In the October 2117 issue of Wuhan Catering (now named Jingchu Cuisine), pages 44-47 published a special article entitled "Talking about Hotel Menu Design" by Yan Shengdao. The following is the JPG version of the magazine page.

The text menu of "Talking about Hotel Menu Design" determines the hotel catering service facilities, the variety and quantity of food raw materials, the cooking skills of dishes and the characteristics of restaurant service. It is an important basis and link of catering business activities. Menu is also the most important marketing medium for hotel catering service. It is not only a sign of the restaurant's quality level and operating characteristics, but also closely related to the customer's needs, and it is an important basis for hotel restaurant staff to promote dishes.

Because the menu is of great significance and function to the management of restaurants, we should pay special attention to the function of the menu. We should not be careless when designing and making the menu, but should carefully design and make a beautifully designed, scientific and reasonable menu. Let's talk about the basic methods and skills of menu design. -classification of menus

In social catering, the general menu classification is relatively simple, and it is generally the main menu and wine list. In star-rated hotels, The menus used are usually divided into the following categories:

1, breakfast menu

2, dinner menu (including lunch and dinner menu)

3, banquet menu (including Chinese banquet and western banquet menu)

4, group menu

5, self-help menu

6, flavor menu

7. Special menus (such as children's menu and diet food menu) II. Design principles of menus < P > Besides designing hotel menus according to market demand and target market, we should also pay attention to the following points:

1. Considering the cost rate and profitability of dishes, analyze the possible sales volume of dishes and their impact on other dishes on the same menu;

2. Pay attention to the scientific diet by considering the nutritional components of dishes and the quantitative ratio between them;

3. Consider whether the proportion coordination among the dishes is beneficial to the utilization and division of labor of kitchen facilities, equipment and manpower;

4. Considering the supply of raw materials of vegetable food, analyze the seasonal characteristics of vegetable food, and choose the appropriate dish according to the relationship between market supply and demand, transportation and storage conditions;

5. consider the variety of menus and drinks, which are consistent with the operating characteristics of hotels and restaurants;

6. consider the market competitiveness of the same or similar dishes in terms of price and service mode;

7. Considering the factors such as menu binding, text, menu programming, etc., it is beneficial to the sales of dishes and drinks, and becomes a propaganda medium for hotels and restaurants. Third, the factors that affect the menu

1, season

Due to weather changes, people like to eat some dishes in hot weather, but they are not used to eating them in cold weather, and vice versa. When compiling the menu, we should take into account the seasonal food. Seasonal dishes are generally abundant, of good quality and reasonable price, and should be included in the menu. Special dishes such as crabs, dragon boat festival zongzi, etc. should be taken into account at a certain festival or time of the year.

2. Chef's skill

Chef's skill should be taken into account when preparing the menu. Although many excellent chefs are trained to cook a variety of dishes, they are at a loss when cooking advanced foreign dishes. On the other hand, well-trained chefs with high cooking skills should be given the opportunity to show their skills.

3. Size and equipment of the kitchen

The size and equipment of the kitchen, such as stoves, steam stoves and gas stoves, should be taken into account when making the menu. A good cook will also produce the required dishes when the kitchen equipment is in short supply. Even so, the menu maker should check the endurance of cooking equipment to avoid overloading some equipment. Such as a steamer, a frying pan, a frying pan and the like.

4. Skills of waiters

The skills of waiters should be taken into account when making menus. If the waiter is of high level, he can ensure that the dishes are displayed correctly to the guests. And transfer it to the guest's plate in a neat and beautiful way.

5. Pricing of dishes

When preparing food for a menu, it is obvious that every guest's standard should be taken into account. Similarly, to produce a more expensive dish, it should be consistent with the cost paid by the guests.

6. Guest type (customer demand-oriented)

Restaurants should be customer demand-oriented, and customers must be clear about what dishes they like and what grades they eat. Because satisfying customers' needs is the foundation of restaurant management, menu design must also reflect customers' needs, such as popular food or flavor food, Sichuan food or Cantonese food. The menu design is completely different because of the different needs of customers; Different customer needs have completely different requirements for menu design. When compiling the menu, it should meet the needs of the consumer. Especially banquets. Such as business meetings, birthday weddings, celebration banquets, etc.

