Menu Engineering Strategies for Food Outlets

This assignment discusses the concept of menu engineering in the hospitality industry, particularly for food and beverages outlets. It highlights the importance of menu engineering in attracting customers and maximizing sales. The assignment also touches on the role of the director of the food and beverages department in implementing strategies related to nutrition. However, it notes that there are issues such as resource scarcity and external factors that can affect the implementation of these strategies.

Hospitality Operation

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................1
1. Key milestone of history, origin and development of the Menu, and types of Menu within
food and beverage ......................................................................................................................1
2. Roles and responsibilities of Director of food and beverage..................................................3
3. Menu engineering and its factors and systematic approach which can be followed by
organisation.................................................................................................................................5
4. Issues for implementing the nutrition strategy in food and beverages....................................7
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................8
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................9

INTRODUCTION
Hospitality refers to the relationship between the visitors and host or the act or practice
of being welcoming. As this includes the reception and entertainment of guests, visitors or
strangers, resorts, special events and other services for tourists. To better understand this
concept, The Lanedborough Hotel, London, United Kingdom is being selected. The history,
origin and development of Menu, basic categories of Menu and different types of Menu within
food and beverage outlets. There are various kind of manager in food and beverage department,
so the roles and responsibilities of Restaurant manager is being explained in this report. As factor
and systematic approach for menu engineering which can be adopted by restaurant is also being
discussed in this report. There are various issues involved in the execution of strategies which
recognise nutrition concerns is also being discussed in this report.
MAIN BODY
1. Key milestone of history, origin and development of the Menu, and types of Menu within food
and beverage
Food and beverage refers to the processing of raw food material, packaging and
distributing them. As any product which mean for human consumption apart from the
pharmaceutical passed through this food and beverage industry.
Menu is a list of prepared food items which includes price per unit. Menu is the main way
to give or take orders from visitors. This helps guest to make aware about the food and their
prices for a particular place.
History, origin and development of Menu
Menu is a list of prepared foods which was discovered back in China. The word menu is
considered as terminology of cuisines and is a French origin. This was originated from Latin
Minutus, something made of small. This menu concept first introduced in China during the
second half of eighteen century (Bowie and Buttle, 2013). Prior to this menu concept as the
server was used to take orders from unseen menu and prepare the food according to the customer
orders.
Category of Menu
There are different categories of menu which is being adopted by service provider in
order to provide better service to the customers and attract more customers. As menu makes
1

impact on customers choice it should be easy to read and up to date and as per customer
convenient. Categories of menu is described as below:
By the menu:
It is considered as an upscale term which is used in reference to menus which list items
prices and ordered individually. This gives flexibility to guest by listing option separately on by
the menu.
Of the day:
Of the day is popular menu category which provides flexibility for small and busy
restaurant as they can customized their menu and attract customers every day. These are written
on chalkboards or shown on digital displays. An example is shown below:
Fix price menu:
This is also an another category of menu which is being used in food and beverages
industry. As under this menu each and every guest will pay the fixed price for ordered item.
Beverage menu:
As if any restaurant or hotel offers the various beer, wine, cocktail or even juice than to
distinct these items from regular menu, beverage menu is prepared. This kind of menu shows the
special cocktails and other alcoholic and non alcoholic drinks which is served at place
(Weinstein and Morritt, 2012).
Types of Menu:
There are various ways and types for presenting menu, these are discussed below:
Paper:
Menus differs in length and information depending upon hotel or restaurant. The paper
printed menus are considered as simple and cost effective. As to protect this menu form wear and
tear one can cover it by lamination.
Menu Board:
2

This is another way to display menu to customers. As restaurants provide menu in large
poster or displays the board high on restaurant wall. This is considered as very convenient for
customers because every offered item can be seen on this board. It allows restaurant to changes
prices without reprinting board (PoloPeñaFrías, Jamilena and Rodríguez-Molin, 2012).
Digital Displays:
The technology is changing day by day so after invention of LCD and plasma displays
the restaurant has moved form printed model to these technology instruments. With help of using
LCD screen and computer servers the digital menus is displayed which allow moving images and
animated effects and prices can be easily edited.
Online Menu:
Now days online restaurant menus are very famous as it allows customer to access
restaurant menu and according to that make order. There are various websites which provides the
different menu of restaurant to the customers so that they can make comparison and order food.
2. Roles and responsibilities of Director of food and beverage
Food and Beverage Department (F&B) is accountable for keeping standard quality of
food and service, bars, managing restaurants, food costing, etc. The food and beverage directors
is a hospitality professional specialistic in predicting, preparing and directing in order of food
beverages for hospitality organisations. Directors also handle the finances affiliated to the overall
food and drink purchasing procedure for hotel. The director performs the different role and
responsibilities which are discussed below:
Analysis of food and beverage prices:
The major responsibility of food and beverages director is to frequent evaluate the prices
of food and beverages prices in order to be competitive in market. As there is huge competition
in market and and it is very important to evaluate and compare price with its competitors to set
up prices accordingly.
Participation in Food and Beverages activity:
This is a major role of director that one should take participation in those events,
seminars or conferences which are related with the food and beverages. As this allows to get
latest information regarding industry activity and it can also be helpful to know about new
competitors in market. So director would be able to make changes in organisation according to
latest informations.
3

