First, the principles of student menu design and production
Its design and production principles mainly include six points:
1, guided by the needs of students and customers.
Restaurants should be customer-oriented, and students must know what dishes customers like and what grades they eat. Because meeting the needs of students is the foundation of restaurant management, the menu design must also reflect the needs of customers, such as popular dishes or flavor dishes, Sichuan cuisine or Yangzhou cuisine. Students' needs are different, and the design of students' menus is completely different.
2, reflect their own characteristics, to avoid students getting tired of eating the same thing.
Restaurants should first decide what kind of menu to provide according to their own business policy. Menu design should try to choose dishes that reflect the characteristics of our store and list them on the menu for promotion. Even in popular restaurants, there are often several specialties and housekeeping dishes. Because without a few stable and well-known housekeeping dishes, it is difficult to attract old and new customers. Therefore, when designing the menu, you must highlight your characteristics, and your "signature dishes" and "fist products" should be placed in a prominent position in the menu and introduced separately. Only by showing their own characteristics can they leave a deep impression on students and customers.
3. Constantly innovate to adapt to the new situation.
Change is the root of everything in the world, and following the rules will only lead to failure. With the continuous development of society, customers' tastes and catering conditions are also changing, so the menu should 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 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 seasons. After the off-season, there will be dishes on the menu, but there is actually no supply, which will affect 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. Besides seasonal factors, we should also pay attention to the changes of customers' eating habits, such as nutrition, health and bodybuilding.
4, the form is beautiful and generous
The student menu is not only a propaganda tool of the restaurant, 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 it should be adapted to the display, layout, tableware and clothing of the service staff of the restaurant. Popular restaurants don't need beautifully decorated menus, but beautiful and generous menus help to increase the sales of dishes.
5, can create economic benefits
The ultimate goal of restaurant management is to make money, so when designing the 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 gross profit and may even cause losses. Therefore, when designing the menu, we should appropriately reduce the gross profit of high-cost dishes, increase the gross profit of low-cost dishes, and ensure that the overall gross profit margin can be achieved.
6. Do what you can.
Only by designing the menu according to students' own ability can we ensure their best effect. Therefore, the menu designer should be clear about the production capacity of the restaurant and have excellent production and service skills to ensure the quality of the selected dishes to achieve the expected results. This requires that when planning dishes, the technical level of kitchen producers should be fully considered, and at the same time, special equipment should be equipped to produce many dishes.
In short, when designing menus, we should comprehensively consider the above principles and basis. Only in this way can we make a more scientific and reasonable menu. Moreover, for the newly formulated menu, the restaurant must also test it, analyze and improve it and put it into use.
Second, the quality requirements of student menu designers
The design and production of menu is a complicated work with strong artistry and technology, and not everyone can be competent. Because menu design is largely limited by the attitude and ability of designers, menu designers should have enough knowledge of dishes and be creative and imaginative. We can't treat menu design as a daily chore, which makes the menu unattractive. In practice, many small and medium-sized restaurants entrust all menu design to a chef, and the listed varieties are also the varieties that chefs can do. Ignoring that there are many varieties that customers don't need, in terms of artistry, they are clumsy, uninspired and unattractive, which will eventually lead to business failure.
Specifically, a student menu designer should have the following qualities:
Have a broad understanding of food raw materials. Familiar with the varieties, specifications, quality, origin, market season and price of raw materials.
Have deep cooking knowledge and long working experience, be familiar with the preparation methods, time and equipment required for various dishes, and master the color, fragrance, taste, shape, quality, specifications, decoration, packaging (tableware used) and nutritional components of dishes.
Understand the production and service facilities of the restaurant and the professional level of the staff.
Understand the needs of students and customers and the development trend of dishes, be good at combining the advantages of traditional dishes with modern dining habits, and have innovative consciousness and conception skills.
Have a certain aesthetic and artistic accomplishment, be good at blending the color and consistency of dishes, and be good at the modeling of dishes.
Be good at communication, listen to the suggestions of relevant personnel with an open mind, and have the ability to plan competitive menus.
In short, only a chef with high professional quality, authority and responsibility can design and produce a scientific and perfect menu.
Third, design and make programs for students' menus.
When making and designing students' menus, we should do it step by step and in an orderly way. The specific procedure mainly includes four steps:
1. Prepare the required reference materials.
This information includes:
All kinds of old menus, including those used by enterprises.
Standard recipe file.
Inventory information and seasonal menu, best-selling menu, etc.
The price of each dish or similar information.
All kinds of cooking technology books, general dictionaries, menu dictionaries.
Menu, food and drink list.
Past sales materials.
2, the implementation of standard recipes
The standard menu refers to the instruction card about the cooking method and principle of a dish, which lists the names, quantities, operation methods, quantity of each serving, plate loading tools and other necessary information of various main ingredients, auxiliary materials and seasonings needed in the cooking process of a dish. Using standard recipes is not only conducive to planning the cost of dishes, but also conducive to achieving the goal of product quality standardization.
3. Preliminary design idea
At the beginning of conception, it is best to choose a blank form and fill in dishes, drinks, drinks, etc. That is, it may be provided to customers, and then the menu content is determined after comprehensive consideration of various factors.
