Menu Planning and Product Development: Y/601/1762 Report Analysis

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of menu planning and product development for Prime Gelato, an Italian-themed restaurant in London considering an Italian-Japanese fusion menu. It delves into the principles and factors of recipe development, considering nutritional value, taste, quality, and price. The report examines factors influencing menu planning decisions, including price, cook time, budget, and seasonal ingredients. It discusses the factors that influence service methods, such as menu type, employee availability, and financial resources, exploring hand service, buffet, and cart service options. The report outlines the stages of menu product development planning, including idea generation, screening, concept testing, business analysis, product development, test marketing, and market performance review. It also evaluates the impact of economic and social factors on the development process, along with a review of customer requirements, justification of the new food concept, and recommendations for implementation. The report concludes with a review of the student's performance related to developing and launching the new menu.

Menu Planning and Product
Development

TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
TASK A...........................................................................................................................................4
AC 1.1 Principles and factors of recipe development.................................................................4
AC 1.2 Factors that affects the menu planning decisions...........................................................5
AC 1.3 Discussing the factors that influence service methods...................................................6
AC 2.1 Stages of menu product development planning..............................................................7
AC 2.2 Evaluating the influences of various factors on development process...........................8
TASK B...........................................................................................................................................9
3.1 Justification of menu design to reflect the menu compilation and recipe development.......9
AC 3.2 Justifying the development of the food service environment for supporting recipe,
menu and service style..............................................................................................................10
AC 4.1 Findings of research into customers requirements.......................................................10
AC 4.2 Justifying the choice of new food concept...................................................................11
AC 4.3 Recommendations on the implementation of new food concept..................................11
AC 4.4 Reviewing own performance related to developing and launching the new menu.....11
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................12
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................13

INTRODUCTION
Menu planning is the practise of deciding the types of meals in a menu. It involves what
should be included in a menu such as main dishes, light food, desserts, beverages etc. The
planning procedure involves forecasting of the customers needs, preferences and availability of
resources upon which the ideas for the dishes are revolved around (Eberhardt and et.al., 2015.).
Product development is the systematic process of creating a new product which is distinct from
other products available in the market. This also include adding new features to a product that
provides additional benefits to the customers.
The present report is going to cover menu planning and product development of Prime
Gelato, an Italian-themed restaurant in London. The restaurant is thinking of introducing new
concept in its menu. The assignment will highlight the principles and factors of recipe
development, factors affecting menu planning decisions, elements that influences the service
methods, various stages involved in product development planning and different factors that
impacts the development process.
TASK A
AC 1.1 Principles and factors of recipe development
Prime Gelato is planning to present a new food concept to its customers in the form of
fusion dishes of Italian with Japanese cultures. The reason why the restaurant picked this theme
because of the popularity of Japanese food in the country like Sushi dishes are the all time
favorite food items of this culture and creating a menu that involves Italian and Japanese
elements would help it in bringing a drastic change in its menu.
Recipe development is the process of setting clear set of instructions for cooking a dish
with consistency. In a restaurant, this aspect is purposeful because it helps it in producing dishes
with utmost consistency that best meets the customer's expectations. It also assists the staff of
Prime Gelato in planning, purchasing and maintaining inventory (Gordon and Brezinski, 2016).
Reasons for developing menu are :
 Coping with the rapidly changing taste and preferences of the customers.
 Increasing the profitability of the restaurant by introducing something from what already
is being served in the market.
 Creating an image of restaurant of being an innovator in terms of products and services.
Principles of recipe development :

Identification of nutritious value in the menu : Preparing a recipe must involve the
nutritious and protein element while thinking of creating a new dish. Chefs of the Prime Gelato
must consider this principle while developing a recipe of dishes.
Taste : People pay for the taste of the food. If the dishes served are not tasty, its a disaster
in the menu. Chefs of the restaurant have to take care of taste element along with the nutrient-
dense factor in the recipe development.
Quality : There is a golden rule which says that customers wants superior quality goods
at the most reasonable price. While developing a recipe quality of ingredients that are supposed
to be used in dishes must be taken care. This is necessary also because of the health and safety
standards set by the government. An argument against the golden rule is that, in today's time,
some customers are willing to pay more in order to get the supreme quality food ( Mao and et.al.,
2016).
Price : Developing a recipe within the affordable limit is the essence of this principle.
Setting prices too high of the dishes might discourages the people in trying them out. Therefore,
it involves selecting those ingredients that could help in keeping the cost of producing dish low.
Advantages of change:
 Beating cut throat competition from rival restaurants.
 Meeting customers changing preferences (Dilawar and et.al., 2018).
 Building competitive advantage Attracting new segment of the market that would help in increasing number of customers.
Disadvantages of change:
 Developing new menu involve lots of energy, money and time of the restaurant.
 Chefs may fail to execute the plan appropriately. Sometimes, it happens that a plan looks
too good on papers but it could not be materialize in reality.
AC 1.2 Factors that affects the menu planning decisions
There are different factors that affects the decisions in menu planning which are
discussed below :
Price : This factor is one the most crucial element that influences the menu planning
decisions. The prices of the raw materials that are to used in the creation of dishes will affect the
selling price of the dishes. Thus, appropriate pricing of the dishes in the menu has to be done as

