EDINBURGH NAPIER UNIVERSITY

EDINBURGH

SCHOOL OF MARKETING, TOURISM AND LANGUAGES

HT32422 HOSPITALITY INDUSTRY PROJECT

Coursework Assessment Marking and Student Feedback

Individual Report Submission (Week 13) (80% Weighting)

ASSIGNMENT TOPIC: MENU ENGINEERING

MODULE LEADER: Ros Sutherland

LOCAL TUTOR: Mr.R.D’Silva

TYPE REPORT

STUDENT NAME: VIKASH KUMAR REDDY JANAPALA

MATRICULATION NUMBER: N07800562

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ABSTRACT

This report discuss about Menu engineering and its

different techniques used in industry. Menu engineering means designing,

planning and pricing a menu in way that both costumer and organization should

satisfy. Menu engineering also says how to classify dishes in menu through their

popularity and profitability and this report also says some strategies to improve

their sales, popularity and profitability. There are two main divisions in this report

they are primary and secondary resources. Primary resource means information

collected through research conducted through an organization. Primary resource

consists of all techniques of menu engineering used in hotels and this also

consists how to plan different types of menus for different types of restaurants

and banquets. Secondary resource consists of theoretical knowledge from books

and internet. It consist of menu planning, classification of dishes in menu,

nutrition values in food etc. this report is all about menu engineering concepts

and how to apply its techniques in industry.

INTRODUCTION

Menu engineering is a concept which is used to develop

a menu. Menu engineering was firstly developed by Michigan University’s Dr.

Michael Kasavana and Donald Smith in 1980. This menu engineering is also

flowed by many hotels and restaurants. Menu engineering is an approach which

used for designing of a menu and it also classifies the items on basics of

popularity and profit margins. Menu engineering consists of various issues like

menu planning, menu designing and classification of dishes by their popularity

and sales. Menu planning means planning a menu in advance for an

organization by understanding the costumer needs which can generate profits to

the organization and also the satisfied costumer. There are many benefits from

menu planning and benefits are discussed below. Menu designing is also one of

important issue of menu engineering. Designing a menu means creating a visible

body for menu. A menu should look attractive and good in all aspects discussed

above. Menu cover is the symbol of a restaurants identity. A well designed,

attractive and clean menu cover is one indication to the costumer of a good

restaurant. By the classification of menu engineering items are of four types

they are Stars, Plow horses, Puzzles and Dogs. Menu economics is also an

important aspect which should be used in designing a menu. Economics is the

study of production, distribution and consumption of wealth. There three main

elements which helps in deciding a price of a menu they are, costumer demand,

menu mix analysis and item contribution. Menu economics will help an

organization in both ways by creating them profits and also generating satisfied

costumers

METHODOLOGY:-

The primary research of this project is conduct from a

reputed 5 star hotel called The Oberoi, Bangalore. Mr.Zafar Ali is Senior Sous

chef their and helped out throughout research. Mr. Ali also explained points like

how to plan a menu and how to design a menu. Secondary research is

conducted through books, international journals and also through Internet. Books

like Food and Beverage service 4th edition by Dennis lillycrap, Menu design by

Albing Seaberg and Food and Beverage cost control by Jack Emiller are used in

research. International journal of contemporary hospitality management and

some sites like chef&chef are used for the secondary research. Local tutor

helped through out the project by correcting mistakes and saying how to solve

them.

AIMS AND OBJECTIVES:-

The main aims and objectives of Menu Engineering are

1. One should know how to classify the items in the menu through the

popularity and profitability of a particular item.

2. One should know how to plan a menu for different types menu for different

types of restaurants and they target particular market, which is familiar for

to that type of menu.

3. One should know how to design a menu in a presentable manner for the

costumers.

4. One should know how to price a menu and they should also know how to

satisfy both costumers and organization.

