Chef Menu Planning Tips and Strategies

Menu planning to some people may look straightforward. You get a good idea, write it down on paper, head to the kitchen to make the first iteration and BAM, a million questions pop up at once that you didn’t know you had. A lot of people think it is easy and fun to “play” restaurant, the truth is, there is an astounding amount of leg work that goes on to the new menu in front of you at your favorite restaurant. Below I’m giving out some tips and things to look out for when you are moving forward planning a menu, or if you are just looking for more insight into the process.

Be cautious of how much equipment a single menu item uses

-        A professional kitchen is broken down into sections and each section/station has it’s own responsibilities. Each section also has specific equipment designed to produce each menu item

-        If a dish is designed with too many elements (fried, poached, baked etc) it can bog down other people on the line by using up too much equipment at once to produce just a single item. For example, below I have made a menu item that just has too much going on, so you can see how it can cause chaos:

-         Wood Oven Fired Half Chicken with Grilled/marinated Portobello Mushrooms, wild onion demi glace, and fried scallion garnish

o  This sounds great. Reads well on a menu, but could be tough to execute and takes up a lot of space

o  For the half chicken an employee will need to cook this item in their oven when it comes through

o  From there the grill cook will have to time when to put the portobellos on the grill by communicating with whoever is running the oven

o  From there a sauté cook will usually make/heat the wild onion demi on the range in a saucepan

o  Next, the fry cook will need to know and communicate when to fry the scallion garnish, too soon and it is soggy, too late and the rest of the food gets cold

o  A lot going on! But this is not an exception. This is how a very real kitchen works daily.

-        As we can see, some items could take a ton of communication, equipment, and timing to get all together at once. We as Chef’s take the time when planning a menu to ensure not just one station is bogged down, and if we can streamline the process to make service more efficient.

Balancing labor and volume of menu items per station

-        Chef’s are animals of efficiency. Number one term in the game. Designing menus is an exercise in practicing efficiency.

-        A good chef and restaurant team will design menu items based on who has what at each station. A menu mix should be spread evenly among kitchen staff to ensure no one hits a choke point during service.

-        If most of the menu is fried items, you can end up with a choke point. Too many items and garnishes coming from the grill? Choke point etc…

-        By ensuring even distribution of menu items across stations you give everyone some breathing space, let your team know you care about their workload, and you give your business the best chance for success

Seasonality

-        Seasonal cooking is more than just a farm to table trend. You see it everywhere. The reason that it is practiced so commonly by Chef’s is because this is when you also have to do the least amount of work to your product

-        Seasonal cooking allows for higher yields on product, normally less fabrication of the item, and better customer education of what’s around them locally.

-        This should be a “no-brainer” when designing menus

-        Seasonality also helps add color to dishes with the use of more produce!

-        Eating with the seasons also help develop “time and place” where you can have a fantastic experience and share a closer connection with the area you are in

Food Waste and Cost Control

-        For Chef’s this is either your favorite creative moment, or this is the biggest thorn in the side to you

-        We Chef’s try to use 100% of whatever item we are using, regardless of price

-        Finding trim/waste to use in menu items always helps the bottom line.

-        Can you add mushroom stems to a stock? Can you take the fat trimmings from beef, render them down, and do a confit dish? Parsley having a rough season and doesn’t look good for garnishes? Throw them in a stock. Are you boning out chicken to do a stuffed chicken schedule? Save the bones, roast them, and use them in a sauce/stock. There is almost always a way to use up items in professional kitchens!

-        Using waste creatively can also you help you figure out techniques like dehydrating, sauce making, pickling and confit. These cooking methods are ubiquitous with using all of your product!

These are a few of my favorite tips and thoughts to keep in mind when I design menus with my team. Be flexible and open to customer changes as well! Have a back up protein in mind, or replacement ideas ready for customers with allergies that walk in the door. Be collaborative! Regardless of talent level, listen to your team and if they have any ideas. No matter how big or small, everyone loves having their thumbprint on something. Low level/inexperienced beginners can benefit so much from a quick lesson on why their plate did or did not work and what the approach should be moving forward. I hope you take something from this, even if it is just a positive/creative mindset moving forward!

Have a great, food filled weekend!

Stephen