Strategies for Food & Beverages Outlets to Remain Competitive

This assignment discusses the importance of menu engineering in a Food & Beverages Outlets to attract customers. It highlights issues faced by outlets while planning or preparing a menu, such as age group differences, lack of resources, and food quality standards. The assignment also explores other strategies for outlets to remain competitive, including customer experiences and green practices.

Hospitality
Operations

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
TASK 1............................................................................................................................................1
The key milestones of history, origin and development of menu, basic category and type of
menu in food & beverages outlets..........................................................................................1
TASK 2............................................................................................................................................4
Analyse the role and responsibilities of restaurant manager in Food & Beverages department4
TASK 3............................................................................................................................................6
Explain menu engineering and state the systematic approach that John Mclean can follow for
menu engineering...................................................................................................................6
TASK 4............................................................................................................................................8
Issues involve in implementing strategies that recognise nutrition concerns for healthier
options on menu.....................................................................................................................8
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................11
REFRENCES...................................................................................................................................1

INTRODUCTION
Hospitality industry refers to the group of companies which work toward delighting and
accommodating the customers through providing valuable services to them. This includes
various field like lodging, event planning, theme park, travelling, accommodation and many
more (Sheresheva, 2016). The current report is about The Celeste Restaurant, part of
Lanesborough Hotel which operates its business in London and offer variety of food items. It is
now planning to reinvigorate its menu card for enhancing its brand image and adding nutritious
food in their list. This project includes an explanation about history of menu along with its type
and categories. Further it explains about the roles and responsibility of food & beverages
restaurant manager. Apart from this it also includes description about the menu engineering and
systematic approach to apply it along with various issues that may be faced while preparing
menu.
TASK 1
The key milestones of history, origin and development of menu, basic category and type of menu
in food & beverages outlets
Food & Beverages is consider as the fastest growing industry throughout the world as
group of companies belongs to this sector are keep on innovating their current process to
enhance their standard or quality of services for satisfying customers. This sector involves the
companies which operates their business in processing of raw material, packaging and delivering
them. In these organisations food menu plays an essential role by displaying the list of food item
along with their price per unit that are being offered by the particular restaurant or food outlet.
History, origin and development of menu:
The word menu is generally originated from French terminology where it means cuisines.
Earlier restaurants doesn't maintain any physical menu rather their waiters read out the name
served variety of dishes. After which people started adding chalkboard outside their restaurant
door to list out various dishes (Jauncey and Nadkarni 2014). The physical menu was first
developed in Paris which get changed throughout the nineteenth century from a single large page
with lots of closely packed type, booklets and single sheet design with illustrations. Later with
the update of technology the physical menu changes with digital display. After this it get
changed with online menu over official website of restaurant.
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Categories of menu:
The menu come under several categories that can be used by service provider for
presenting their food & services in a most effective manner. Because menu have an great
influence over the choice of customer. Therefore, menu must be representative and maintained
properly as per the convenience of customers. Categories of menu are explained below:
Paper:- It refers to the type of menu where the products name and details like price,
quantity offered etc. are simply printed over a paper. These menus sometimes includes illusions
and photos of particular dishes just to gain the attention of customers toward it. The Celeste
Restaurant generally print the menu paper for presenting the food list offered by them in front of
their customers over table.
Menu Board:- These are the type of menu are generally seen in fast food restaurants and
cafeterias where the food items are printed or written over a large poster over the wall of
restaurants. By printing a displaying menu board, The Celeste Restaurant will be able to attract
all the patrons so that can check the list of food offered by restaurant and if interested can order
for the same.
Digital display:- Some restaurants prefer to display their food list along with pictures
over LCD and plasma display which allow them to digitally display the moving image, add some
animation effects (Jauncey and Nadkarni 2014). This is most attractive way to gain the attention
of customers toward food and it is also much easier to edit or update the menu. Through digital
display The Celeste Restaurant will be able to present its food items as per day parting like
breakfast, dinner, lunch etc.
Online menu:- There are number of restaurants which provide online ordering and food
delivery services to its customers, where the food offered by them are being presented over their
website along with all the information regarding price, payment options, delivery time, phone no.
etc. By presenting online menu over their official website of The Celeste Restaurant so that they
can attract person to their restaurant who ever visit their website (Huang and Sun 2014).
Type of menu:-
There are various types of menu which are generally used by the restaurants some of
common types are explained below:
Dessert menu:- Generally the majority of menus have a section of dessert but as servers
collect the menus after guest ordered the food. As a result of which the dessert sections
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sometimes missed by the customers (Perramon and et al 2014). So various restaurants has now
started maintaining a separate menu for dessert which is presented to customer after they had
their food. The Celeste Restaurant should separate this section also from their main menu book.
