Running out of ideas on how to bring your menus back to life?

If you got to the point of taking three aspirins with espresso while your hands are shaking and you still have no clue on how to bring dishes variety for your Clientele, take a soothing green tea, breath normally, count to ten and relax, then I invite you to read some recommendations on how to bring some life back to your menus, remember that menus are your recommendation letters, your sales tools and your marketing pitch, so my tip for you is to make it right, not in a good way, but in a professional way (there’s thousands of miles that separate this two visions). So here are many things that you CAN do in order to make it profitable:

===To aim for a specific target market, first you need to figure out what your competitors are doing, and after that, you have two options left, create something new or make the existing much better than your competition (the professional way).

===It’s not a biblical damnation if you ask for help; there are many professionals out there that would help you building successful menus, trust on what you see, not of what you’ve heard.

===Search the internet, browse through old magazines, look up for cookbooks, but not just for copying recipes, but for getting fresher ideas, new trends, dishes presentation, but try to make it cost-effective.

===Mile long menus are difficult to read, to understand, to interpret and most likely you have your kitchen full with expired or close to expire food. Your menus should be concise, explained (otherwise you will end up with an “explanation waiter” instead of a seller), easy reading (fonts) and lead you to mouthwatering just for reading it.

===Get the most out of seasonal products, as you will end up buying cheaper, fresher and tastier. Ask your suppliers for seasonal ingredients, that way you can bring your menus a very special twist.

===Build up a solid ingredients chart; include minimums, maximums, and point of reorder, cost and three supplier’s options, this will take your headaches away, and you can get a very standard way of purchasing.

===Make daily specials, this can bring menu variety for your Customer, especially if they are regular Clients. Also prepare a cocktail of the day, this will light up your bar just a notch.

If you are a Vendor or Supplier, I cordially ask you to please abstain yourself of promoting your services and products.

Please feel free to leave a note or share your professional experience.