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The perfect menu is like the perfect moment- a thing to be
cherished and always fleeting.
That’s
because the world and the people in it are always in motion,
and perfect can pass into passé without so much as a whimper.
Tastes, trends, wants, desires, and a host of other factors
are all shifting, and so the search for the perfect spot on a
moving landscape really becomes more about traveling the right
road.
Fortunately,
there is no shortage of land-marks along the way. Among the
factors that have to align: consumer demand, local or regional
tastes, seasonal availability, procurement issues, staff
culinary sophistication, business segment, dietary rules and
regulations, equipment, local currencies, storage, variety and
competition.
Is
there, after all is said and done, such a thing as a perfect
menu?
“I
don’t think that at any one point in time it’s going to be
perfect,” says Michelle Thomas, Senior Director of
Advertising and Marketing Services for Carlson Restaurant
worldwide, based in Dallas, TX the corporate parent for the
TGI Friday’s chain.
‘It
has to be evolutionary,” she says, and “change with
people’s tastes and eating patterns. For example, the rage
of the ‘80s was fajitas, and now its on practically every
menu. So while it may be hot one day, you’re constantly got
to be evolving. The perfect menu is one that’s constantly
changing and adding ew items and tweaking the taste buds of
the populace.”
Friday’s
operates or franchises about 600 restaurants in 52 countries.
Its greatest presence in any one of them outside the US is 150
in the UK. Though sizes vary, the restaurant average 95 to 100
menu items in the States. Globally, the number “could be all
over the board depending on the market and its life cycle,”
says Thomas. “Some countries have much fewer items. I
don’t think any of them are upto the domestic level as far
as number of items on the menu, with the possible exception of
our Whitebread franchisee, which is in the UK.”
(Britain’s
white bread PLC operates almost 3,000 pubs and restaurants,
include ing 220-unit Beefeater chain. That chain is also
undergoing some menu redevelopment. According to one perodical,
it suffers from its”prawn cocktail, steak and chips and
Black forest gateau image.)
Friday’s
units are known for décor touches like dark wood, brass
rails,and stained glass and signatures dishes like Jack
Daniels Grill items, the Tex-Mex tower of appetizers, and
mocha mud pie. Alcohol accounts for about 22% of sales. Other
Carlson concepts include Aquaknox, italianni’s, Mignon,
Samba Room, Star canyon, Taqueris Canonita and Timpano Italian
chophouse.
Among
hotel chains, menu development is usally handled at the
corporate level. “There is usually an executive or corporate
chef and his assistance who will develop new menu
items,”says Richard Williams, President of HVS Food &
beverage Services, which is affiliated with consultancy HVS
International in Denver, CO.” “Then they kind of go out
and preach the gospel to the people in the field. Marriott is
doing this now with… a computer based system. They write up
the menus and everything, then send out the software to chefs
in all their units. You see a picture of what it’s supposed
to look like, together with the recipe and the quantities. It
will also keep track of what inventory you have, subtract it
out as you use it, tell you what needs to be ordered and even
order it, automatically if you need ingredients.”
HVS
Internatioanl, a worldwide hotel consulting firm specializing
in the hotel consulting segment of the hospitality business,
has offices in Toronto, sao, Paola, Singapore, New Delhi,
London, mexico city, Vancouver, san Francisco,Denver, Miami
and New York.
Location
understandably colors the entire process. Thomas calls the
menu making process inside and outside the US”completely two
different animals.” Indeed, the chain even has two different
teams working on domestic and international menus. As she
explains, “The understanding of some of the food items we
have on our domestic menu doesn’t necessarily translate
accurately, internationally. It all kind of depends on the
market, obviously. In India we don’t have certain beef
items, and there is much more acceptance of lamb products.”
Franchisees
are given latitude to supplement Friday’s core menu, and can
work with the chain’s own R&D team to develop country-or
region-specific recipes that may be “ more understandable or
palatable for the (population) involved.”
There
is Thomas says, “nothing set in stone as to how the process
works in every country. One of the things that our franchise
development group does so well is make sure we get the best
operators in the country that we possibly can. They have a
good idea of what’s going on within their borders, so they
pretty much can tell us better than we can tell them what they
need for their markets.”
But
wherever the process happens, it must take into account the
major forces at work in any foodservice setting. Here are
some, but not necessarily all, of them:
Business
Sector:
The many segments of the foodservice industry vary
greatly.Even within a single niche like health care there are
differences that must be factored in.
If
We’re working say, in retirement homes there is a different
set of criteria we have to apply for that sub-sector as
opposed to the acute-care hospitals in the same
country.”says Ian Harrison, Group marketing Manager for the
compass Group PLC. Obviously, the dietary requirements and
menus are different. Therefore we have to be very careful
about how we approach that.” Harisson oversees a trio of
segments: Healthcare, Education and Business Industry.
The
compass Group’s healthcare division is knownas Batemen in
the US and Medirest elelsewhere. A lot of bateman’s business
involves retirement villages, while in the UK the focus is on
acute care hospitals.” So there are great differences in how
we develop menus as a consequence.”