serving quality food with low prices might not generate good revenues for the restaurant and
increasing price will not attract customers.
Availability of cook time : This is another factor impacts the menu planning decision.
Including dishes that takes long time must have proper provisions regarding its service like
keeping things pre-cooked (What are the factors affecting meal planning, 2012).
Budget : Availability of funds determines the types of dishes that could be included in
the menu of Prime Gelato. Highly sophisticated dishes could only be made if it has enough funds
for purchasing raw materials, crockery, training to chefs for developing such dishes etc.
Availability of seasonal raw materials : If the dishes in the menu are supposed to
revolved around seasonable vegetables and fruits, then this factor affects the menu planning
decision whether to include such dishes in the new food concept or not.
Decor : Decorating dishes and making it more presentable provides the additional
experience to the customers. Thus, this is the reason why restaurant focuses on decor of its dishes
and also decor of the restaurant. Modifying the interiors accordion to the cultures involved in
new food concept will provide a meaning to the restaurant's new menu.
AC 1.3 Discussing the factors that influence service methods
How the food is going to be served from kitchen to customer's table is affected by various
factors that are mentioned below:
Menu : Menu affects the kind of service method, a restaurant will choose. For example,
if restaurant's offering are light food, it would use self service method, buffet system. And if
there is proper dining involving sophisticated dishes that are to be eaten with fork and knives,
then it would employ hand service method (Salvador and et.al., 2017).
Availability of employees : If the Prime Gelato has adequate staff, it can choose had
service method for attending each specific guests separately. And id there is shortage of
employees, it will have to either employ more staff to serve people or it can choose table service
method.
Financial resources: Availability of funds impacts the decision of selecting a particular
service method in Prime Gelato.
There are various ways of serving food to the customers:

Hand service : In this method, a waiter attends specific number of guests such as a one
server for maximum 3 customers. These servers generally stand behind the table and serve
particular guests at a time.
 Advantage of this method is that customers are adequately served and it also leads to
avoidance of messing things up when a particular server serves many tables at a time.
 Disadvantage is that this method requires more staff for service which increases the cost
of operations of restaurant.
Simple Buffet : In this method, restaurant serves food by placing it on line on the table.
It is a kind of self service method, where customers serves themselves or make minute requests
to staff standing on the other side of table.
 Advantage is that wastage of food is avoided as people tends to take food that as per
their eating capability.
 Disadvantage is that last minute special requests of customs cannot be fulfilled.
Cart service : Under this method, half cooked food is brought to service area in a trolley
and rest of cooking is performed in front of the customers (Types of Service, 2019).
 Advantage is that higher customer satisfaction level is achieved by delivering
personalised services.
 Disadvantage is that high level of scrutiny by customers.
AC 2.1 Stages of menu product development planning
The different stages involved are:
Idea generation : The idea could be generated from different sources such as changing
preferences of customers, change in lifestyles, leveraging on competitors' weaknesses, health and
safety standards etc. These could be known by conducting a market research.
For example, Prime Gelato generated the idea of creating dishes of Japanese and Italian
culture because of the popularity of both kinds of food in the country.
Idea screening : A complete evaluation is done before the idea is accepted or rejected.
For example, restaurant questioning aspects such as is there a demand of launching a new food
concept, are there available resources by which new products could develop etc.

