Menu Engineering for Hospitality Success

This assignment delves into the concept of menu engineering, a crucial strategy for success in the hospitality industry. It explores how analyzing dishes based on popularity and profitability can lead to menu optimization. Students will learn about factors influencing menu decisions, such as customer preferences, ingredient costs, and preparation time. The assignment emphasizes practical applications of menu engineering principles, providing insights into maximizing revenue and enhancing the dining experience.

Hospitality Operations

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
1. Identifying the key milestone of the history, origin and development of the menus and
categories of menu...........................................................................................................................1
1. History, origin and development........................................................................................1
2. Categories of Menu............................................................................................................2
3. Types of menu....................................................................................................................2
2. Roles and responsibilities of Banquet manager in food and beverage department.....................3
3. Presenting the factors and systematic approach that John Mclean follow for menu engineering
..........................................................................................................................................................4
4. Presenting the issues which are involve in implementing strategies for healthier food options
for menu...........................................................................................................................................6
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................9
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................10

INTRODUCTION
Hospitality sector provide the basic necessities such as lodging, event planning, travelling
etc. The main aim of present report is to provide the importance of hospitality sectors and the
report is based upon a case scenario in which John Mclean is appointed as a director in
Lanesborough Hotel which is one of the most luxurious hotel in London. The present study
identify and outline the key milestone of the history, origin and development of the menus in
food and beverages outlets. Report also analyses roles an responsibilities of the Banquet manager
in the food and beverage department. Further, report also explain menu engineering, factors that
affect it as well as provide systematic approach that John can uses in a restaurant. Study also
presents the issues which are involved in implementing a wide range of strategies for healthier
options.
1. Identifying the key milestone of the history, origin and development of the
menus and categories of menu
Menu is a list of food and beverage that are offered to many customers and it can be
different for various restaurant.
1. History, origin and development
The first menu is appeared in China in second half of the 18th century. Before that the
people eating establishment or table d'hote served dishes which were chosen by the chef. The
word menu is the terminology of cuisine which is French origin. Menu is a list of prepared food
in which people choose their options and order food from, in a restaurant (Gursoy, 2018). The
establishment of restaurant and menus allow customers to choose their favourite dishes from the
unseen dishes that is actually produced according to the customer satisfaction. As the year
passes, various types of restaurant produces their own menus in order to attract wide range of
customers towards them.
In earlier times, menus were decided on simple plain paper and then they introduce on
menu boards or in a large poster or display boards to look more attractive. In 2000, there is
sudden new trend comes in the format of online menu, which restaurant introduce new menu
system in digital displays and online menu. Though, it is quite difficult to maintain it on internet
system but during the passes of year, this become very familiar and customers book their order
after seeing online menus.
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2. Categories of Menu
In the food and beverage sector, there are basically five types of menu which are
mentioned below:
 A La carte menu: In this menu, price of each food item is separated and it also contain
greater choices for their customers. Therefore, it include many number of food choices
for them and the prices of A la Carte items are more expensive than the table d'Hote
menu. But the greatest advantage of using this menu customers feel greater flexibility and
the restaurant also offered high quality of food items. Hence, the customer ordered high
range of food products such as breakfast breads, speciality eggs dishes and juices or
waffles from A la Carte menu.
 Static Menu: This menu is offer all year long. This menu is basically used in famous
restaurant such as Mc Donald, Pizza Hut and Burger King. There are many restaurant
who create their own menu in order to attract their customers. Over the course of time,
fast food chain are also added their new options for the standard menus at the time of
promotional periods as well as holidays. But on the other side, static menu is still a prime
reason for many customers to order the fast food restaurant.
 Du Jour menu: These menu are decided for the special dish and they are changed day by
day and as per the availability of the seasonal items. In addition to this, this types of
menu is also offered at special discount for the customers. While many restaurant also
offer a soup du Jour or soup of a particular day.
3. Types of menu
 Breakfast menu -This menu includes a small meal that can be consumed at morning,
This menu includes basic items such as milk, sandwich, omelette etc.
 Lunch menu – This menu includes a meal in consumed middle of a day, it includes a
nutritional diet that is necessary for every individual.