This will help in making customers happy when they are offered with some sweets after they
finish eating.
Beverages menu:- This type of menu includes the list of beverages that are being offered
by a restaurant such as beer, cocktail, wine, soda or juice. Beverages menu is managed by the
restaurants which also perform and offer the services of bar. The Celeste Restaurant must also
focuses over expanding their offers by including a separate section of bar and maintaining a
beverage menu which support them in providing all things expected by customers at one place.
Menu Categories:
Menu falls under several categories which are generally used by restaurants to present
their food to its customers. It can be better understood using points that are explained below:
Table d'hote:- It is French term which means the host's table and this menu is generally
used for a meal shared among group of people who gathered at a single table in order to enjoy
same courses. This sort of menu is excellent for holiday meals and cuisine which encourage
sharing.
A la carte:- It is also a French work that means “According to customer order or card”
which offer a great choice of food items that are individually priced. Each food or beverage in
this menu card are in short narration underneath to explain that dish.
Fixed menus:- It refers to the type of menu which enlist the items that are having fixed
price. Under this restaurants may have multiple course option still then every guest receives
same number of course like salad, soup, dessert etc. with same standard price.
Cycle menu:- When restaurants prefer to rotate or change their menu items as per days in
week, chef's choice, seasonal availabilities etc. and for implementing this restaurant is required to
make regular modification in their menu. For representing these rotate menu items restaurants
generally use cycle menu that feature a complete list of present as well as upcoming menu items.
Type of menu:-
Breakfast:- This menu list out the food items that are meant for breakfast which is a first
meal for a day. It includes food like egg, bread, slice bacon, pancake with syrup, cornflakes etc.
are some common breakfast food items.
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Lunch:- This menu card includes the list of meals that are generally eaten around midday
which generally include Jerky, Fajitas, Pot roast, Hand-Breaded Chicken Tenders, Napa grilled
Chicken etc.
Dinner:- It includes number of courses that are generally preferred by people as their
night meal or dinner. It generally includes dishes like, Schezwan Noddles, Bone in Rib, Mixed
leaf salad, Cod in Cider.
Speciality menu:- It refers to the type of menu which present a list of food items that are
unique or speciality of restaurant and also termed as high value food items. These are most
famous food in restaurant and also served over high price.
Brunch menu:- It refers to the menu which include food as well as beverages for the
evening session of food. This menu generally include a variety of tea , coffee and light snacks
which people generally prefer with these items.
TASK 2
Analyse the role and responsibilities of restaurant manager in Food & Beverages department
Food & Beverages department is consider as one of the most essential part of a restaurant
as well as hotel as work towards ensuring that the demanded food will be served to the customer
on time and in required quality. This department is responsible for the maintaining the standard
of food and services in order to maintain a long term relation with customers (Taylor and et. al.,
2015). The job description of restaurant manager of Food & beverages department is given as
under:
Job Description
Job title:- Restaurant manager
Report to:- Director of food & beverages department
Position summary: The food & beverages restaurant manager is responsible for the forecasting,
planning and managing all the stuff required for preparation and serving of food to customers.
Roles & Responsibilities:-
 Ensure excellent customer services must be provided to customers.
 Regularly update & design menu as per the changes made in restaurant.
 Responsible for checking day to day operations performed in resturant.
 Must have a some knowledge about standards related to Food & safety foe ensuring
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smooth running of operations without any legal compliances.
 Responsible for performing finance related functions.
 Ensure delivery of superior food & beverages service to maximize customer
satisfaction.
 Timely respond to customer compliant and keep them happy with services.
 Responsibility of restaurant manager is to maintain the quality of services by regularly
inspecting the performance and productivity.
 To manage the demand of customers with supply of services as per their expectation.
 Restaurant manager is also responsible for managing the finance for purchasing food as
well as drink for hotel premises which includes sourcing, ordering and transporting the
items.
Following are the roles and responsibility of Food & Beverages Restaurant manager: Providing excellent customer services:- The goal of each restaurant is to maintain their
customer base so that they visit the outlets again and again. So, the role of F&B
restaurant manager is to ensure the effective services must be delivered to the customer
so that their expectation can be meet. Therefore manager of The Celeste Restaurant is
responsible for handling all the concerns that may be faced and must ensure that guest
will have the experience for which they are looking. Update & Design menus:- The restaurant manager is also responsible for the updating
the menu on regular bases as per the demand and requirement of customers. Manager of
The Celeste Restaurant must analyse the expectation of customer and try to include those
food trends and beverages in their menu list (Brotherton, 2015). The regular improvement
over food menu will help a restaurant to improve their image among its customers in
marketplace. Oversee daily operations:- The F&B restaurant managers are also responsible for
ensuring effective execution of day to day activities of running a restaurant. The role of
managers of The Celeste Restaurant is to schedule the shift, order supplies, assign tasks,
maintain accounting as well as inventory record and managing the expenses. Food & Safety:- The restaurant manager must have a thorough knowledge about the
food safety standards as managers are responsible for ensuring that these criteria must be
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meet within the operations performed by restaurant. Managers of Celeste Restaurant must
prepare the checklist and procedure for ensuring that each operations performed within
the premises must be according to the legal standard or regulations.
