Introduction
Menu planning involves deciding what foods to prepare and serve for meals over a specific period. It includes selecting dishes that offer nutrition, stay within budget, and appeal to the target audience. Effective menu planners consider nutritional needs, food preferences, budget, seasonal availability, and preparation time.
Menu planning is essential in homes and institutions to ensure balanced diets, reduce waste, and add variety. A well-planned menu contributes to better health, satisfaction, and efficient resource use.
Objective of Menu Planning
| A menu informs guest about available dishes and the prices changed for the whole menu or a particular dish. It enables them to select dish of their choice. |
| It guides the chef regarding the requirement of staff, materials and equipment to prepare the items included in the menu. |
| It enables the service personnel to do mise-en-place, take correct order, pick up and serve the correct dish from the kitchen according to the order, and also present the correct check to the guest. |
| It helps the cashier to price each item ordered by the guest and to prepare a sales summary of the outlet. |
| It helps the management to work out the cost of the food and beverage and analyze the utility of a particular menu, to predict the trends and to plan future courses of action for the outlet. |
| It creates and promotes an image of the restaurant in many social gatherings. |
| It identifies the theme of the establishment. |
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Kinds of Menus
- A la Carte Menu: An à la carte menu offers individually priced dishes; As a result, diners have full control to customize their meal; in contrast, it often costs more than set menus. Additionally, the flexibility can lead to longer preparation times and higher ingredient costs.
- Table d’ Hôte Menu: A table d’hôte menu offers a fixed set of courses at a set price, with limited choices per course. Banquets, events, and similar settings commonly use this menu style to ensure efficiency, consistency, and value. Moreover, it’s often more economical and faster to serve than à la carte.
- Carte Du Jour Menu: Also known as Menu of the Day This menu has the following characteristics:-
- Offers a different choice to the regular guests.
- Features a special cuisine, testing the market for future menus.
- Characteristics and tests a particular selling price range.
- Plat Du Jour Menu: Also known as Plate of the Day. It has the following characteristics:-
- Only one dish is promoted under this menu.
- Smaller establishments may use this menu for weeks to save costs and use seasonal ingredients.
- Static Menu: Restaurants often laminate a static menu for easy cleanup; furthermore, they organize it into groups such as appetizers, soups, salads, entrées, desserts, and more. Fast food restaurants often have these type of menu.
- Doorknob Menu: Hotels hang this type of menu card behind the doorknob of a room, listing all available dishes and beverages for breakfast, major meals, and snacks, with rates shown next to each item.
- Cyclic Menu: These are rotating menus commonly used for institutional and volume catering; for example, hospitals, educational institutions, and industrial operations frequently implement them. Cyclic menu are designed for a specific period. The average cycle in most institutions is a week or a month; afterward, the entire menu is repeated. Therefore, since cyclic menus are reused, the menu structure and choice of dishes must be carefully selected. Moreover, thoughtful planning helps maintain variety and meet nutritional standards.
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