Competitive analysis:
Competitive analysis is very important for organisation in order to be competitive in
market. The director should make analysis of its competitors in order to monitor their activities
and than formulate strategy according to that. As analysis will make enable the organisation to
perform better than their competitors and be sustainable in market (Williams, 2012).
Properly maintain hotel policies:
The plan and policies are formed to have a fair work practice in the organisation. As
hotels also maintain plan and policies in order to avoid unethical practice in hotel. As director of
food and beverages should maintain a policy for worker so that they work ethically and maintain
ethical practices in department. So the director should continuously monitor the policy and make
changes according to need.
Attend F&B meeting regularly:
As director's main role is to attend the meeting which is held in hotel regarding future
plans. The directors are obliged to head the meet and listen suggestion of subordinates. In
meetings, director are liable to share the vision to employees so that goals of organisation can be
achieved.
Assure ethical accounting:
Ethical and fair accounting is very important in every organisation for better growth of
organisation. As it is director of food and beverage duty to check accounts related to F&B and
assure ethical practice in accounts. Any kind of discrepancy in account books can leads to heavy
losses for hotel (Alserhan, 2016).
Minimise customer complaints:
Customer are king of any kind of market. As in the service industry the customers
satisfaction is very crucial in order to maximise profitability. The director of F&B need to assure
that customers are getting the service for what they have paid. It is very important to assure
minimum number of complaints from customers side and maximum satisfaction.
Avoid conflicts among team members:
The conflicts can be arisen at workplace among team members. And it can leads to
decrease productivity of employees and ultimately minimum customer satisfaction. So director
of F&B is obliged to ensure less conflicts among staff and full work engagement of employees.
This can be very helpful for organisation to grow and achieve goals.
4

Responsible for staff training and development:
Training and development of staff is an integral part for any organisation. As the director
of F&B in hotel is obliged for the training of its new staff who has joined so that they can
perform there task effectively. The development is helpful in enhancing the skills of existing
staff so that they can work at their full capacity. After identifying need of training and
development, director needs to conduct session on this.
Apart from this, directors duty includes high employee retention, discipline of personnel
and overall maintenance of operation of Food and Beverages.
If director perform all these roles and responsibilities effectively than it can lead to
unexpected growth for overall organisation.
3. Menu engineering and its factors and systematic approach which can be followed by
organisation
Menu Engineering:
This is also refers as menu psychology. As with help of this, menu is design to force
more profitable dishes and up sell to the guest. This allows to balance the high and low cost food
items work together. The right menu engineering enables restaurant to feature most popular and
profitable dishes on menu which allow guest to choose dish and increase profit margins
(Minazzim, 2015). It is important to give time for develop a profitable menu for restaurant. There
are some ways that can be used by Celeste Restaurant in Lanesborough Hotel for menu
engineering, is discussed below:
 Remove the currency sign so customer do not think about the money.
 Limited but quality of items on menu
 Use more boxes to highlight dishes
 To have white space so it can be easy to read.
There are various factors which can affect the menu engineering of restaurant as these
needs to be considered by John Mclean in order prepare profitable menu for Celeste Restaurant,
is discussed below:
Menu item cost:
The cost per portion is derived from the test of yield done on main ingredient of a menu
item normally represents the greatest part of cost of preparing the item. Cost is an important
factor which determines the selling price also. So the cost of dishes needs to be considered by
5

John in order to menu re-engineering of Celeste restaurant (Sánchez-Ollero, García-Pozond
Marchante-Mer, 2014).
Popularity:
The popularity is another factor which needs to be consider when re engineering menu.
This is determined by doing comparison of sales of item to expected popularity. So this factor
should be consider by the Celeste Restaurant while engineering.
Systematic approach for menu engineering:
This matrix allows to compare the popularity to profit. So this can be helpful for John
Mclean for menu engineering of Celeste Restaurant.
Stars: High profits and high popularity:
The stars maintain its high visibility as this matrix said maintain high level of quality.
There should be signature dishes such as organic food for the health conscious people which can
be helpful for promoting sells (Bowie and et. al., 2016).
6