5. One should know how to improve the sales of a particular type of menu.

JUSTIFICATION:-

This topic menu engineering is taken as project

because it is one of study which is going from last three years in the college and

this is an important strategy to run a restaurant (or) Hotel. Without know Menu

Engineering no one can become a successful chef. Menu engineering is

because of own interest. Menu engineering is a topic which teaches all the

important issues like menu planning, menu designing and menu economics.

Because of all the above points this topic is selected as the project.

MENU: menu in the hotels and restaurants means “A card which contains all

the dishes served in that particular outlet and description of all the items and also

prices of the particular dishes”

There are many types of menus. These are some of them,

Table D’ hote

A’ La Crate

Cart Du Jour

Fixed

Cyclical

California

Tourist

Degustation

TABLE D’ HOTE: This menu consist of all points like

There are fixed number of courses of in this menu

Choice is limited in this type of menu

Price of this type menu is fixed and whole menu is price.

This menu can offer with some other dishes with extra prices.

A ‘LA CRATE: The term A ‘la carte means ‘from the card’. It may be defined as

follows

It gives description of all the dishes prepared by the outlet.

Each and every dish is priced differently.

Certain waiting time should be given for every preparation.

This menu is may be dived into 18 courses or 14 courses like starters, soup,

egg, fish etc.

CART DU JOUR: It is a menu which is served on every particular day and is also

called as chefs special.

FIXED MENU: This is a menu which is fixed for a particular period of time this

menu is used by any charitable originations like temples, old age homes and

ashrams.

CYCLICAL MENU: This is a menu which is rotated for a particular period of time

like weekly or monthly. This type of menu is used in cafeteria of schools, hostels,

companies etc.

CALIFORNIA: This menu is a very special it can be order at any time. In a coffee

shop of every hotel there will be a menu which can be ordered at any time

because night time there will be limited number of staff. It consists of sandwiches

and burgers which can be prepared easily.

TOURIST MENU: This is a menu which is available in motels. These menus will

consist of quickly production items. This menu is mainly for travelers and tourists.

DEGUSATION: This is a menu which is specially prepared from the class to

attract the costumers.

Menu engineering:- “In the hospitality industry, a process that analyzes the

entire menu (as opposed to individual menu items) as a measure of profitability”

(dictionary, 2009).

Menu engineering means designing and planning a menu in way

that it should look good and attractive for the customers. Menu Engineering tells

how to design and how plan a menu and also tells how to classify the dishes in

the menu and also gives the strategies how to improve the sales and demand of

the classified dishes. Menu engineering plans a menu by considering both

organization and also the costumers.

Classification of dishes in the menu and some strategies to improve their

sales and demand:-

Dishes in the menu sold in a particular restaurant can

classified through its popularity and profitability. There are four types of items in

this classification, they are

1. Stars (Gold)

2. Plow Horses (Silver)

3. Puzzles (Bronze)

4. Dogs (DQ) (Anon, 2009)

1) Stars (Gold):- These are items which are relatively popular and also

generates good amount of profits. (Anon, 2009)

E.g. In Indian restaurants butter chicken and Tandoori chicken are stars

because they are popular and they also generates good amount of profits

2) Plow Horses (Sliver):- These are the items which are sold very widely

but generates premium amount of profits. These are reflected for good

volumes of sales but they generate very little amount of profits. (Anon,

2009)

E.g. in Indian restaurants samosas are the plow horses because they are

popular and they generate only little amount of profits.

3) Puzzles (Bronze):- These types of items are weak in demand in market

but they can set high profit margins. No one can understand these types

of items because they are named as puzzles. These puzzles need a

research to conduct why these types of items are selling and how demand

can be increased for improving sales. (Anon, 2009)

4) Dogs (DQ):- These types of items which are weak in sales and popularity

and these types of items are also weak in generating profits. (Anon, 2009)

MENU PLANNING

Menu planning is a task which will save revenue and time for

organization and it also helps in improving nutrition levels in the food for the

costumers. Saving revenue means if planning is done before one can plan how

use the ingredients for preparing food and reducing food wastage, how to use the

left over food. If one can plan menu before they can look for better and cheaper

ingredients. While planning a menu one should give more importance to the

balance nutrition values in food and should plan about portion serving for a

particular dish. Menu planner should also know the capability of staff (chefs and

service personals). If all these points will be used in planning a menu that menu

will be a successful menu. (Albing.s, 1991, P16)

NUTRINONAL VALUE

Balance nutrition in every meal is essential for every human being. Items in menu

should help the consumers with their nutrition values. The menu should be

planned in way that menu should help with nutritional values through the food.

