Domain IV Topic A- Menu Planning

2. D. Clients

(1)Age/life cycle stage

  1. Children want different food than adults. Children for the most part like less strong foods while adults prefer more complex foods.

(2)Cultural/religious influence

  1. Chinese and Mexican- no milk, little cheese
  2. Mexican- most foods are fried, liberal fats
  3. Indochinese- calcium intake from dairy is low; get calcium form tofu, fish pastes
  4. Middle Easterners- bulgur and rice are often consumed
  5. Kosher (Jewish religion)- no pork, shellfish; no meat and dairy at the same meal.
  6. Mormons- no caffeine, no alcohol
  7. Muslim- no pork, gelatin made form pork, alcohol

(3)Satisfaction measurement

  1. Surveys- a questionnaire can be given to customers concerning the foods available on your menu and foods they’d like available. This gives you direct feed back of changes to make in your menu.
  2. Sales data- customer’s preference can be determined by looking at the number of sales for each product. If the sales for chicken sandwiches in high, this may indicate that your customer likes chicken.

E. Operational influences

(1)Equipment

  1. Equipment influences the menu in that if you don’t have baking equipment your restaurant won’t be able to offer bread made from scratch. Instead frozen dough will be ordered for bread products.

(2)Labor

  1. The level of experience and skill that your labor has determines the food you can produce. If you have labor that is not skilled in cooking you will have to produce more convenience, pre-prepared foods.

(3)Budget

  1. The budget you have available influences your menu in that you may not be able to hire a professional chef resulting in less complex food choices available on the menu.

F. External influences

(1)Trends

  1. Food trends: organic, high protein, all natural, and gourmet.
  2. These trends influence menu development because if they are not accounted for you will loose customers.

(2)Seasonal

  1. The price of produce changes from season to season. When a product is out of season it will be more expensive, making the menu item it is apart of more expensive as well.

(3)Crisis

  1. Food related crisis effect menu items. For example, Mad Cow disease may affect the availability of beef as well as your customer’s desire to consume it.
  2. Another example could be if a drought were to occur drastically decreasing vegetable production. In this case vegetables would become more expensive making it difficult to keep them on the menu.