Plowhorse: Low profitability and High popularity:
The plowhorse are popular staples which are losing money. As according to this matrix
there should be some item which are low at price but more popular. The seafood comes under
this category.
Puzzles: High profitability and Low popularity:
Puzzles refers to those items which are highly profitable but they are difficult to sell. So
these kinds of items needs to be feature on menu. The John can also develop these kind of items
as John is highly educated in menu developing. As to develop this, restaurant can reduce the
number of unit or quantity of food irrespective of price. (Tresidder and Hirst, 2012).
Dogs: Low profitability and Low popularity:
Dogs are considered as those items which are not profitable for restaurant. So these kinds
of items such as low nutritions food should be removed from menu as they are not even
contributing to profit.
The four “R” menu engineering remedy
 Stars – Retain
 Plowhorse – Re price
 Puzzles – Re plate
 Dogs – Remove
This approach can be used by John Mclean in order to make profitable menu for Celeste
restaurant.
4. Issues for implementing the nutrition strategy in food and beverages
Food and beverages outlets provides the various tasty eatables to the people. As these
foods are considered good in taste but they are not considered nutritive food for health. There are
wide range of strategy which is used by the food and beverages outlets while planning menu.
They use the strategy which are beneficial for their business instead of customers. As the
nutrition concern is major issue now days while planning menus. The restaurants are obliged to
prepare those food which have high nutrition. Strategy of restaurant is planning to come up with
organic and nutritions related food as now days people are becoming more health conscious.
There are different class and age group people who visit restaurant so they made their strategy
according to the customers. Following are issues involved:
Different age group:
7

Each and every age group used to go restaurant. And restaurants prepare the strategy for
each age group accordingly. For example, they made different strategy for children to attract
them and different for younger age group. So it is difficult for them to apply all strategy
effectively and efficiently. These customers have different taste and preferences as children and
youths are more attracted towards the taste while some old and middle age group people are
health conscious. So they prefer those food which has high nutrition. So this is an issue for
restaurant to implement nutrition strategy more effectively.
Quality control policy:
This is also a major nutrition concern that is to have proper quality food with full
nutrition. As quality control is very important in food and beverage outlets in order provide the
better food to customers. Outlets are not able to comply both quality and nutrition in their foods.
So this is a major nutrition concern for strategy. As quality control policy is governed by the
government and it is continuously monitored by government.
Lack of resources:
The major issues while implementing the strategy is scarcity of resources for outlets. As
if food and beverages outlets are having scarce resources than they would not be able to
implement strategy effectively. The restaurant requires high technology resources to process
food with proper quality and to provide full nutrition to customers. As resources can be financial
or non financial (Cooper, 2012).
External factors:
The external factors are those which have direct or indirect affect on the business
operations, plans and policies and strategy of food outlets. These factors are considered as major
issue for outlets to implement strategies in organisation effectively and efficiently. The factor can
be political, legal, social, technological and environmental for the organisation. These factors
needs to be analysed by outlets before implementing the strategy so that any kind of deviation
can be found and corrective action can be taken.
CONCLUSION
In the conclusion it can be said that hospitality industry is a big industry which
comprises of various business. As menu plays an important role in food and beverages outlets to
attract customers and maximise sales. The concept of menu is very old but suitable for outlets.
The director of food and beverages department plays important role and responsibilities for
8

smooth functioning of department. The menu engineering is a concept which can be adopted by
restaurant to grow sales and maximise profitability. There are some issues which faced by outlets
to implement strategies related to nutritions.
9

REFERENCES
Books and Journal
Cooper, C., 2012. Essentials of tourism. Pearson Financial Times/Prentice Hall.
Tresidder, R. and Hirst, C., 2012. Marketing in food, hospitality, tourism and events: a critical
approach. Goodfellows Publishers.
Bowie, D., and et. al., 2016. Hospitality marketing. Routledge.
Sánchez-Ollero, J.L., García-Pozo, A. and Marchante-Mera, A., 2014. How does respect for the
environment affect final prices in the hospitality sector? A hedonic pricing
approach. Cornell Hospitality Quarterly. 55(1). pp.31-39.
Minazzi, R., 2015. Social media marketing in tourism and hospitality (p. 87). New York:
Springer.
Alserhan, B. A., 2016. The principles of Islamic marketing. Gower.
Williams, A., 2012. Understanding the hospitality consumer. Routledge.
Bowie, D. and Buttle, F., 2013. Hospitality marketing. Taylor & Francis.
Polo-Peña, A. I., Frías-Jamilena, D. M. and Rodríguez-Molina, M. Á., 2012. Marketing practices
in the Spanish rural tourism sector and their contribution to business
outcomes. Entrepreneurship & Regional Development. 24(7-8). pp.503-521.
Weinstein, A. and Morritt, R., 2012. Segmentation strategies for hospitality managers: Target
marketing for competitive advantage. Routledge.
Online
Menu Engineering. 2018. [Online]. Availabe through: <https://pos.toasttab.com/blog/menu-
engineering-menu-design>
10

11

12