Menu Engineering

 Definition and Objectives: Menu Engineering

Menu engineering is the study of the profitability and popularity of menu items and how these two factors influence the placement of these items on a menu. The goal is simple: to increase profitability per guest.

The marketing-oriented approach to the evaluation of a menu with regards to its present and future content, design and pricing is termed as menu engineering. Its origin is based on the famous Boston consulting group portfolio technique. The concept of menu engineering requires f&b managers to adapt themselves to the contribution that menu items make to the total profitability of a menu. The menu engineering high lights the good and the poor performer in a menu, and provides vital information for making the next menu more acceptable and appealing to the customer and also more profitable for the management.

Why Menu Engineering:

Helps to foodservice operator when to keep menu items and when to take off items from the menu.

Helps to determine which menu items are over or under-priced.

Helps in designing profitable menu.

Helps to select the menu items to be repositioned to gain popularity.

Helps to revise recipe and portion size of the menu item.

Helps in monitoring menu performance.

Menu engineering focuses on the three main elements:

Demand: The number of customers who visited the restaurant and had meals in the restaurant. The feedback form is filled up by them and their remarks regarding the menu are taken into account.

Menu Mix: The dishes which are more ordered by the guests are analysed to know that which set of dishes are more popular and how management can improve its profitability by having menu mix.

Contribution: The gross profit earned by selling a particular menu is analysed and compared with the other menus gross profit (Gross profit = Sales – food cost/variable cost).

The following pre-requisites are must for using this technique:

Standard recipes: All recipes prepared by the kitchen must be of a standard including its portion size, presentation of the dish, accompaniments served, etc. This will ensure the accurate food cost.

Uniform rate: The rates of all the raw material must be standard and uniform so that there is no variation in food cost for the menus.

Sales analysis: The sales analysis of each menu and meal must be done carefully and it must be accurate so that the different menus sales can be analysed. This can be done by making analytical sales summary sheet.

Computers: for the purpose of calculating sale, food cost, gross profit, etc. It is recommended that the computer should be used so that all calculation are done accurately and with speed.