MENU PLANNING

FACTORS INFLUENCING THE PLANNING OF MENU FOR MASS/BULK CATERING.

In mass catering units some of the main factors influencing the planning of menus are as follows

1. COST: This is one of the main considerations in menu planning. The cost of the menu should be within the budget allowances for any unit to be economically viable, whether it is run for profit or no profit no loss basis

 2. EASE OF PREPARATION: Since mass catering units provide meals for large numbers of people, ease of preparation for any dish must be considered. Elaborate preparation is time consuming and may result in I delays in service of prepared foods leading to bad reputation and an appearance of inefficiency.

 3. EASE OF SERVICE: While planning menu for large numbers, dishes which require elaborate garnish presentation and service must be eliminated as this results in slow service which holds-up the entire operation. 

4. INCORPORATION OF LEFTOVERS: Menus for mass catering should be planned in such a way that leftovers in one meal can be incorporated in the next meal as far as possible to avoid wastage. 

5. CYCLIC MENU: Menus should be planned in sets for a certain length of time eg. For a week or a month or so and then repeated all over again for ease of operations. Menus can be changed after periods of every 3 or 6 months to incorporate seasonal foods, thus providing variety economically.

  

MENU

The term Menu refers to the list of items or a list of food.

Types of menu

Table d hote or Set price menu

A menu consisting meal usually of 2 or 4 courses at a set price. A choice of the dish may be offered at all courses.

A la carte menu

A menu with all dishes individually priced. A true A la carte dish should be cooked to order and the customer should be prepared to wait.

Cyclic menu

This is the menu which is compiled to cover a given period of time, one month, a fortnight or one week, etc., they consist of a number of set menus for a particular establishment, such as industrial catering, institutional catering, and welfare catering.

Hospital menu

 This usually takes a form of menu card given to the patient the day before serving so that his or her preferences can be ticked and served accordingly.

Points to be considered while planning the menu

ü Competition be aware of any competition in the locality including price and quality, As a result, it may be wiser to produce a menu quite different.

ü Location Study the area in which your establishment is situated and the potential target market of the customer.

ü Analyze the type of customer. The type of customer you are planning to cater for eg office goers require quick service than youths.

ü Estimated customer spend It is very important when catering is done, the menu planner must have the knowledge of how much a customer can spend for his food and price accordingly.

ü Availability of staff & equipment Assess the availability and capability of kitchen staff in relation to the equipment in hand.

ü Availability of supplies (seasonal and local) While planning a menu it is very important to know the availability of supplies, certain foods are available seasonally and some are locally supplied.

ü Balance The food should neither be heavy or very light. The food must not have the same color, flavor, seasoning, and presentation The menu should be balanced uniformly.

ü Nutritive value when compiling a menu it is important to consider that the food should have enough nutritive properties. The use of commodities and the method of cooking must preserve the nutritive value of the food.

MENU PLANNING

INTRODUCTION: The menu is the centerpiece of any catering establishment. Therefore menu planning is may be considered as one of the critical activities of foodservice operation. The process of planning a menu must be thoroughly understood. A menu represents the range of food and beverage items offered in a restaurant. When a menu is represented on a card it is referred to as a menu card. The menu refers to a list of items, which are available in a restaurant.

CATERING POLICY:

The menu planning process starts with the mission of the establishment. Menu planners need to be fully conversant with them as the framework within which to create the menu. Policy considerations for planning the menu are

ü The customers to whom you have to be reached

ü The price level acceptable to the market segment

ü The quality standard that have to be maintained

ü Ranges of dishes to be offered

ü The nutritional factors of the food.

ü The desired food cost

ü The equipment and skills the investor is willing to spend on.

v Guest expectation: Guest is the central reason why we are in business. His needs and wants have to be fulfilled. The menu must provide the kind of food the guest wants.

v Price consideration: Guests like a variety of prices to adapt to their budget. A menu must have a range of items that fit into every budget. Pricing can only be fixed in relation to competitive prices. No business likes to under-price or over-prices its products, but prices have to be backed by quality.

v Complete knowledge of the cuisine: It is important for the menu planner to have a thorough knowledge of the cuisine. This knowledge helps him to address the following issues crucial to the operation

v Selection of staff: The staff must have the cooking and service skills. The absence of it leads to poor standard of production and service of food.

v Preparation and storage conditions: Some raw materials require special storage conditions. Perishables will need deep freezers for storage while desserts and salads will need cool preparation area. Hence it is very essential to ensure that there is sufficient infrastructure to run the operation.

v Preparation times: Guest does not want items that have long preparation times. Menus must take reasonable time for preparation without much delay

v Presentation: It is said that presentation stimulates a guest's appetite. The menu planner must know how the item will be presented, its accompaniments, garnishes and service-ware.

v Balanced dish: It is very important for the menu planner to ensure that the food consists of sufficient nutrients. A balanced dish must have carbohydrates, proteins, minerals, and vitamins.