 Financial functions:- The food & beverages restaurant manager is responsible for
performing a variety of financial functions like purchasing of stock related to F&B, goods
receiving, storage control, goods receiving, planning & carrying out budgets and other
financial duties. So restaurant managers of The Celeste Restaurant are responsible for
performing financial operations in order to ensure that all the required stuff is available to
staff on time so that the demand of customer get satisfied.
TASK 3
Explain menu engineering and state the systematic approach that John Mclean can follow for
menu engineering
Definition of menu engineering:- Menu engineering is an art of arranging the menu
items in a systematic and more profitable manner over menu board that promote high sale
(Huang, Liu and Hsu., 2014). This is a market oriented approach which high light the good or
poor performing dishes in a menu which further support in providing vital information for
preparing next menu more appealing to the customers. Menu engineering uses both profitability
and popularity of competing menu items for developing the new menu which put more emphases
over gross margin instead of food cost percentage (Menu engineering, 2018).
Main reason behind using Menu engineering:- The Celeste Restaurant is a part of
Lanesborough Hotel which operates its business in London and is now planning to reinvigorate
the menu of restaurant. The main reason behind this is that the menu doesn't get updated from
last two year and this may affect the reputation of restaurant in market. Therefore, menu
engineering will help them in creating a balance between the low and high cost food item so that
they can work with collaboration and support in achieving the target food cost of restaurant. So,
for this John Mclean is hired by Lanesborough Hotel for menu engineering as he goes up
through several Food & Beverages management courses. Following are the factors that are
involve in menu engineering :
Menu item cost:- The cost per dish is generally decided from its performance and profit
gained through menu items. This represent the most crucial factor for deciding the cost of
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particular item and its selling price. It will help John in setting up the cost for required profit in
menu engineering for Celeste restaurant.
Popularity:- The popularity is also an essential factor which must be consider in
engineering menu which is generally determined by comparing the sale of products. Hence, this
factor must be consider by Celeste restaurant while menu engineering.
Systematic approach for menu engineering:-
The menu engineering will be more appealing and profitable if it is created in a
systematic manner by using guest demand, revenue margin and by determining the performance
of each menu item. John Mclean can use BCG matrix for menu engineering in order to
reinvigorate the menu of The Celeste Restaurant.
(Source: Menu engineering, 2018)
From the above given image it can be depict that BCG matrix consist of four major
factors in which restaurant food items will be categorised as per their profitability and popularity.
These areas can be better understood using following point:
Star: High profit and high popularity:
These sections includes food dishes which are most popular and provide high benefit to
the restaurant. Star items are highly demanded items of menu which provide higher profit margin
and they can be the signature item of menu (Miao and Wei 2016). John Mclean must rigidly
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Illustration 1: Menu engineering

specify these items for quality, quantity as well as presentation and locate them over highly
visible position of the menu as they are star items.
Plowhorse: Low profitability and High popularity:
The food items under this category are generally higher in popularity but put low
contribution toward margin. These items are demand generators which can be lead or signature
items of menu. John Mclean must increase the price of these product to achieve more profit as
these are popular items but the changes must not be noticeable as it may affect the customer's
choice.
Puzzles: High profitability and Low popularity:
This category involve those items which are lower in popularity but put higher
contribution toward the profit margin of restaurant. Puzzle item profit high profit when it get sold
but they are harder to sell (Mejia and Torres, 2018). For these menu items John Mclean must try
to improve the quality of its current dishes to enhance the popularity either by hiring new staff or
improving the current process. If it doesn't work then John Mclean must reposition with some
additional flavours.
Dogs: Low profitability and Low popularity:
It includes items with low popularity and less contribution toward the profit margin of
restaurant. They are most unpopular item of menu card which generate less or no profit. John
Mclane must try to eliminate the all dog items if possible or these items must be excluded from
menu but kept in inventory (Tang, 2014). These items will be offered to special guest and from
their feedbacks those items must be altered for re-adding it to menu.