Testing of concept: In this stage, the concept of food is tested. Like thinking whether
consumer understand the idea of fusion dishes, whether the consumers will accept the new food
concept etc (Stages Process Steps of new product development, 2012.).
Business analysis/ Feasibility studies: A detailed analysis is conducted regarding the
profitability, cost, demand, demand nature such as seasonal or regular, potential competitor of
new food concept, estimated sales of the new products, advertisement and promotions expenses
etc. These feasibility studies depicts the viability of the proposal whether it will be a profitable
concept or not for the restaurant.
Product development: In this stage after all the viability and feasibility reports, the
restaurant would develop the new menu and include the fusion dishes in it. The newly developed
menu would be made available to the customers for the consumption.
Test Marketing : This refers to the introduction of new menu to a small segment of the
market for testing the success rate of the meals included in the menu. If the menu impresses at
this stage, it is then launches it on larger scale. If the products fails to impress the customers,
necessary improvements are done for making it more saleable. Sales mix is the tool for
maximising the profits of restaurant which is decided by it at this stage. It is the ratio of
proportion of each products to restaurant's total sales. In test marketing stage, Prime Gelato will
exclude those dishes that had very less success rate for making its sales mix more profitable
(Fuller 2016).
Reviewing of market performance : The restaurant would review the performance of its
dishes in terms of volume of sales, customer's review, customer's satisfaction with elements such
as service, after sales service, staff, ambience, decor, quality of products, etc.
AC 2.2 Evaluating the influences of various factors on development process
Different factors impacts the development process in the restaurant which are discussed
below:
Economic factors: Factors such as inflation rates, per capita income of people,
purchasing power have an impact on the development process of Prime Gelato. For example, in
the high inflation time, purchasing power of individual decreases and prices of goods and
services increases. High prices of raw material and wages of workers would lead to high cost of
production for the restaurant which would ultimately make the products expensive for target
market.

Social factors: Constantly changing preferences of customers, lifestyles, demographics,
peoples' frequency of visiting restaurant, culture and beliefs of place significantly influence the
development process of menu and dishes. For example, people are becoming more health
consigns and demands high nutrient food from the restaurant, this factor greatly impacts the
decision of including low calorie and high protein value dishes in menu.
Resources: Availability of adequate resource in terms of man, materials and machinery
affects the developmental process of the Prime Gelato. Funds are required for conducting
activities related product development. It involves money for undertaking market research,
experimenting the with the flavours for finding out the perfect flavours, test marketing for
examining the success rate of new menu etc (Vega, 2016).
Also, staff is required for creating new dishes , for service and other staff for managing
all the activities. Existing machineries and kitchen equipment are capable of producing new
dishes in the menu.
Media plays a great role in marketing the new menu in the target market. Social media
can be effectively used by the restaurant for communicating the information regarding its new
offerings to the public. Various promotional activities could be done on social media and print
media by advertising about the new dishes, it is going to offer.
Skills of staff holds importance in the sense that executive chefs are responsible are
creating new and innovative products and is also responsible for maintaining the consistency in
the dishes. Such skills of executive chef helps restaurant to stand out from the crowd. Servers
and waiters skills of pleasantly treating the customers and satisfying them to the utmost level
assists Prime Gelato in delivery the products and services that best meets the expectations of the
consumers (Horacek and et.al., 2018).

TASK B
3.1 Justification of menu design to reflect the menu compilation and recipe development
AC 3.2 Justifying the development of the food service environment for supporting recipe, menu
and service style
AC 4.1 Findings of research into customers requirements
AC 4.2 Justifying the choice of new food concept
AC 4.3 Recommendations on the implementation of new food concept
AC 4.4 Reviewing own performance related to developing and launching the new menu
Covered in PPT
CONCLUSION
From the above project report, it can be summarised that new things always attracts
people. Prime Gelato idea of launching new concept was based on this reason only. It decided to
launch new menu for reviving and increasing its profitability and for gaining competitive edge
by serving exactly what consumers requires. Further, the assignment concluded that social
factors such as changing lifestyles, ethnicity and consumers beliefs plays a great role in the
decisions regarding menu planning and product development. The study also showed different
styles of service such as hand service, buffet system, cart service method that have their own
benefits and pitfalls. Like hand service provide highly personalised services but increases the
cost of operations as a server is meant attend a specific table at a time.

REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Dilawar, N and et.al., 2018. Understanding citizen issues through reviews: A step towards data
informed planning in smart cities. Applied Sciences, 8(9), p.1589.
Eberhardt, K.R and et.al., 2015. Method For Facilitating Menu Planning. U.S. Patent
Application 14/432,009.
Fuller, G. W., 2016. New food product development: from concept to marketplace. CRC Press.
Gordon, R. T. and Brezinski, M. H., 2016. The complete restaurant management guide.
Routledge.
Horacek, T.M and et.al., 2018. Development and validation of the Full Restaurant Evaluation
Supporting a Healthy (FRESH) Dining Environment Audit. Journal of Hunger &
Environmental Nutrition. pp.1-20.
Mao, X and et.al., 2016, December. Recipe recommendation considering the flavor of regional
cuisines. In 2016 International Conference on Progress in Informatics and Computing
(PIC) .(pp. 32-36). IEEE.
Salvador, A and et.al., 2017. Learning cross-modal embeddings for cooking recipes and food
images. In Proceedings of the IEEE conference on computer vision and pattern
recognition. (pp. 3020-3028).
Vega, D., 2016. Present and future restaurant management competencies: an industry
perspective (Doctoral dissertation, Kansas State University).
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