MENU BALANCE

A menu must be balanced to appeal to customers. We all know that tastes vary in every field, especially when it comes to cuisine. To be able to maximize profits it is necessary to give a well thought out menu spread.

Aesthetic Balance

All dishes must have a gastronomic balance in terms of form, color, texture and flavor. The appetite lies in the eyes and not the stomach. A simple item can be presented well and create appetite than a wholesome meal just piled on a plate. Let's look at each

Ø Color: A dish can be ruined with color monotony. A menu planner looks into this detail. One has to take into consideration the loss of color of dishes after cooking. Garnishes are a great contributor to color bg, green peas look good with orange carrots and white potatoes accompanying a golden fried fish.

Ø Texture: Assembling components of a dish of similar consistency and texture can only tend to create boredom for the plate. Soft entrees music be accompanied by hard or crunchy side dishes. Conversely, firm items must be accompanied by soft side dishes.

Ø Flavor: The contrasting flavors of some items seem natural to go together. For e.g. sweet goes with sour, bland with spicy, lamb chops with mint sauce etc. Dishes like these are accentuated with contra flavors.

Ø Form: Shapes bring variety to a dish. Chefs can create shapes with vegetables and meats to create appeal. Certain terms in cooking are used regularly like a cube; julienne, mashed, etc. contrasting shapes enhances the appeal of the dishes.

Ø Nutritional balance: The basic purpose of eating is to give nutrition to the body. This becomes even more important in today's age when people have become health and weight conscious. It is not the quantity one eats, it is the quality. The average intake of the male is 2500 calories. These calories may increase for people with physical occupations by about 300 calories. The basic blocks of food are carbohydrates, proteins, fats, minerals, and vitamins. Normally each meal should provide a third of the nutritional balance, assuming a person has three to five meals a day, calorie requirements and nutrition must be distributed over all meals a day.

CLASSIFICATION OF MENU

The menu is classified into the following

A la carte menu, Table d'hote menu and cyclic menu

§  A la carte menu

Menu in which each food item is separately priced, in order to give the guest a choice to suit his taste and budget. The choices offered in different courses are many

§  Table d'hote menu

It is also known as a set menu. The Menu in which the entire meal is priced and charged, irrespective of whether the guest has consumed the complete meal or not. Sometimes there are choices of individual courses within the completely priced meal.

§  Cyclic menu

This type of menu is widely used in Industrial, Institutional and Welfare catering. This is a set menu which is compiled to cover a particular period of time say a a fortnight or a month, and then the menu cycle will again follow.

Indenting in Quantity Food Kitchen

Indenting

The basic fundamental of a food operation is to turn a raw food item into an edible product by applying or extracting heat from it. The success of any food service operation is dependent on how the raw ingredients are procured, processed, cooked, and then served to the customer to generate profit. If there is a flaw in any one of the steps, it will affect the profit margin of any organization. Also, for volume catering establishments the principles of indenting would be based on the number of people an establishment is catering to. In volume cooking, one has to look at the menu in totality and only then can he/she write a detailed product list that needs to be prepared.

Indent is a document stating the requirements of goods with the quantity required along with its specification. It is sent to the store department, which in turn procures the items, and dispatches the same to the department on the day specified.

Major factors affecting Indenting

1)      The yield of a product The yield of a particular commodity has a huge impact on the indenting for volumes. All the recipes should be updated with the yields, as we need to indent for the net weight in a recipe and not for the usable weight. Similarly, when a product is ordered for a particular recipe, the cuts listed in the recipe must be strictly followed to adhere to the costs and quality.   The cheapest item might prove to be expensive if the end yield of the product is low. Some suppliers now even sell pre-portioned meat so that the buyer gets an advantage and there is a consistency in the product quality and cost.

2)      Type of event The type of event for which the food is required also plays a major role in the indenting of food. A wedding function would have a huge range of menu catering to up to 1,000 people or sometimes even more. When the variety is more, the quantities consumed will be comparatively less as most of the guests would like to taste most of the varieties.

3)      Regional influence Regional food also plays an important role in deciding the indenting for a particular item. People from Bengal would love to eat seafood, while people from north India would prefer chicken. The type of dish (dry or gravy) also plays an important part in deciding the quantity to be produced.

