Creating a menu

When creating a menu, many considerations need to be investigated/obtained in order to correctly develop dishes that will appeal to your target market with the product availability, cost, resources and quality in mind Small establishments can hand write their menus, but more upper class or larger establishments will print menus with pictures and descriptions to help the customer visualise the product(therefore writing the correct and appropriate words is highly important, in a manner not to mislead the customer) Recipes need to be made for each dish with sizes, quantities and a picture for visual reassurance. Costing must be done for each recipe to acquire the cost, which can be used to work out the selling price, mark-up, expense and profit Balance of dish textures, colours and taste is another consideration to take into context. Keeping balance throughout the menu can be done by not using products that are included in other recipes, large variations and different meals with specific products must be used that fit together(visually, taste, texture and nutrition). Various cookijg methods and presentation also affect balance Resources are needed to store, prepare, produce and distribute food, available resources enable you to do specific tasks for eg. If you dont have an oven, you wont be able to bake a cake/pie Gas is used to light stoves, this is an important resource to have for warming, cooking or preparing foods electricity is used for lighting, warmth, ventilation and to power equipment Availability and cost of commodities must be correct to ensure that you can produce recipe specifications and buy products at a reasonable price so not to over charge or run a loss with sales, seasons and suppliers can affect availability. Quality can change the price of a commodity, this is called quality assurance and must be upheld depending on the chefs needs/requests or the suppliers standards Target market can be found out using market research, this can make or break a business, your market can be many different aspects and groups, like cultural,