Menu Development & Engineering

Congratulations! If you made it this far, you have taken the plunge and created your recipes. Or you are like me and want to know the end of the story before you dive in. Who can blame you? It is a lot of work, and beginning with the end in mind will help keep you on track.

Over the past few blogs, we have covered why you need recipes, ingredient yield and net weight, key elements of a recipe, and how to finalize your recipe database.  No matter if you have read all those blogs or are just finding this series now, these articles will help you develop a strong recipe database that will prime you for increased profits and success. As the final installment in this series, we will look at what to look for moving forward.

Rather you are a new or existing operation, you likely already have a strong grasp of the value of recipes and are aware of the necessary work needed to build our your recipe database. If you are still unsure of how to begin building your recipes and what to include, make sure to read the first few blogs in this series, 6 Key Elements of a Recipe to Engineer them for Success, Getting Started with Recipes: Ingredient Yield and Net Weight and Recipes: 4 Reasons Why Your Operation Needs.

If you’re reading this, you likely already have your recipes developed and are just looking to finalize them into a usable and efficient database. I’m not going to tell you that everything is going to be fun and games from this point on because creating recipes can be a very daunting task, but the benefits are too great to ignore.

You are in the home stretch, but you need to press on, there is still lots to do.

So, are you ready to put the recipes together?  

As you begin reading this article, your current recipe development may be in one of the following 4 stages. 

What stage are you in?  

1. 1. Recipes are in place and being used. You are curious to see if there is something new to learn. If that is the case and you have any tips of your own, please share them in the comments. We never stop learning.
      
   2. You have some recipes, but you are looking for a bit of information because you think something is missing.
   3. You are ready to build recipes and want to learn the ins and outs beforehand.
      
   4. You are not sure if it is worth investing the time. You or your team are coming up with reasons why recipes are not important. Do any of the following sound familiar?
      • They take too long to write
      • Recipes slow down the process
      • Employees know how to make everything and what the standards are
      • “You know chefs, they don’t share their recipes with everyone”

In last week’s edition of CORE Profit Strategies, we explored the top 4 reasons operations need recipes. Some of you may have taken a second look at your current recipe database or started building new ones. Congratulations, you have taken the first step. Keep writing them and don’t stop.

One of the reasons that recipes are not updated or maintained is that there always seems to be something wrong with the calculations. You have everything in place and there is still an unexplained variance between the actual and theoretical (potential costs).

A few years ago (or decades), a group of us cooks were on a break talking about the ins and outs of cooking. It was a great time in my career. We were all in our early 20s and ready to take on the world. When the topic of recipes came up, I proudly announced how I didn’t believe in recipes as they stifled creativity.

There have been a few great questions in response to last week’s post Menu Pricing: What is the Right Price? I wanted to share them and the answers because they are a very important part of maximizing profit through menu pricing.