Hospitality Operations: Food Production Systems, Service Methods, Menu Engineering, and Sustainable Menu Planning

This document discusses different types of food production systems, food and beverage service methods, menu engineering matrix, and sustainable menu planning in the context of establishing an Italian restaurant in London. It covers topics such as conventional and commissary food production systems, English and French service methods, menu engineering matrix categories, and sustainable menu planning considerations.

Hospitality Operations
AS 2

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION ..........................................................................................................................2
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................2
Different types of Food production systems...............................................................................2
Food and beverage service methods...........................................................................................4
Menu Engineering matrix...........................................................................................................5
Sustainable menu planning consideration...................................................................................7
CONCLUSION ...............................................................................................................................8
REFERENCES ...............................................................................................................................9

INTRODUCTION
Hospitality refers to the service offered to the guest, visitor or stranger by the host. The
hospitality industry consists of hotels, restaurants and tourism. It involves accommodation, food
and beverage, recreation and many more activities. Food and beverage is the largest sector of the
hospitality industry which captures larger market share thereby increasing profitability of the
company. There are many parts which together from a effective restaurant which includes the
food production system which means those activities which involves production, processing,
transportation and consumption of food (PRYCE, 2020). It refers to the process of converting the
raw material into a finished good which consumer can consume. The food and beverage service
methods are the techniques used by the restaurant owners to present the food to its guests.
Another important part in restaurant is menu planning which involves making a list of food items
that the restaurant or hotel is ready to serve during its meal time. This report shall deal in case
study which requires establishing an Italian restaurant in London, namely Alfredo's. It shall
cover different food production systems and food and beverage service methods. Further it will
deal in analysis of sustainable menu planning and menu engineering matrix to enhance the
profitability of the restaurant.
MAIN BODY
Different types of Food production systems
There are various types of food production system such as conventional, assembly,
commissary, prepared and many more. The managerial department of Alfredo’s Italian
Restaurant is required to recognise system of food production in appropriate manner as
according to their suitability in order to intensify quality of their services and offered food.
Different types of food production systems are elaborated as under:
Conventional: This type of food production technique is used in large farms where soil is
highly suitable for growing higher amount of crops in same quality. In this seeding process is
executed by machines and for cultivation tractors are used as quantity is huge. In order to
eliminate various issues fertilizers are recommended by experts due to which quality of final
product can be enhanced. In the context of Alfredo’s Italian Restaurant for enhancing food
production they can use prominent brand's seeds (Cao, 2016). The final distribution of these
crops are prepared after clear specifications and material used in order to grow them. Under this

type of production type requirements are clearly specified by regulatory authority in which
packages and other needs. This type of farming is providing new market player for grow quality
products which can be graded as quality as in comparison of other in which different kind of
nutrients are present.
Commissary System: In this raw material are accumulated by gathering different entities,
firms and other markets in order to channelise supply trading and conversion of raw material into
final product. The food industry market like Alfredo’s Italian Restaurant is playing significant
role in serving final product by processing raw material. The required raw material is acquired by
various branches and food is being processed so as to reach out to final customers. For acquiring
continuous supply food is supplied within remote areas which is based on menus and other
aspects (Buhalis and et. al., 2019).
Assembly/Serve: This type of supply is dependent on preserving ready-made products for
long period by using various processes for storage and storing them in packages. These foods are
directly served to final customers for serving purpose. By corporate entities this supply method is
used so in context of Alfredo’s Italian Restaurant they are using this method in order to render
appropriate supply to their customer and to provide high level nutrition and wellness as well. In
order to get support over the business kitchen is the major element which is supporting business
of Alfredo’s Italian Restaurant in optimal manner.
Ready/ Prepared: Under this process with the help of prominent set up in kitchen food is
prepared by the restaurant so that the same can be used over various places such as cafes,
schools, colleges and other storage locations. These establishments are distributing food directly
to their customer, no mediator is being involved. In this respect Alfredo’s Italian Restaurant is
making various bakery products so as to enhance market capture and to enhance preparation time
of food. These products are directly handed over to retail stores and wholesaler and then supplied
to customers (Smith and et. al., 2016).
Food and beverage service methods
This basically refers to the process which involves preparation, presentation and serving
of the food and beverage to the ultimate customer. When a consumer visits a hotel or restaurant,
it avails service of consuming the food and beverage. Food is the basic necessity of a living
creature which every living person needs so it is the greatest sector that contributes to the profits
in the hospitality industry because every sector of hospitality is incomplete without this service..