7. Inventory

When making a menu, we should consider the seasonal food, which is usually rich and of high quality. Before ordering food, check whether there is a large amount of stock in the warehouse to avoid waste. Fourth, the aspects that should be paid attention to when designing the menu:

1. Require obvious characteristics

A restaurant must first decide what kind of menu to provide according to its own business policy. Menu design should try to choose dishes that reflect the characteristics of our store and list them on the menu (or menu) for key promotion. Even in popular restaurants, there are often several specialties and housekeeping dishes. Because if you don't have a few stable and well-established housekeeping dishes, it will be difficult to attract old customers and new customers. Therefore, when designing a menu, you must highlight your characteristics, your "specialty dishes" and "fist products", put them in a prominent position in the menu and introduce them separately. Only by reflecting your own characteristics can you leave a deep impression on customers.

2. Pay attention to innovative products

Change is the foundation of all things in the world, and following the rules will only lead to failure. With the continuous development of society, customers' tastes and catering situation are also changing, so the menu should also be innovated. It is best to change it once every quarter or half a year. If the menu is not changed for a long time, it will be unattractive and thus lose customers. If the menu is not changed for a long time, it will affect the normal supply of dishes, because some raw materials are affected by the season. After the season, there will be a situation that there are dishes on the menu, but in fact there is no supply, thus affecting the reputation of the restaurant; Not changing the menu for a long time is not conducive to the improvement of the chef's cooking skills. In addition to considering seasonal factors, menu changes should also pay attention to the changes of customers' eating habits, such as dietary requirements in nutrition, health and bodybuilding.

3. Keep the environment in harmony

The menu is not only a propaganda tool for restaurants, but also a work of art.. Therefore, the style, size, color, font, paper and layout of the menu need to be coordinated with the level and atmosphere of the restaurant, and should be adapted to the display, layout, tableware and clothing of the service personnel of the restaurant. Popular restaurants do not need beautifully decorated menus, but beautiful and generous menus are helpful to increase the sales of dishes.

4. Consider profitability

The ultimate goal of restaurant management is to make money and make profits, so when designing a menu, we should not only consider the sales of dishes, but also consider their profitability. If the price of food is too high, customers may not accept it; If the price of vegetables is too low, it will affect the gross profit and may even cause losses. Therefore, when designing the menu, we should appropriately reduce the gross profit of high-cost dishes and increase the gross profit of low-cost dishes, so as to ensure that the gross profit margin can be reached as a whole.

5. Finally, do what you can

Only by designing the menu according to your own ability can you ensure its best effectiveness. Therefore, the menu designer should be aware of the restaurant's production capacity and have excellent production and service skills to ensure that the quality of the selected dishes can achieve the expected results. This requires that the technical level of kitchen production personnel should be fully considered when planning dishes, and at the same time, special equipment should be equipped to produce many dishes.

in addition, after combining the above-mentioned aspects that need attention, the restaurant must test whether the new menu will be put into use immediately or synchronized with the old menu for a period of time, and put it into use after analysis and improvement.

v. Procedures for menu design and production

When making and designing menus, we should proceed step by step and in an orderly way. The specific procedures mainly include four steps:

1. Prepare the required reference materials

These materials include:

All kinds of old menus, including the menus used in the history and at present in this restaurant.

standard recipe file.

inventory information and seasonal menu, best-selling menu, etc.

cost per serving or similar information.

all kinds of cooking technology books, general dictionaries and menu dictionaries.

menu food and beverage list.

past sales materials.

2. Carry out the standard menu

A standard menu refers to an instruction card about the cooking method and principle of a dish, which lists the names, quantities, operation methods of various main ingredients, auxiliary materials and seasonings needed in the production process of a dish, the quantity of each serving, the plate loading tools and other necessary information. Using standard recipes is not only conducive to planning the cost of dishes, but also conducive to the goal of product quality standardization.

3. Preliminary design conception

At the beginning of conception, it is best to choose a blank form, and fill in the table with the dishes, drinks and drinks that may be provided to customers, and then determine the contents of the menu after considering all factors comprehensively.

4. Decorative design of the menu

When decorating the menu, we can call relevant advertising, art designers, experienced chefs and relevant management personnel to discuss the cover design, style selection and text description of the menu.

But in any step, designers must put customers' needs first, give priority to their consumption motives and psychological factors, and then do a good job in each step on this basis.