 Dinner menu –This type of menu includes the last meal of a day which includes starters,
soup and main course.
 Wine/ Beverage Menu: In food and beverage sector, many restaurant offer wide range
of beverage an wine menu for their customers. This basically includes special variety of
wines, teas, coffee and cocktails. Even customers also order their own choice of wine for
their particular meal (Buhalis and Leung, 2018).
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 Dessert Menu: This type of menus are available in almost restaurant and for this dessert
menu, many restaurant are famous (Sheehan, Grant and Garavan, 2018). For example,
Longhorn Steakhouse boasts a gourmet key lime pie as well as molten lava cake which is
included in their dessert menu.
2. Roles and responsibilities of Banquet manager in food and beverage
department
Position title – Banquet manager
Report to- Director of food & beverage
Roles and responsibilities -
 A banquet manager play their important role in running the entire show and they have
extra skills and good coordination power that directly affect the success of a banquet.
 They work with banquet sales directors and chefs in order to make sure that all the terms
of contract which Lanesborough Hotel has signed are met and the guest are receive the
highest quality of food services and overall experience. Banquet manager have various
roles and responsibilities i.e. mentioned below:
 Post sale Marketing: The first role of banquet manager is to review the number of guest,
type of location and room layout. Because this will help them to hire staff as per the
requirements and how the room should be set up and how many types of meals are served
and other necessary things are required such as table, chair and carving station etc.
 Planning: Planning is the main responsibility for a banquet manager and this includes
when cocktail are served, guest are seated and dinner is served, it all should be in front of
the eyes of the manager (Roles and responsibility of Banquet manager, 2018). They are
only responsible for everything needed to be fulfil and taking inventory of tables, chairs
and table clothes. Deciding a menu is also a responsibility of a banquet manager. While
on the other side, executive chef is responsible for the same item the banquet staff will
use such as food racks or other equipments.
 Staffing: Under staffing, training should also be provided by the manager. As the
employees are hired, they must be oriented, not with the food services but they should
also know how to manage customer relations. Therefore, general training should be
provided by banquet manager such as plate placement, wine services and other guest
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request (Ali, Murphy and Nadkarni, 2018). They also determine that the distribution of
gratuities which should also be included into the bill.
 Kitchen Liaison: After the sales director meets with the chefs, the banquet manager and
chef work together and plan for the meal. As banquet generally require servers in order to
serve the food in plates. During plating, row of people send the plates from one another
and each of them add food item in their plates. Therefore, it is another important role
which a Banquet manager play during an occasion. On the other side, in the food and
beverage industry, chef may start the line and place the main entrée item on a plate and
the banquet manager is the last performing manager who makes sure that each and every
plates should be look professionals before they are served (Victorino and et.al., 2018).
 Post event duties: In this, banquet manager will makes a small notes about the items or
the facility which are needed to repair and replaced in order to ensure the proper
inventory. For this reason, they will also conduct a meeting with sales director to discuss
the problem or make suggestion for their future events.
3. Presenting the factors and systematic approach that John Mclean follow for
menu engineering
Definition of Menu Engineering: It is the study of the profitability and popularity of menus
items. The main aim of this approach is to raise the profitability as per guest. Recently, many
hospitality sectors have adopted this new method called menu engineering which further help to
maximizes their current profit and by implementing this strategy which will also help to run or
expand the business in next further level of success (Leung, 2018).
Why menu engineering - The menu engineering is also used by Lanesborough Hotel by
displays a list of product and service in order to maximizes the profitability of a restaurant or
hospitality sector.
There are so many factors that affect the menu planning decision and some of them are as
follows:
 High competition in market: This is the main factor that directly affect the company's
overall performance such that every restaurant and hotels are trying to maximizes their
profit and for this reason, they offer different prices for food and services to their
customers. Therefore, Lanesborough Hotel should also uses new techniques in order to
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Menu engineering. Menu decision planning depends directly on the tough competition in
market. Many restaurant offer seasonal pricing strategy in order to draw attention of
many customers.
 Adopting new trends: It is another factor that also affect the menu engineering. It is
quite necessary for Lanesborough Hotel to use and adopt new and sudden change in
technologies in order to attract wide range of customers (Breidbach and et. al., 2018). It
has been analysed that being on the country, front requires more new and adoptable
recipes rather than the people residing in suburb area because they did not accept the
changes.
