price out the items, be diligent about it, even with the spices. so, if fresh dill was 9.00 a pound and the recipe call for 2 tsp of fresh dill, your price .09. Overall, if you price out your menu to the penny, you will have better returns on your investment.
If there is anything else I can help you with please let me know.
Executive Chef Rob Mingus
Cori Coburn-Shiflett
Manager of Educational Technology Support Services / STEM educator
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Cori’s Answer
What a way to start off my morning with Bryson Tiller. 🎵
Answer: If I could go back and tell my younger self anything about food on menus, it would be:
1) Stay away from processed foods (that stuff is literally what ends folks with too much salt, rando chemicals, colors and sugar)
2) Make sure you have as much fresh food as possible (organic is nice, but not everyone can pay the prices)
3) Don't drink sugary drinks...so stay away from soda, energy drinks and other stuff with lots of added sugar.
I didn't think about this stuff in my 20s,...
started paying for it in my 30s and now in my 40s, I am trying to make things right to have a healthy life and that is a hard hill to climb.
Answer: If I could go back and tell my younger self anything about food on menus, it would be:
1) Stay away from processed foods (that stuff is literally what ends folks with too much salt, rando chemicals, colors and sugar)
2) Make sure you have as much fresh food as possible (organic is nice, but not everyone can pay the prices)
3) Don't drink sugary drinks...so stay away from soda, energy drinks and other stuff with lots of added sugar.
I didn't think about this stuff in my 20s,...
started paying for it in my 30s and now in my 40s, I am trying to make things right to have a healthy life and that is a hard hill to climb.