Guest house | The basics of developing new menus

When developing a menu for your hospitality establishment, consider the following factors:

Target Market
Your menu will be almost entirely depicted by the preferences and requirements of the target market you are catering for. Consider the following preferences and requirements of your guests when planning your menu:

• Nutritional: There is an increasing trend towards healthy eating, while heavily sauced food has fallen out of favour;
• Religious: If the establishment has a large Jewish or Muslim clientele, the menu should also accommodate Kosher and/or Halaal requirements;
• Medical: Consider having some dishes that accommodate the needs of diabetic guests, those who are gluten or dairy intolerant and those with hypersensitive allergic reactions to food items such as nuts;
• Ethnic/Cultural: Ethnic menus can be table d’hôte or a la carte, and specialise in the food of a particular country or region. For example: Chinese, Indian, kosher, Afro-Caribbean, Greek, etc; and
• Vegetarian: The standard menus should accommodate vegetarians.

If you offer dinner at your establishment, the spending power of the target market is also an important consideration. How much are guests able and willing to pay? 

Guest requirements
It is the guests and not the chef who should select menu items, therefore constant analysis of dish popularity is necessary. Unpopular dishes must be removed from the menu. Consider guest demands, such as traditional dishes and modern trends in food fashions.

Competition in the local area
It is important to know what is being offered by other establishments in your area in terms of price, quality and style of food.

Number of staff
The availability of preparation and service staff must be considered when planning a menu. It may be more cost effective to design a menu that can be handled by existing staff than to hire new staff.

Staff knowledge & skills
The capability of preparation and service staff must be considered when planning a menu. Rather create a menu that capitalises on existing skills than stretching staff beyond their capabilities.

Equipment
Equipment and available space in the kitchen influence the composition of the menu and production of dishes. Be aware of any shortcomings or deficiencies in equipment. Avoid offering dishes that are difficult to produce or place undue strain on limited equipment.

Supplies
Menu planning is dependent on availability of supplies. Take into account the regularity of deliveries and the amount of storage space available.

Time
If there is a need to control the time the guest occupies the seat, then the menu can be adjusted to facilitate increased turnover. For example, pre-prepared items.

Costing
A general guideline for the costing of meals is that no meal should cost more than one-third of the selling price to prepare and serve, and preferably it should cost you much less. List the price of all your ingredients for the meal, for example, two litres of fruit juice at R12.00 will serve ten guests. The cost of fruit juice per guest is R12.00 divided by ten = R1.20. You will also need to factor in the cost of labour and electricity, which is usually estimated at three times the cost of the food. In this way you are able to calculate the cost of the meal per guest per item.