There are various methods involved in food and beverage service which Amanda needs to
consider while opening Alfredo's Italian Restaurant. Some of them includes- English Service- This method requires the server to serve the food in large platter or
bowls and then the food or beverage is delivered to the table of customer by waiter.
Initially the host first check the food and then it is placed on the table. This method does
not require skilled workforce because it is easy to implement. A little space or dining area
is required under this method due to rapid turnover rate of tables. French Service- This method is applied usually by the luxury hotels as the ambience and
décor of the hotel is luxurious. Personal attention is given to each guest by the highly
skilled professional waiters. The serving in this method is little complex as from the right
all plated entries are to be served and other courses are served from left. The beverages
are to be served from right only. The chef prepares the food in front of guest as this
involves demonstrating culinary skill of the chef (Clark and Tilman, 2017)(. Cart Service/ Gueridon Service- This kind of method is applied on well designed and
planned restaurants/ dining areas. It requires compatible furniture and layout for this
elegant style of service. Under this, food is partially cooked in kitchen and is brought to
service area in the Gueridon trolley. It is suitable for meat, fish and poultry item which is
either flamed or cooked in trolley. The Chef du rang takes order, serve drinks and prepare
food at table and Commis du rang assists the former chef. Both chefs must know the
usage of fork and spoon while serving the food. It is responsible for providing highly
personalized guest service. Snak Bar Service- This method is suitable for bars and pubs. The tall stool is required to
be placed on counters so that the guests can order and enjoy the food at the counter itself.
The menu is either presented to guest or is displayed on LCD or blackboard so that guest
can directly order on counters and eat food. Self Service- It is the most common method of serving the food. The food is generally
placed at the buffet or counter and guests picks up the food and enjoy on their tables.
Payments are done either prior to food or after picking up the food. It aims at free flow of
guests in the restaurant.
 Buffet Service- This method requires the food to be displayed in chafing dish on the
counters or table. The guests are free to pick as much food as they want to consume and

plates and spoons are placed at the beginning of the counter so that guests can serve their
food on their own. It involves salads, starters, beverages, food and desserts. The staff is
responsible for continuously filling the containers so that guests can avail food easily.
This method is usually preferable for large gatherings or parties (Groover, 2016).
The Alfredo's Italian Restaurant is recommended to use snak bar service for its bar so
that customers feel easy in availing the food and beverage service. This method will help in
attracting potential guests due to its comfortable and easy technique of offering food and
beverage to guests. For restaurant, English service style is recommend as the set up is in London
which has large population of English people so this type of service method will help in
attracting the customers who can avail Italian food in English service style. As Amanda is a fresh
entrepreneur and does not acquire much knowledge in this field, it is suitable for the restaurant
because it requires less skilled staff and is easy to implement.
Menu Engineering matrix
Menu is considered as the integral part for a food and beverages output as this is helpful
in making mind of customer. This is the major reason that all food and beverages organisations
are highly concentrated on making their menu attractive and laced with prominent dishes so as to
persuade customer to make buying decisions. Besides this menu engineering is defined as
science and art under which various steps are taking place such as design, position, price. These
aspects are undertaken by an organisations in order to meet their overall objective of attaining
high profitability as well (Kot, 2018). Majorly this is imperative for Alfredo's Italian Restaurant
that they recognise those factors which can be controlled by them such as overall cost and labour
cost. This is the major reason that restaurant manager is taking whole responsibility of providing
varied resources in which by using methods of menu engineering higher profitability can be
attained. In the absence of appropriate menu this will diminish customer and their footfall in the
hotel premises. For this restaurant manager is trying to cutting down overall cost and enhancing
quality of their food which may result in enhancing overall performance of the organisation. In
order to achieve higher profitability menu engineering matrix is used by Alfredo's Italian
Restaurant which is going to help them in grabbing higher customers and earn higher profits as
well. This process is taking place by an efficient analysis as in context of menu engineering
various steps are included such as sales by quantity in menu, cost of food offered, sales a prices
and many forth. Under this aspect back office restaurant is providing solution to overcome from

the problem faced by the organisation. Four categories are inserted in menu engineering matrix
which all clubbed together so as to provide advantageous experience to their customers:
 Star (High popularity, high profit): Under this stage those items are added which are
high in sales and continuously adding profit margin to the organisation. On the other
hand modest pricing strategy is used by the organisation in order to roll out product in the
minds of customers. Within this popular and pricey products are included which is
helping the organisation to retain their loyal customers and enhance customer base as
well (Noone and Cachia, 2020).
 Plow horse (High popularity, low profit): Within this major emphasis is drawn over
determining and figuring out those items which are earning low profits and proven to be a
product which is giving less profit margin to the organisation. In order to sustain
businesses are required to rethink regarding these products so that profitability can be
maintained. This could be helpful in making more profits and earning high end margins
as well. For achieving the same restaurant is trying to reallocate price to products and
modifying ingredient of the product so that prominent quality product can be delivered to
customers.
 Puzzle (Low popularity, high profit): Within this stage those products are added which
are low in popularity but high in profit margins. These products are helpful in enhancing
overall profitability of the organisation by meeting customer's expectations. This menu
may help in intensifying sales volume through which market capture can be enhanced.
Besides this if menu of the organisation is not inviting customer to give their order this
may lead to not ordering the same by customers.
 Dog (Low popularity, low profit): Under this stage restaurant is facing low popularity
die to dynamic nature of needs and demands of their customers. Menu engineering is not
regarded as one time procedure as this is a never ending process which is required to be
altered in the context of changing environment. Perception of customer changes
according to the time due to which menu is also needed to be altered in such a way that
profitability can be enhanced. In order to attain primal objectives restaurants are required
to prepare optimal menu so that they can pitch highest customers.

