Optimizing Your Menu for Profits
When it comes to restaurants, making delicious food is important. But you also need to make a profit. To do that, you've got to understand how to make a menu that's delicious and profitable at the same time. One big challenge when making a menu is finding the right mix of exciting, creative dishes and ones that make a profit. Fancy dishes can be fun, but they often need more work and expensive ingredients. On the other hand, simple classics are cheaper. Finding the right balance is super important.
Counting Costs:
To know if your food is making money, you've got to figure out how much it costs to make each dish. This means thinking about how much the ingredients and the work to make it all cost. Add a little extra (about 2%) for things that might get wasted. This helps you set the right price for your dishes and still make money.
Seasonal Offerings:
Sometimes, we have special ingredients like truffles. They're amazing but can also be expensive. One smart thing to do is to use them during the season but don’t use up all your ideas at once. You can have different truffle dishes during the season and this allows regulars to get to taste something new and different but also highlights the creativity of the team to new clients.
Watching the Money:
When you spread out expensive ingredients and ideas over the season, you don't end up buying too much at once. This helps you control your costs and avoid losing money. When you introduce many new dishes all at once, it can be tricky, and you might not make your daily money goal.
Food Trends and Your Menu:
Different places have different food trends. Fast-food spots won't follow fine-dining trends, but they'll watch what other fast-food places are doing. Fine-dining spots might have to think about special diets and food trends. But instead of making a whole new menu, it's smarter to have a few dishes that you can put together from your regular menu.
Learning from the Menu:
Early on in my career I was doing a trial for a Sous Chef position. While going over the menu I asked about why there were no vegan dishes on the menu. It was explained to me that while they did get vegan clients, there wasn’t enough of a demand to warrant dishes on the menu at all times. Instead they crafted dishes that could be made with elements from their entire menu. This concept really opened my eyes to possibilities to be able to accommodate a wide variety of allergies and dietary restrictions but not sacrificing profitability to do so.
Getting the Prices Right:
Don't put the most expensive or cheapest things at the top of your menu. Most people look in the middle. So, it's smart to put the dishes that make the most money in the middle. But you can also have one dish that's not super profitable but very exciting.
Keep Looking at the Menu:
You need to check how your menu is doing. Look at what people order every day and every week. If something isn't working and making money, you can take it off the menu. Don't be afraid to change things.
Creating a menu for a restaurant is a bit like a magic trick. You have to make sure the food is tasty and brings in money at the same time. Find that sweet spot between delicious and profitable. Don't forget to try new things and keep an eye on what's happening. Stay tuned for our next blog, "The Science of Menu Engineering," where we'll dig deeper into how menus work. If you have more questions or ideas to share, feel free to tell us.