4. Decorative design of students' menu
When decorating the menu, you can call relevant advertisements, artists, experienced chefs and relevant managers to discuss the cover design, style selection and text description of the menu together.
But no matter which step, designers should put customers' needs first, give priority to their consumption motives and psychological factors, and then do every step on this basis.
Fourth, student menu design and production skills
When designing and making menus, the following skills should be used reasonably:
1, making student menu material
Good materials for making menus can not only reflect the appearance quality of menus, 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 purpose 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 menus often consist of a thick and wear-resistant cover and a loose-leaf core with poor paper quality. Disposable menu generally does not consider its wear and dirt resistance, but it does not 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 standards and restaurant grades.
2. Design of the front and back cover of the students' menu
The front cover and back cover of the student menu are the "facade" of the menu, and how its design affects the overall effect of the menu, so we should pay attention to the following four requirements when designing the back cover and back cover:
The cover of the student 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 student 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 food in the restaurant, the menu can be used as the decoration of the restaurant.
The name of the restaurant must be designed on the cover of the menu, and it must be distinctive. The strokes should be simple, easy to read and easy for students to remember. On the one hand, it can increase the popularity of the restaurant, on the other hand, it can establish the image of the restaurant.
The back cover of the menu should be printed with the restaurant's address, telephone number, business hours and other business information. In this way, we can take this opportunity to promote sales to our customers.
3. Text design of students' menus.
As a bridge between restaurants and customers, the information of students' menus is mainly transmitted to customers through words, so the design of words is very important.
Generally speaking, a good student menu text introduction should be described in detail to promote sales, rather than just listing the names and prices of dishes. If students compare menus to magazine advertisements, their writing time and energy are no less than designing a wonderful advertising word. The design of the text part of the menu mainly includes three aspects: the name of the dish, descriptive introduction and restaurant word-of-mouth publicity (including quality service and cooking technology).
In addition, the font selection of students' menus 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. The font should be printed correctly so that customers can see it clearly under the lighting of the restaurant.
Unless students have special requirements, the menu should avoid using foreign languages to represent dishes. Even the use of foreign languages should be standardized according to the spelling of standard dictionaries, conform to grammar and prevent mistakes.
Of course, the title of the menu and the description of the dishes can be distinguished by different fonts.
4. Illustration and color application of students' menus.
In order to enhance the artistry and attractiveness of students' menus, 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 students' menus mainly include: patterns of dishes, places of interest in China, the appearance of restaurants, famous dishes in our restaurants, pictures of important people dining in restaurants, etc. 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 more attractive, better introduce key dishes, and also reflect the style and mood of a restaurant. Color can reflect people's psychology in different ways, reflecting different suggestive characteristics, so we must pay attention to the nature of the restaurant and the types of customers when choosing colors.
5, the size and length of the student menu
The specifications of the students' 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 hold it comfortably and watch it conveniently. Therefore, the format and selection of the menu should be careful. According to the survey data, the ideal width is 23 cm and 30 cm. The operator determined the basic structure and content of the menu, and after listing the dishes, he chose several folio sizes suitable for comparison and arranged different types for comparison. There should be a certain gap in length, usually the area of words should not exceed 50% of the total length.
6. Photos and pictures of students' menus
In order to increase the marketing function of students' 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 customers' ordering. 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 are still in the wrong position, 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 a black box or highlight it with colored facets.
Fifth, students menu design and production of common problems
Although most restaurant operators or managers have spent a lot of time and energy designing menus, there are still many restaurants whose menus are not satisfactory, resulting in such problems and having a great impact on the management of restaurants. Common problems mainly include:
1, improper selection of production materials
In order to save costs, some restaurants use various book products, including folders and lecture folders, and also use letters and mail books and photo albums as menus instead of specially designed menus. This kind of menu not only can't decorate the restaurant environment, but also set off the restaurant atmosphere. On the contrary, it is out of place with the restaurant style and looks nondescript.
2. Improper specifications and binding
Many small restaurants' menu texts are made of 16K plain paper, which is undoubtedly too small, which leads to too compact arrangement of menu names and other contents, and it is difficult to distinguish priorities. Some menus are even as big as exercise books, but there are dozens of pages, which is tantamount to a small magazine. Most of the menu papers are very thin, with poor printing quality, no illustrations and no colors. Due to poor preservation and use, they are extremely simple and dirty.
3. Improper font selection
Many menus are mimeographed, and even printed ones are 1 type. Sitting in the dim light of the restaurant, it will be very difficult to read the 3 mm menu, and the handwriting on the mimeograph is easy to blur. At the same time, most menu fonts are single, ignoring the use of different sizes and fonts to highlight and publicize important dishes.
4. Change the menu at will
Changing the menu at will is one of the most common shortcomings in menu use. The methods of alteration mainly include: directly altering dishes, prices and other information with pens and ballpoint pens; Or cover it with computer printing paper and tape. The biggest change on the menu is the price. All these make the menu look serious and unsightly, causing great resentment from customers.
In addition to the above-mentioned common problems, there are sometimes some problems in the menus of many primary and secondary school students' restaurants, such as too simple text introduction, menu inconsistent with dishes, artificial omission or careless omission of some information. All these have had a great impact on the management of student restaurants, so managers or operators of restaurants must pay attention to checking for leaks and filling vacancies to avoid the above problems and make the menu design and production perfect.