 The kitchen parameter: This parameter is compact and help in the preparation food
which are mention in the menu chart and does not motivate the target audience by
producing extra non- producible items.
 Dietary change on demand: There are some restaurant in food and beverage sector
which do not met the demands of their customers because most of them are health
conscious and do not offer those products as per their requirements. Therefore, it also
affect the menu engineering decision and as a result, it cannot help to maximizes the
profit.
Systematic Approach: There are various systematic approach which John can follow for
menu engineering in Celeste Restaurant in Lanesborough Hotel and it is mentioned below:
 Cost a menu: It means that breaking down the items into many folds so that customers
will easily come to know the prices of the menu. This will overcome the factor of high
competition in market. If John Mclean establish cost of their menu to the penny for food
then it will help to maximizes their profit and also attract wide range of customers.
 Categorize menu: John should also split its menu system into various categories of sub-
sections which help to choose customer's order in easy manner (Cetin and Dincer, 2014).
Categorization of menu into different ways will help to determine what things will
customers can order.
 Design menu: This approach will help John to overcome the factor of dietary change and
adopting new change. John should decide their menu in such a format that it helps to
attract wide range of customers and it should also separated veg and non- veg food.
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Designing a menu card in such a format that it looks more attractive and innovative so
that it will easily catch many customers eyes.
 Test new menu design: Always adopting new changes should be strategy of John. As to
run a company in better way, it is quite necessary to adopt all sudden change to cope up
with this tough competition in market (Losekoot and Theresa, 2018). Always come with
new flavour of food which will help to attract wide range of customers towards them. It
has been analysed that people always like new and sudden innovation and it will help to
draw attention of many customers towards them.
4. Presenting the issues which are involve in implementing strategies for
healthier food options for menu
There are six basic nutrients in every food item as described below -
1. Protein – It is very essential for good health, protein provides the building blocks of the
body no only for muscles. Each and every cell from bone to skin to hair contains protein.
2. Carbohydrates – It provides fuel to body, especially the central nervous system and brain.
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Illustration 1: Basic steps of menu engineering

3. Fats – Fats are high in calories but those calories are an essential source of energy for the
body.
4. Vitamins – Vitamins are important for preventing disease and staying healthy. There are
13 important vitamins that the body requires to function proper;y such as vitamins A, C,
B and D.
5. Minerals – Minerals also support the body, they are very important for various body
functions such as building strong teeth and bones, staying hydrated and regulating
metabolism. Most of the common minerals are iron, calcium and zinc.
6. Water – Water is very crucial for every system in a human body, nobody can survive
without water. It helps in improving mood and brain function.
Nutrition guidelines
Nutrition concern while purchasing
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It is very important to concern about nutritional facts in every food item before
purchasing it for getting a good health. It is important to consume more protein and carbohydrate
for sport-person or individual going to gym . On the other hand, overweight individuals needs to
avoid consuming food containing high amount of fat.
Nutrition concern while storing
It is important to identify the storing method to preserve the nutritions in the food, fresh
or frozen fruits or vegetables contains more nutrients as compared to canned ones. Canning may
reduce the sum of few vitamins by half. Therefore, freezing food can help to preserve the
nutrients in the best manner.
While planning menu for food and beverage industry, there are many issues which are
involve in implementing a wide range of strategies that help to recognize nutrition concerns for
healthier options and these are mentioned below:
 High calorific recipe is the biggest issue which a restaurant may faces while
implementing the strategies for healthier food options for a menu. Generally, people
avoid the food which contain high calorific value and that is why John should keep this
point in his mind while planning for a healthy food option in their menu card system
( O’Neill and McGinley, 2014).
 Shifting customer preferences is the another problem which is faced by the restaurant
while planning for healthy food. Today, customer mainly focus on those restaurant who
provide quick service and best quality of food products and when they find this, they
sudden changes their preferences from the last option to new.
