Menu & Types of Menus in a Hotel

Origin of Menu
In a restaurant, a menu is a presentation of food and beverage offerings. A menu may be a la carte – which guests use to choose from a list of options – or table d'hôte, in which case a pre-established sequence of courses is served.

The first restaurant menus arouse roughly one millennium ago, in China - the only region of the world at the time where paper was abundant. At this time, many merchants often congregated together in city centers and had little time or energy to eat during the evening. Because of the large variation found in Chinese cuisine from different regions, the restaurants could no longer cater to the local palates, giving rise to the menu.

The word "menu," like much of the terminology of cuisine, is French in origin. It ultimately derives from Latin "minutus," something made small; in French it came to be applied to a detailed list or résumé of any kind. The original menus that offered consumers choices were prepared on a small chalkboard, in French a carte; so foods chosen from a bill of fare are described as "à la carte," "according to the board."

Menu Planning

Purpose of the Menu

• Inform guests of items available and price
• Inform employees of items to prepare and purchase
• MENU is primary control tool for the operation
• Menu is critical to communicating and selling items to the customer

Menu Planning Factors: Menu affects, and is affected by, the

• Operation’s design
• Layout
• Equipment requirements
• Labor needs.

The success of menu planning determines the success of other basic operating activities.

Menu Planning Objectives

• Menu must meet or exceed guest’s expectations.
• Reflect tastes and preferences of guests
• Menu must attain marketing objectives.
• What guest wants, location, prices, times
• Must bring guests back for more visits

Factor influencing menu planning

• Customer Satisfaction
• Management Decisions
• Factors Influencing Menu
• Planning – Customer Satisfaction
• Food preferences/habits
• Nutrition
• Aesthetic factors

Types of Menu
Broadly menus are divided into two branches which may have various subsections more popularly the French word A la Carte and Table d’ hote are in vogue. The first one means list of items offered individually priced. A la Carte menu has elaborate number of items giving a wide choice to the guests whereas the table d' hote or table of the host precisely translated into English is a list of small number with few courses without any substantial choices this is a package deal for a budget customer.

The other branches could be a buffet menu which is a menu with wide choice but priced per head. It comes exactly in midway between A la Carte and Table d' Hote. Flexy choice menu often have a few variations of Table d' Hote, two or three packages are offered like in banquets, using choice of any two or any three vegetarian or non-vegetarian dishes with prices slightly differing from each other. It is also used in case of Indian restaurants offering thalis {Table d' Hdte) like Janta thali (one sabii, dal, roti), regular thali (two sabzi, dal, rott, salad), deluxe thali (two sabzi, dal fry, nan/parantha, salad, raita, papad and rice and kheer) may be costing Rs. 100 Rs. 150 Rs. 200 respectively.

In case of an A la Carte the menu is almost commonplace except that it varies from meal to meal like breakfast, lunch or dinner or two different classes of their own and also depending upon the restaurant whether it is a coffee shop, ethnic restaurant, discotheque or a night club. Sometimes in a restaurant both the menus run concurrently, particularly in commercial places where regulars go for budget menu and casuals go for A la Carte. Table d' Hote on the other hand has many variations whereas it can be very rigid banquet menu with no choice and large number of courses (5-7), a meal for a group with a fair number of items in each course 2-3 not to make harsh for people with allergies and fads. A tea menu for a party with 10-15 items, somebody might like all, a few may like 2-3. limited buffet with per head rate. Table d'Hote can be used successfully in canteens, cafeterias commercial restaurants by cleverly changing the dishes in a cyclic manner so that repetition could not be detected.

Difference between Table d'hote and A la carte

Table d’hote	A la carte
It is small menu	It is an elaborate menu
It has only 3 to 4 courses	It has multiple courses
It is economical as a complete meal	It is more expensive if same meal is chosen
It is easy to prepare	It is difficult to prepare because cooked in installments
It is cooked in advance	It is cooked almost fresh
It is cooked in bulk	It is cooked in small quantities
There is very little or no choice	It has a wide choice
It is suitable for groups, educational institutions and hospitals	It is suited for everybody
It can be served quickly	It require more arrangements and takes longer time to serve
No personal attention or fads can be Accepted	Personal choice and preference can be incorporated as food is cooked on order
It is meant for package deal(AP,MAP) Customers	It is meant for EP and FITs
American service is ideal	Silver service is ideal
Limited service ware needed	More service ware are required
Large pots and pans are required for Cooking	Small pots and pans are required for serving various items
Less skill is required for taking order and service	Trained service personnel is required for taking order and service
The menu is simple, ordinary quality stationary is used	The menu is expensive, long lasting material is used
The menu can be orally narrated	Being elaborate the menu cannot be orally narrated
The menu is priced as a whole	The dishes are priced individually
It means table of the host	It means from the card

Other types of Menus

Plat du jour

It means specialty of the day. Chefs make a few special dishes which are normally the main course; however, other courses, such as fish, sweets, and so on, may also be included depending on the geographical location of the restaurant. These special dishes can be introduced for every meal, every day, every week according to catering policy of the restaurant. Pricing of these dishes is higher than prices quoted for other dishes of the same category in an a la carte menu. This is because it is the chef’s special. Special dishes are communicated to guest in many ways- in the form of inserts, tent cards, display on boards, and so on.

Advantages

• It acts as an effective sales tool.
• It adds up to the image of the restaurant.
• It reflects the skill of the chef and motivates him and his staff to introduce new recipes.
• It gives an edge over the competitor since this menu introduces very special dishes that are exclusive to the restaurant.

Limitations

If unsold. It results in food wastage since specialty dishes call for ingredients that are either not used in preparation of regular dishes of the menu or are treated differently.

Carte du jour

• In French it means card of the day. It refers to all menus of the day, combining a la carte, table d’ hote, and plate du jour menus.

Cyclic menus

• It is a series of table d’ hote menus for a set period of time, say for four weeks, which are repeated for a particular period, say for six months. After six months, a new set of menus will be prepared.
• The length of the cyclic menu depends on season of year, availability of ingredients, and catering policy of the establishment. After a certain period, a new set of menu is prepared.
• The consumers pay for the meals wither in advance or at the end of the month

Advantages

• Effective cost control
• Stocking of unnecessary goods is avoided
• Does not need more of storage area for perishables as the can be procured daily.
• Food wastage is almost nil
• Easy to plan the production schedule
• Labour requirement can be well planned
• Fewer cooking equipment required.

Limitations

• Consumers have no choice but to but to take what is offered