Different types of menu items should have different type of nutritional values in

the food. (Albing.s, 1991, P48)

EX: - if the menu is planned for hospital, items should have good nutritional

values in the food but it should not have more fatty acids and carbohydrates in

food.

PRICING OF MENU:-

Menu pricing means deciding cost of all dishes in menu.

Price of menu is decided on the basics of raw materials cost, labour cost, fuel

cost and also other expenses which are involved in making particular food. Food

cost includes all cost involved in producing the item. Food cost should be 35% of

dish cost and profit should be 65% in dish cost for a perfect profit producing

menu to an organization. If menu is priced this manner it generates good amount

of profits and also creates satisfied costumers in the means of pricing a menu.

(Jack.E, 2002, P237-244)

PRIMARY RESOURCE:-

This report is done by using the details from Mr.Zafar Ali senior

sous chef of the oberoi, Bangalore. This hotel is one of the famous 5 star hotels

in Bangalore located on Mahatma Gandhi road.

According to zafar Ali menu engineering means plan a menu

which generates profits to the organization and providing good quality and

nutrition food and menu should attract the costumers.

In this hotel there are four restaurants, royal club and a

banquet hall which serves food. These four restaurants and rest of outlets

required different menus. Four restaurants are called as LE JARDIN, SCZWHAN

COURT, RIM NAM and POLO CLUB. LE JARDIN is a 24 hours coffee shop so

the sous chef planned a menu which consists of more breakfast of both Indian

and continental cuisines. And they also planned a menu for night hours (12:00

Am to 5:30 Am) which consists of light snack items like burgers and sandwiches,

this menu is designed by considering the skills of the staff because at night time

there is low staff allotment and night staff is not capable of cooking specialty

dishes. In their coffee shop there will be buffets of breakfast, lunch and dinner so

they plans menus before two weeks because they want to advanced and provide

good quality food for costumers. SCZWHAN COURT is a specialist Chinese

restaurant so senior sous chef takes help of the Chinese sous chef. From

specialty Chinese restaurant costumers expect exactly authentic Chinese food so

they planned same and they also looked through the capability of staff also. RIM

NAM is a specialty thai cuisine restaurant, so senior sous chef took help of the

Thai cuisine sous chef and they also added Singaporean cuisine, Malaysian

cuisine and Japanese cuisine dishes in the menu to keep guest interesting to

give the costumer a wide range of cuisines. POLO CLUB is a sporty bar which

serves every type of alcoholic drinks and cigars. So the senior sous chef planned

a menu with full of snacks and some light food items. It is planned in this

because the guest can enjoy drink with snacks. These items are very easy to

prepare and doesn’t take more time to cook. ORCHID is a banquet hall which

serves food for different time of community groups. It serves for all business

parties, international conference and family functions and parties. So this is a

huge menu which will be decided by the host of parties. So the senior sous chef

will plan according to host and also according to hosts budget. Menu of parties

will be decided before two weeks, so that staff will be well prepared. (Zafar.A,

2009)

According to sous chef benefits of menu planning are

Benefits of menu planning:-

If planning of menu is done before, organization can plan exactly what to

buy and how much to buy. It helps in reducing in the wastage of food

because organization will buy exact amount of ingredients.

If any one planning to have specialist menus they can train their staff in

the way by this they can give better product if they plan earlier.

If one can organize to plan a menu before they can organize to increase

the dishes on menu by this costumer will have wide range of choice.