 Many customers only needs healthy and diet food while going in a restaurant. At that
time they search for a menu which should be contain all healthy and diet food items. But
on the other side, if the manager of a restaurant is having a diet and healthy food menu
card but does not have good variety of food items. Then the customers are not satisfied
with this and as a result they go from the place.
 It has been analysed that food allergies are increases day by day and around 10.8 percent
of adults are having food allergies (Bowie and et.lal.,2016). Restaurant manager faces
problems because may be one item is liked by a customers but the same item may cause
allergic problem for another. At that time, this create a burden for them to select what is
good for the person and what is not.
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 Another important issue which a manager of a restaurant faces problem while
implementing the healthy food choices for their customers is the sudden change in the
demand of their customers. Generally, the managers of the restaurant tries to implement
new strategies in order to provide their customers best result for the welfare of their
healthy diet (Van der Wagen and Goonetilleke, 2015). As customers suddenly changes
their taste and adopt new which further creates problem for the managers in order to
decide menu for their customers.
 As it has been analysed that the restaurant who offer healthy diet to their customers,
people move that place only in order to stay themselves healthy and fit. As healthy diet
help to promote their lifestyle and stay them fit and strong, therefore it is quite necessary
for them to keep providing those food products which are helpful for them and produce
best quality of products as per the requirement of their customers (Kim, Lee and
Fairhurst, 2017).
CONCLUSION
By summing up above report it has been concluded that hospitality operations have their
own importance in the hospitality sector. As the report present the history, origin and
development of menu system from last so many years and in this new era, restaurant uses online
menu card to place an order of their customers. Report also describe the roles and responsibilities
of Banquet Manager who plays an important role from planning the menu set up to till the end of
any event. Report also concluded that Menu Engineering is fine technique to develop or modify
the menu in order to maximizes their profit and it also states some factor and systematic
approach to overcome those factors. Further it also concluded that a restaurant also faces many
issues in order to implement strategy for providing healthy food diet to their customers.
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REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Ali, A., Murphy, H. C. and Nadkarni, S., 2018. Hospitality employers’ perceptions of technology
for sustainable development: The implications for graduate employability. Tourism and
Hospitality Research. 18(2). pp.131-142.
Bowie, D. And et.a l., 2016. Hospitality marketing. Routledge.
Breidbach, C. and et. al., 2018. Operating without operations: how is technology changing the
role of the firm?. Journal of Service Management.
Buhalis, D. and Leung, R., 2018. Smart hospitality—Interconnectivity and interoperability
towards an ecosystem. International Journal of Hospitality Management. 71. pp.41-50.
Cetin, G. and Dincer, F. I., 2014. Influence of customer experience on loyalty and word-of-
mouth in hospitality operations. Anatolia. 25(2). pp.181-194.
Gursoy, D., 2018. Future of hospitality marketing and management research. Tourism
management perspectives. 25. pp.185-188.
Kim, S. H., Lee, K. and Fairhurst, A., 2017. The review of “green” research in hospitality, 2000-
2014: Current trends and future research directions. International Journal of
Contemporary Hospitality Management. 29(1). pp.226-247.
Leung, R., 2018. Smart hospitality: Taiwan hotel stakeholder perspectives. Tourism Review.
Losekoot, E. and Theresa, Z., 2018. Retirement villages: Hospitals or hospitality operations–
Management attributes and traits. Journal of Hospitality and Tourism Management. 34.
pp.75-81.
Sheehan, M., Grant, K. and Garavan, T., 2018. Strategic talent management: A macro and micro
analysis of current issues in hospitality and tourism. Worldwide Hospitality and Tourism
Themes. 10(1). pp.28-41.
Van der Wagen, L. and Goonetilleke, A., 2015. Hospitality Management, Strategy and
Operations. Pearson Higher Education AU.
Victorino, L. and et. al., 2018. Service operations: what have we learned?. Journal of Service
Management. 29(1). pp.39-54.
W. O’Neill, J. and McGinley, S., 2014. Operations research from 1913 to 2013: The Ford
assembly line to hospitality industry innovation. International Journal of Contemporary
Hospitality Management. 26(5). pp.663-678.
Online
Roles and responsibility of Banquet manager. 2018. [Online] Available
through:<https://work.chron.com/banquet-manager-15494.html>.
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