Chapter 3- MENU & Menu Planning

Planning Process: Onsite food operations

"3 meals a day plan" Steps

Management Decisions Include:

Food cost, production capability, type of service, and availability of foods

A la carte

Food items priced individually

Milk Matters Campaign

Created to promote increased milk consumption and other calcium rich foods

8 Factors affecting Menu Planning

Customer Satisfaction, sociocultural factors, food habits and preferences, nutritional influence, aesthetic factors, sustainability, government regulations, management decisions

What is the biggest concern in meal planning?

Customer satisfaction, second concern would be producing quality foods at a good cost

Planning: Onsite food operations: Step 3

Decide on the starch item appropriate to serve with the entree.

Menu Psychology

Designing and laying out a menu in such a way as to influence the sale of foods served on that menu

Availability of Foods

Due to improvements in transporting foods, most foods are available year round, however cost of foods that are out of season must be taken into consideration

Key Elements in Menu Psychology Include:

Eye gaze motion, primacy and recency, font size and style, color and brightness, spacing and grouping.

Room Service

Patients call the foodservice department when they are hungry and ready to eat and order from a room service menu. Delivered within 30-45 minutes

Planning: Onsite food operations: Step 5

Plan desserts for both lunch and dinner.

Planning: Onsite food operations: Step 1

Plan the dinner meats or other entrees for the entire cycle because these are the most expensive foods on the menu and can contribute to controlling total food cost

Emergency Preparedness Menu Planning

Planning menus to be used in case of a disaster or emergency situation has become an important task for onsite foodservice managers, particularly those in healthcare organizations.

Dietary Guidelines for Americans

Recommendations for good health developed by the USDA and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services

Planning: Onsite food operations: Step 7

Review the entire day as a unit and evaluate if clientele, governmental regulations, and managerial considerations have been met. Check menu for any repetition and/or mistakes.

Static Menu

Same menu items are offered every day.

Planning: Onsite food operations: Step 4

Select salads, accompaniments, and appetizers next. work back and forth between the lunch and dinner meals to avoid repetition.

Planning: Onsite food operations: Step 2

Select the luncheon entrees or main dishes; avoiding those used on the dinner menu. Provide variety in method of preparation.

Cycle Menu

Series of menus offering different items daily on a weekly, biweekly, or some other basis, after which the menus are repeated. Often used in health care institutions, and schools and offer a variety with some degree of control over purchasing, production, and cost

Table D'hote

Several food items grouped together and sold for one price. Associated with a verbal menu.

Menu Planning: General Considerations

Should be done with the premise that the purpose of any foodservice is to prepare and serve acceptable food at a cost consistent with the objectives of the operation.

Customer Satisfaction

Sociocultural Factors, nutritional needs, and aesthetic factors of taste and appearance should be considered in planning menus to satisfy and give value to the customer

Techniques such as print, style, color, paper type quality, graphic illustrations and designs all represent what?

Techniques of menu psychology

What is the Primary control for the foodservice system and impacts all components of the system (ie. budget, operation layout, equipment)?

The Menu

Typical American Meals Include?

Used to be a quick breakfast, a light lunch, and a heavy dinner. Now geared towards "grazing" small meals throughout the day.

Center-of-the-Plate

Usually when having a lunch catered, you don't have a choice of the main entree or salad, but have a choice for bread, beverage, and dessert

Plate Waste

amount of food left on a plate is a method used as a measure of food acceptability. Weighed to find numerical measurements to be used in studies

Food Habits

are the practices and associated attitudes that predetermine what, when, why and how a person will eat

Outside of the home meals are driven by what?

convenience factors, and desire for better nutrition

Food Cost

cost of food purchased (obviously). Managers must be aware of raw and prepared food costs of all items. Food cost verses food selling (profit made) is a very important part of food-cost accounting systems

Sociocultural Factors include:

customs, values, and demographic characteristics of the society in which the organization functions.

Food preferences

express the degree of liking for a food item

Aesthetic Factors Include:

flavor, consistency, texture, color, and shape

sensory evaluation

has been used to measure reaction to food by asking individuals to rate menu items on various dimensions such as flavor, appearance, temperature, and portion size

Font size and style

increase the size of font to attract the customers attention to an item: decrease the size to deflect attention from an item. Avoid use of fonts that are difficult to read, especially in dim lighting.

Observation

is a method that requires trained observers to estimate visually the amount of plate waste. Simple method for assessing food acceptability

Menu Pattern

is an outline of the menu item categories for each meal, such as appetizers entrees, and desserts on the dinner menu.

Self-reported consumption

is another technique for measuring plate waste in which individuals are asked to estimate their plate waste using a scale.

Fruits and Veggies- More Matters

launched to encourage increased consumption of fruits and vegetables

Type of Service

major influence on food items that can be included on a menu. Food items and equipment for holding and serving need to be considered ( china and dinner ware availability, equipment availability dependent upon what meals and services being provided).

Commercial Foodservice Operations

merchandising is the primary consideration in planning menus for commercial operations. Static menu is predominant in commercial food services. Entrees and main dishes are planned first here as well.

Processed foods:

often involve more energy, packaging, and transportation than onsite production of similar foods

primacy and recency

position menu items you want to sell more of in the first and last positions within a category as the first and last things a customer reads. These items are more likely to be chosen

Spoken Menu

presented orally to the patient

Areas of potential misrepresentation on Menus

quantity, quality, price, brand names, product identification, points of origin, merchandising terms, means of preservation, food preparation, dietary or nutritional claims,

Recommended Dietary Allowances

recommendations for dietary intake of nutrients for healthy growth

Nutritional Influence

should be highly considered during menu planning when for operations when living conditions constrain persons to eat most of their meals in one place (ie hospitals, colleges, universities, and schools)

What are the 3 types of menus?

static, cycle, and single use

eye gaze motion

the eye will travel in a set pattern when viewing a menu. Thus the center of a threefold menu is considered the prime menu sales area

Spacing and grouping

use borders around items or placement of items together within a space to draw attention to items

Sustainability Focuses On:

use of locally grown/produced food items, use of "in season" foods, use of sustainable foods, limited use of processed foods, replacement of meat entrees with vegetarian sources

Food preference surveys

usually employ a hedonic scale in which foods are rated by an individual on a continuum from like to dislike

Single-use Menu

Menu that is planned for service on a particular day and not used in the exact form a second time. Used at special events.

Breakfast Accounts for what percent of daily restaurant traffic?

20%

Planning: Onsite food operations: Step 6

After the lunch and dinner meals are planned, add breakfast and any others

A Menu cover should project what?

An accurate image of the operation and suggest to the customer the formality, price range, and even theme of the foods served.

Why is lunch a difficult meal to plan?

Because it has to be produced faster than dinner items, and is more complicated than breakfast items. Customers want a good meal that travels easily and is quick and on the go

Color and Brightness

Increase the brightness, color, or shading of visual elements to attract customer attention

Production Capability

Labor is primary concern. The number of labor hours and skills of persons at a given time determine the complexity of menu items. Also affected by layout of food production facility and availability of large and small equipment.

3-A-Day

Launched to increase consumption of dairy products to 3 a day

Menu

List of item available for selection by a customer and the most important internal control of the foodservice system.