4)      Service style The style of service, whether buffet or a la carte, also determines the indenting and portion size of a dish. It is easy to predict the quantities for a fixed portion size, but the challenge arises when food is laid out on a buffet for self-service. In many institutional caterings, a buffet is controlled by the catering managers and strict portion control is exercised over expensive food items, but in hotels, the food on a buffet cannot be controlled.

Other factors

5)      The number of persons to feed; the larger number of people the lesser the indent quantity becomes.

6)      Number of items on the menu

7)      Choice provided on the menu

8)      Number of non-veg items on the menu and its vegetarian alternatives

9)      Number of vegetarians

10)   Beef, mutton, chicken eaters

11)   Whether or not Indian bread is there or only rice is included

12)   Choice of desserts provided

13)   Selling price of the menu

14)   Mise-en-place to be maintained

15)   Par stock and closing stock

                                                                                  INDENT SHEET

PAX:_________                                                                                               Date- ________

Menu

1.       ——————————————

2.       ——————————————

3.       ——————————————

4.       ——————————————

5.       ——————————————

Sl.No	Ingredients	Qty for dish no 1	Qty for dish no 2	Qty for dish no 3	Qty for dish no 4	Qty for dish no 5	Total
I	Non-veg items like fish, chicken, mutton etc.
II	Dairy products like milk, curd, ghee, paneer, butter, cream, khoya and eggs.
III	Perishables products like vegetables and fruits
IV	Non-perishables products like flour, lentil, rice, oil, spices-whole and powders
V	Any tinned products
VI	Misc.-Sugar, dry fruits etc.

Practical difficulties while indenting for volume feeding

1)     The perishability of produce Food, whether raw or cooked, is a perishable commodity and has a limited life. The caterer, therefore, has to ensure that he/she buys produce incorrect quality and quantity in relation to estimated demand and that it is correctly stored and processed.

2)     The unpredictability of the volume of business Sales instability is typical of most catering establishments. This causes basic problems with regard to the quantities of commodities to be purchased and prepared as well as to the staffing required.

3)     The unpredictability of the menu mix To add to the caterer’s problems is the fact that in order to be competitive and to satisfy a particular market, it is often necessary to offer a wide choice of menu items to the customer.

4)     The short cycle of catering operations The speed at which catering operations take place, relative to many other industries allows little time for many control tasks.

5)     Departmentalization Many catering establishments have several productions and service departments, offering different products and operating under different policies. The coordination between such departments becomes a challenge.

6)     Uneven Yield The yield of many ingredients varies considerably during the preparation and production of food on different occasions.

7)     Non-availability of some ingredients in the market leads to pressure on other food items on the menu.) It is very difficult to predict with 100% accuracy about the number of people, their likes and dislikes, eating habits, diet, etc.

8)     People eat in varied proportions.

9)     A large number of people have to be fed in a limited time

10)  Chef has to work within tight budgets and yet has to meet the high expectations of consumers.

Portion sizes of various items for different types of volume feeding

Proper forecasting of quantities needed in production and controlling portion size are two essentials of good quality food control. Portion size varies according to the type of meal, type of customer, cost of food, flavour and portion appearance. An individual doing hard work eats more than another doing sedentary task. Giving liberal quantities of less costly foods and a small one of expensive foods can be practised.

The use of standard recipes offers a sound basis for controlled portioning and achieving a uniform product. For a healthy adult person, the flowing portion sizes can be used (Ready to Eat – RTE portion).

One KG of Salad – 15-20 portions

 One KG of Lamb /mutton/fish fillet -6-8 portions (dry), 8-10 portion (curry/gravy)

One KG of Chicken   5 portion for curry, 4 portions for butter chicken

One KG of Vegetable 6-8 portions (dry), 8-10 portion (gravy)

One KG of Paneer          10 portion

One KG of Paneer + vegetables – 15-18 portion

One KG of Dal      25-30 portion

One KG of Rice      8-10 portion

One KG of Rice with bread 20 portion

One KG of Curd for raita 15-20 por

 Dough made with one kg of flour gives

Phulka   30 no.

Tandoori roti   12-14 no.

Paratha         12-14 no.

Malabari paratha /Roomali roti/naan  10 no.

Puri (Loochi)             55-60 no.

Dessert made with one litre of milk

Rabhri  4 por

Kesari kheer  4-6 por

Doodh pak  6 por

Payesh  8 por

Payasam- 8-10 por

Phirni  5 por

Soups   4-5 portion per litre

Sauces  40-50 ml per portion