VI. Skills of menu design and making

When designing and making a menu, the following skills should be used reasonably:

1. Materials for making a menu

Good materials for making a menu can not only reflect the appearance quality of the menu well, but also leave a good first impression on customers. Therefore, when selecting materials for the menu, we should not only consider the type and specifications of the restaurant, but also consider the production cost, and reasonably choose the production materials according to the usage of the menu. Generally speaking, for long-term reusable menus, heavy coated paper that is durable and not easy to be contaminated with oil should be selected; Pagination menu is often composed of a thick and wear-resistant cover and a loose-leaf core with less paper quality. The disposable menu generally doesn't consider its wear resistance and dirt resistance, but it doesn't mean that it can be shoddy. Although many high-standard banquet menus are only used once, they still require excellent materials and beautiful design to fully reflect the banquet service specifications and restaurant grades.

2. Design of menu front cover and back cover

The front cover and back cover of the menu are the "facade" of the menu, and how their design affects the effect of the menu as a whole, so we should pay attention to the following four requirements when designing the back cover and cover:

The cover of the menu represents the image of the restaurant. Therefore, the menu must reflect the characteristics of restaurant management, restaurant style and restaurant grade.

the color of the menu cover should be coordinated with the color of the restaurant's internal environment, so that the color of the restaurant's internal environment is more harmonious, so that when customers order in the restaurant, the menu can be used as an ornament of the restaurant.

The name of the restaurant must be designed on the cover of the menu, and it should be distinctive, and the strokes should be simple, easy to read and remember, which can increase the visibility of the restaurant on the one hand and establish the image of the restaurant on the other.

the back cover of the menu should be printed with the address, telephone number, business hours and other business information of the restaurant. In this way, we can take this opportunity to promote sales to customers.

3. Text design of menu

As a bridge between restaurants and customers, the information of menu is mainly transmitted to customers through text, so the design of text is very important. In general, a good menu text introduction should be described in detail to promote sales, rather than just listing the names and prices of dishes. If the menu is compared with the magazine advertisement, its writing time and effort are no less than designing a wonderful advertising word. The design of the text part of the menu mainly includes three aspects: food name, descriptive introduction and publicity of restaurant reputation (including quality service and cooking technology).

In addition, the selection of menu font is also very important. The names of dishes on the menu are generally written in italics, arranged in Arabic numerals, numbered and marked with prices. Fonts should be printed correctly so that customers can see them clearly in the light of the restaurant.

unless otherwise specified, avoid using foreign languages to represent dishes in the menu. Even the use of foreign languages should be standardized according to the spelling of standard dictionaries, in line with grammar and to prevent errors. Of course, the title of the menu and the description of the dishes can be in different fonts to show the difference.

4. Illustration and color application of the menu

In order to enhance the artistry and attractiveness of the menu, some illustrations are often used on the cover and inside pages. When using patterns, we must pay attention to the color must be coordinated with the overall environment of the restaurant.

The common illustrations in the menu mainly include: patterns of dishes, places of interest in China, the appearance of the restaurant, famous dishes of our restaurant, and pictures of important people eating in the restaurant. In addition, geometric patterns and abstract patterns are often used as illustrations, but these patterns should correspond to business characteristics.

in addition, the use of color is also very important. Pleasant colors can make the menu attractive, better introduce key dishes, and also reflect the style and mood of a restaurant. Color can reflect people's psychology in different ways and reflect different suggestive characteristics, so we must pay attention to the nature of the restaurant and the types of customers when choosing colors.

5. Specification and length of the menu

The specification of the menu should be coordinated with the catering content, the type and area of the restaurant, the size of the dining table and the seating space, so that customers can take it comfortably and read it conveniently. Therefore, the format and selection of the menu should be cautious. According to the survey data, the ideal format is 23cm*31cm. The operator determined the basic structure and content of the menu, and after listing the dishes, he selected several folio sizes suitable for comparison, and arranged different types for comparison. There should be a certain gap in the length, and usually the area of words should not exceed 51% of the total length.

6. Photos and graphics of the menu

In order to increase the marketing function of the menu, many restaurants will print pictures of special dishes on the menu, which can add color to the menu and increase its aesthetics, thus speeding up the order of customers. However, when using photos or pictures, we must pay attention to the shooting and printing quality of photos or pictures, otherwise the expected effect will not be achieved. In addition, the color photos on many menus still have the problem of not being in the right place, that is, the color photos, dish names, prices and text descriptions are not listed together. The easiest way to solve this problem is to frame it with black lines or highlight it with small colored faces.

VII. Frequently asked questions in menu design and production

Although most restaurant operators or managers have spent a lot of time and energy in designing menus, there are still many restaurants with unsatisfactory menus.