Take a strategic approach when initiating your menu development process and you will find yourself thrilled by the results. A properly planned menu will help you increase sales, improve margins, enhance quality and consistency, and differentiate your operation from your competition. As a core component of your service package, your food will create lasting impressions that will have your guests raving. Poorly planned menus provide little interest or value to your guests, resulting in lost business.

The menu development process is often left to the vision and responsibility of one person with little input from others. The resulting menus from this approach frequently miss the mark, sometimes with disastrous consequences. Menu costs are too high, guests don’t respond favourably, or the menu becomes too complex to execute properly. The creative energy that goes into developing a great menu is wasted if it is not focused on achieving your ultimate goals.

The following steps will guide you through a proven menu development process helping you achieve your strategic objectives. A broad cross-section of people should participate, contributing to the process from different perspectives. These people should be selected because of their knowledge of your target market, understanding of organizational standards, and commitment to delivering exceptional quality dining experiences.

Develop A Menu Plan
One of the most important tasks is to set a clear direction for the menu development process to follow. This will make it easier on those responsible for creating the dishes as well as reduce the chances of the final menu not meeting your needs. Some questions that need to be answered include:
• How should your menu reflect your brand position and concept? Consider the level of complexity, creativity, theme, style of service, variety, and role your food program plays in your operation. Is food one of your core businesses that draws people in, or is it only made available in case your guests ask?
• How many items should you have on your menu? More items increase selection but also increase training, storage, and preparation requirements. Too many menu items will reduce the sales volume per item, which could affect freshness, while too few items may not offer sufficient choices for your guests.
• What is your target cost percentage and price range? There is no one ideal cost level for every organization, but each of you have a target cost of sales level that will allow you to earn a reasonable return while providing value to your guests. Establishing price ranges for each menu category will ensure that the menu will reflect the brand positioning. For example, setting main course prices between $15.00-$35.00 with a cost target between 28-32% means that dishes should be created with plating costs between $4.20-$11.20. This helps your culinary team decide what items may work on the menu.

Create Menu Items
Using the objectives and parameters established during the planning stage, your chef can then create a list of potential dishes and begin developing recipes. Always develop at least 10% more items than you have specified within your parameters. This will allow you to eliminate dishes if they do not meet your specifications. Too often, time and effort is wasted trying to make a dish work because you need it on your menu.

Next you should schedule a series of menu testing sessions for your development team. Each dish that is being considered should be prepared and presented as it would be for your guests. Each team member will individually evaluate the dishes and score them based on criteria that you have established, such as presentation, portion, taste, and concept fit. This allows objective consideration of each dish and its ability to deliver a positive reaction from your guests.

The evaluations will then be combined and each dish will be given an average score. Dishes that do not receive a minimum average score will not be considered further as they are too far away from where they need to be. The remaining dishes should then be categorized as either approved or needing more work, and specific comments from the team members should be provided to the chef. Improvements can be made to these items and they can be presented again at a later session.

As the items are approved, the recipe should be documented and a photo of the final plated dish should be taken. This step will reduce the chance of an item being changed from what was approved after the new menu is launched. You should now be confident that you have a menu that will impress your guests, support your brand position, and help you to achieve your strategic goals.

Cost Menu
Based on the approved recipes, the cost of each menu item can be calculated. This exercise should be completed with as much accuracy as possible. Unit costs should not be estimated, but rather yield tests should be conducted to determine the true cost per unit of each ingredient. These tests will determine the unit cost of the net usable product for each ingredient and will take into account trim, shrinkage, cleaning, portioning, and waste. 

The sum of these ingredient costs is the ideal total plate cost. No process is perfect and there will always be a small amount of uncontrollable variance. To account for this, a variance allowance should then be added to the total cost (between 1-5%) to get an adjusted total cost. This value represents the cost that should be achieved with efficient operation under normal circumstances.

Set Prices
Menu prices are often set from a marketing perspective using considerations such as what competitors charge for similar items or what customers may be willing to pay. Following this approach, menu item prices can easily be set at levels that do not provide required returns or reflect the value demanded by your guests. These issues are important, but should not be the only criteria considered.

Using the adjusted item costs, standard prices can be determined using the target cost percentage levels established during planning. For example, if the adjusted item cost is $6.35 and the target food cost is 30%, then the standard price for the item is $21.17. This now becomes the starting point for making pricing decisions, and factors such as those marketing considerations mentioned above can be addressed. 

Any decrease in price will result in a higher cost percentage, thereby requiring another item to be given a higher price (lower cost percentage), offsetting the impact of this price decision. At times you may want to accept a higher cost percentage for a higher priced item because the dollar contribution will still be greater than a lower priced item at a low cost. This approach will produce a final menu with a range of price points, generating attractive margins, and providing value to your guests.