TASK 4
Issues involve in implementing strategies that recognise nutrition concerns for healthier options
on menu
The Celeste Restaurant is planning to reinvigorate its current menu card for enhancing its
brand image and to make it more profitable for restaurant by menu engineering method. Because
the food items offered by tasty but they don't involve much nutritions and healthy benefit which
sometimes restrict the health conscious people to visit this restaurant. For overcoming these
issues various strategies can be implemented by the Celeste Restaurant. Like, they can use
ingredient which fulfil the nutrition demand of people without compromising with its taste. Apart
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from this they can also add a new section in their menu which enlist the nutrition dishes as per
the requirement of people. Following are some basic nutrients:
 Proteins:- It refers to the substance which involve compound & carbon, amino acid,
nitrogen, oxygen, hydrogen and sulphur. The Celeste Restaurant must involve protein
rich foods in their menu list like chicken, egg, cheese, Greek yogurt etc.
 Carbohydrates:- The Celeste Restaurant should also try to offer foods that are rich in
carbohydrates which are compounds of carbon, oxygen and hydrogen. These are
generally formed through green veggies, sugar, starches and celluloses.
 Fats:- It refers to the food those are rich in fatty acid as this support in providing a health
benefit and also reduces the risk of sudden cardiac death. These foods are salmon food,
nuts, walnuts etc.
 Vitamins:- It refers to the group of organic compounds those are necessary for normal
growth and nutrition. The Celeste Restaurant must involve these foods in their services
like carrot, sweet potatoes, apricots, spinach, kale etc.
 Minerals:- The Celeste Restaurant must start offering foods that are rich in minerals as it
support in making bones stronger and turn the food into energy. It includes food like
dairy products, canned salmon, green vegetables, calcium fortified food etc.
Nutrition guidelines:- There are some nutritional guidelines passed by USDA which
must be followed by The Celeste Restaurant before involving nutrition related food items. These
are as follows:
 Food as well as green vegetables must be included in plate at every meal.
 Food items must be included which have low-fat dairy and consume not more then 3 cup
of fat free or low fat milk in everyday. It may also include yogurt, cheese or other
calcium rich food.
 Steer clear of saturated fat and trans, sodium, cholesterol and sugar only upto 20 to 35
percent of total calories intake. The saturated and trans food must be avoided.
 Fill up the quarter of plate with some lean protein and about 15% of total calories must
come from proteins like beans, nuts, fish and legumes.
Food Pyramid:
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(Source: Food pyramid, 2018)
Above given image is of food pyramid which describe about various foods that are very
essential part of an healthy diet plan. It is a base for creating an effective dietary plan.
Nutrition concern in purchasing:- The Celeste Restaurant must ensure that each item
purchased must have adequate nutrition that are essential for particular food. Apart from this
they must ensure that vegetable, fruits, egg etc. must be purchased that are fresh so that it will be
healthier and can store for sometimes.
Nutrition concern in storing:- It must be ensure by The Celeste Restaurant that foods
that are being stored should be kept in place that have proper ventilation and lightening facilities.
Apart from this they are kept separately as per the temperature required by them for storing them
to longer duration without getting them affected by bacteria or other pest.
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Illustration 2: Food pyramid

But while implementing these strategies during planning or preparation of menu various
issues that may be faced by Celeste restaurant. These issues can be better understood using
following points:
Food quality & standard policy:- The major issues that may be faced by Celeste
restaurant during planning or preparation of menu is to offer a food that consist of both quality
and nutrition at one time. Because it is not possible to maintain both things together, but it is
required by Celeste restaurant that their all nutritious dishes must also comply with quality
standards (Sheehan, Grant and Garavan 2018).
Lack of resources: This is also another major resources that Celeste restaurant may
found while implementing strategy, as scarcity of resources may affect the quality or taste of
dishes. Therefore, restaurant must use maintain a record in order to predict the resources require
as per the demand of customers so that inventory must be available on time.
Age group differences:- This is also one of the major issue that may be faced by The
Celeste restaurant as it is planning to add nutritious food in their menu list along with tasty food.
So, for adding these items it is required to categories the nutrition as well as taste of food as per
the requirement of particular age group. As people belong to different age group are different in
term of their taste, preferences and demand (Sheresheva 2018). So it is not possible for them to
cater the demand of all age group customers with single strategy as they require to formulate
different tactics as per the expectation of customers belong to different age group.
CONCLUSION
From the above given information it can be summarised that hospitality industry is one of
the fastest growing sector where key players are continuously bringing new innovations within
the marketplace to remain competitive. Therefore it is very essential for a Food & Beverages
Outlets to keep on reinvigorate its menu card as it plays an essential role in attracting customers
toward services offered by a restaurant. This can be done through menu engineering which
support in arranging the menu items in a profitable sequence that help in earning more revenue
margin. But while planning or preparing a menu number of issues that are generally faced by
outlets to implement strategies which includes age group difference, lack of resources and food
quality & standard policy.
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Online
Menu engineering. 2018. [Online] Available through:<https://hmhub.me/definition-objectives-
menu-engineering/>.