If one can organize to plan a menu before they can look alternative cheap

ingredients to increase the profit levels for the organization

(Zafar.A, 2009)

According to sous chef there are four different types of items in the menu they

are Stars, Plow horses, Puzzles and Dogs as discussed above. But they are

many strategies to develop their popularity and sales they are

Strategies to improve sales and demand for Stars

These items should have specific rules of production. For these

types of items quality and quantity should be maintained.

These types of items should be well presented on the menu.

These items should create a great visibility on the menu card.

If the sales of this items are growing increase price of this items.

Staff of the organization should suggest this types of items to the

costumers. Increase the sales by promoting them.

(Zafar.A, 2009)

Strategies to improve sales and demand for Plow Horses

These types of items should be shown very rarely on the menu, try

to avoid this type of items on the menu.

Quantity of these types of foods should be reduced to reduce the

food cost and some items like plow horses can become like stars

by using this type of strategy.

One should use alternative ingredients to reduce the food cost. This

should not change the texture and taste of food.

(Zafar.A, 2009)

Strategies to improve sales and demand for Puzzles

These types of items should be produce as the “special dish of the

day” (or) “Chefs special”. This is a quickest way to divert costumer’s

attention to these types of items.

Create a great visibility for these types of items on the menu.

Try to reduce price of these types of items because it may be over

priced.

If any item of this type is difficult to prepare remove from the menu

(Zafar.A, 2009)

Strategies to improve sales and demand for Dogs

If any outlet or organization want to keep on the menu first change

the name and make it interesting and then once demand of the item

increases they increase the price of it.

This type of items should be dropped from the menu because these

types of items are dead items on menu and they really generate

loss and if they are removed from the menu it reduces the

inventory.

(Zafar.A, 2009)

CONCLUSION

Menu engineering is a tool which says how to plan, design

and price a menu. This tool is used in all restaurants, hotels and also in fast food

outlets to plan a menu from many years. This is the main tool by which many

organizations are gaining profits and also generating many satisfied costumers

for them. It also says when to place items in the menu and when to remove items

in the menu. Menu engineering helps how classify items through their profitability

and also popularity. Menu engineering gives some strategies to all classified

items in the menu to improve their sales and popularity. By the help of menu

engineering any one can plan a menu with good nutritional values in the food. By

using menu engineering and its tools any organization can gain good amount of

profit margins and also generates satisfied costumers for any type of

organization. Menu engineering is a tool which can improve quality and price of

food for the costumers.

RECOMMENDATIONS

These are the few things which are to be implemented in industry

Inter changes in menu means making changes in menu for every interval

(monthly, quarterly, half yearly and yearly), this will keep costumer

interesting.

Value for money means Pricing of menu should be low and quantity

should be up to mark

Menu bar should also contain some food items, so that the costumer could

his meal in bar only.

Menu knowledge for the staff is important, so that staff can explain what

are items on the menu and staff can suggest a dish to a costumer.

REFERENCE

Anon, 2009, “Menu Engineering Exercise”, retrieved on 09-04-2008 from

http://jan.ucc.nau.edu/~grc3/ha270/class/restaurant/menu/menueng.htm

Albing.B, 1991, “Menu design, merchandising and marketing ,4th edition” ,

Canada, Shan & willey and sons publishers.

Dictionary,2008 “Define menu engineering”, retrieved on 09-04-2008 from

http://www.hometravelagency.com/dictionary/menu-engineering.html

Jack.E, “Food and Beverage cost control, 2nd edition”, New York, Jhon

willey & sons publishers.

Zafar.A, 2009, Senior Sous chef, The Oberoi, Bangalore

EDINBURGH NAPIER UNIVERSITY, EDINBURGH

SCHOOL OF MARKETING, TOURISM AND LANGUAGESSTUDENT DECLARATION TO BE ATTACHED TO

HT32421 Hospitality supervision and training skills COURSEWORK

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Matriculation no: N 07800562