Sustainable menu planning consideration
Sustainable menu planning is regarded as an essential activity which is reflecting whole
the decision making of an organisation in context of selection of food and beverages. In this
regard choice of food by customer is putting direct impact on goodwill of Alfredo's Italian
Restaurant within marketplace. Thus this is imperative that sustainable menu planning is
required to be developed which could be helpful for customer in making such choices which are
advantageous for their health. Besides this sustainable menu is helpful in taking effective
decision those are related to hospitality industry and their long life as well. In current time
environmental friendly menu is liked by customer through which profits can be boosted and
expectations of customer's can be met as well (David, David and David, 2017). These menus are
helping the companies in inviting more customers by which competitive advantage can be
received by the organisation. On the other hand in current time green going is a popular concept
in which plastic straws are banned so as to promote eco friendly practices. In the context of
Alfredo's Italian Restaurant they are drawing effective practices in order to reduce adverse
impact to environment. Some of the practices which are adopted by Alfredo's Italian Restaurant
are elaborated as under:
Reduce food waste: Under this practice Alfredo's Italian Restaurant is trying to minimise food
wastages in order to enhance profits and to minimise adverse impact over environment as well.
By reducing food wastages overall cost can be decreased by Alfredo's Italian Restaurant which is
directly drawing implications over profits and sustainability.
Go Organic: This is a concept under which environmental friendly practices are adopted by the
organisation so as to eliminate harm to environment which is caused due to excessive use of
plastic. In this Alfredo's Italian Restaurant is using paper straws so as to avoid plastic use.
Update their menu Seasonally: In every season menu is required to be update according to the
seasonal favourites. This could lead Alfredo's Italian Restaurant to attract more customer and
enhance their customer base as well (Del Chiappa, Martin and Roman, 2016).
Localize their Supply Chain: In farm to fork activities various suppliers are associated.
Inclusion of local supplier is one of the prominent step which can be used by Alfredo's Italian
Restaurant for making sustainable menu planning.

CONCLUSION
It is concluded from the above report that food and beverage is an essential part of
hospitality industry which contribute maximum to the profitability of the restaurant or hotel.
Under the given case study, food production system plays an important role because it helps to
cover every kind of food which the restaurant is willing to produce. The system must be such
that easily food can be prepared and served to the guests. The English service is the best food
and beverage service method recommended to Alfredo's for offering effective service. Further it
is concluded that menu of the restaurant must be such that it must help in achieving
sustainability. It must be simple and tangible enough so that guests are able to understand. At the
last, it is summarised that menu engineering matrix will help Alfredo's to categorise their items
in such a way that its profitability is enhanced.

REFERENCES
Books and journals
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Cao, L., 2016. System and method for image based viewing and ordering. U.S. Patent 9,384,505.
Clark, M. and Tilman, D., 2017. Comparative analysis of environmental impacts of agricultural
production systems, agricultural input efficiency, and food choice. Environmental
Research Letters. 12(6). p.064016.
David, M.E., David, F.R. and David, F.R., 2017. The quantitative strategic planning matrix: a
new marketing tool. Journal of strategic Marketing. 25(4). pp.342-352.
Del Chiappa, G., Martin, J.C. and Roman, C., 2016. Service quality of airports' food and
beverage retailers. A fuzzy approach. Journal of air transport management, m53,
pp.105-113.
Groover, M.P., 2016. Automation, production systems, and computer-integrated manufacturing.
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Sustainability. 10(4). p.1143.
Noone, B.M. and Cachia, G., 2020. Menu engineering re-engineered: Accounting for menu item
substitutes in pricing and menu placement decisions. International Journal of
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PRYCE, J., 2020. Managing workers in hospitality operations. Managing Hospitality
Experiences, p.46.
Smith and et. al., 2016. Balancing competing policy demands: the case of sustainable public
sector food procurement. Journal of Cleaner Production, 112, pp.249-256.