Of
the 90 countries in which Compass operates, about 30 are
involved in the healthcare market, he says “so we get a good
cross-section of different cultures.” Indeed, healthcare
business generates annual revenue of 400 million pounds or
US$604.6million.
Nowhere
do local regulations come into more prominence than in
healthcare. In Germany, for instance, there are myriad local
regulations, as there are in the States. Says Harrison,
“France , as well , is quite different locally. They will
have different sets of standards and guidelines because it’s
just the way the country is structured. We have dieticians in
Brazil, where we do a lot of healthcare foodservice. By law
you have to have on site a nutritionist or dietician as part
of the Foodservice program.
The
upside of such laws, he adds, is that they help reinforce the
need to operate as much like a local company as possible.
“While there is a lot of sharing best practices across the
business and across countries, we still position ourselves as
being local whether we’re in France, Norway, Sweden or
elsewhere.”
The
key, he feels is “operating very much on the local level
while still knowing that in the background behind all this
there are international, global benefits that we have as a
group that people locally can make use of.”
Consumers:
The prime factor is the audience, according to HVS Williams,
who is based in Boulder, CO, “especially in the case of a
hotel, If you’re in Paris and you do a big Japanese tourist
market your’e probably more likely to have some more
Japanese items on your menu. You have to know who your
customer is and tailor to their needs.”
The
desires of guests from near and far may well be different. At
a recent project in Nw Mexico, the operator designed a Mexican
menu for it’s main, three-meal-a day restaurant.
“They’re not attracting any local business at all.” The
reason? “They never, as far as I can tell, did any market or
demand study to see where they’d be getting this demand
from.” The restaurant is suffering because the target
audience wasn’t properly identified.
“If
you’re in japan, who are you goinf to cater to, the local
Japanese business people and Japanese association and groups
or the Americans or some other nationality?” he asks. “You
may have to cover both bases. You’re going to have to be
able to supply the good quality that the locals expect and
also what the guests are going to expect.”
How
does lack of planning happen?” “Somebody high up gets an
idea, and to everyone it’s a brilliant idea. But they
don’t do the leg work, the research, to make sure before
they invest millions of dollars,” sayas Williams… “They
won’t invest US $10,000 on a market study. That’s a big
failing. I think. They get off on the wrong foot and they
can’t go back.”
Lack
of planningin action: One project Williams consulted on was a
proposed Planet Hollywood restaurant in Kuwait city back in
1997- a location without tourism, and in which alcohol is
forbidden. “It was a challenge,” he reports. “They ended
up not building it.”
Communicating
to customers what some of the products and dishes are can be
crucial. Often, photographs are used to help identify items.
Says Thomas, until they understand what a quesadilla is or a
fajita or wrapper is. It helps when you can see a picture and
you say, Hey that looks pretty good.”
Culture
and all it entails also plays a role. “There certainly is a
religious consideration,” adds Williams. “For instance,
you’re not going to serve beef in India, or pork in Israel
or any of the Muslim countries. So It’s important to know
what the local culinary stand point.”
Liability
in the area of food safety also varies greatly around the
globe. Some countries, like the US, have honed litigiousness
to a fine edge, while other nations have little or no
mechanism for such lawsuits. Says Harrison, who is based in
London, the UK is “not quite at (the US) level yet. But the
European community is certainly going that way. There are
certain countries, obviously, where it’s much more lax than
it is in the States, or certainly Western Europe.” In such
locales, he adds, it is up to the largest players, like
Compass, “to be seen to be setting the standard, as it
were.”
Sourcing:
The “biggest challenge.” According to harisson, remains
procurement of local items. Says Williams, “You don’t want
to be putting a menu out there and have o say, “Sorry, but
we don’t have it.” It only irritates the guests.]
Ideally,
in his opinion, a menu should have no more than 10 or 12
entrees.” And you’d better make sure that you have two or
three different sources for items and not get locked into one
purveyor or supply source. You may, at a higher level
restaurant that’s dealing with very unique or hard to get
gourment items, only have one source for something, but it
better not be a major part of the menu.”
Interestingly,
this has not proven a problem for Compass since the majority
of its healthcare business is based in more mature markets in
Europe, North America, Australia and South Africa. Only a
relative handful of products such as coffee, is purchased
globally. There will, Haririson promises, be more, such as
paper products and other commodities, as well as food.
When
it comes to sharing best practices in menu development, says
Harisson, “ There’s a lot (at Compass) to be done, let’s
put it this way. There is a lot of opportunity left for us in
that area.”
Pricing :
This is the first
consideration at Friday’s, says Thomas. “We like to stay
affordable for the majority of people, but in some areas
that’s nust not going to be the case. In some areas we’re
going to be the high priced restaurant of choice. In others
we’re going to be moderately priced and think that’s where
we’d like to be. But it depends on the economic conditions
of each country.”
Proper
pricing requires balance. As Williams explains, “when you
design a menu you really need to look at the balance of the
menu. There may be some items where the raw product cost is
very high, that could be in a seafood items or steaks. I have
a restaurant in Denver ( The Buckhorn Exchange) and we serve
buffalo and elk, which can cost you $14.00”
Trends:
Keeping
abreast of food trends
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