How To Successfully Write Your Menu

While In our experience it may appear that many small businesses are not too concerned with their the menu, it is critical; as it leads the activities in the kitchen which are set off by the clients orders, which depend on the menu, yes even for your ice cream shop. In today’s blogs we are focusing on the process in which a successful menu is created. From the biggest franchise chain to the the moms and pops ice cream shop, menu planning is crucial.

The Menu Plan

This is the first and most significant part of what is decided to be placed on the menu. As an ice cream shop you may think it’s a simple as listing your flavors; but that’s certainly not the case. Planning is vital to conveying the menu as delightful as it could really be expected. This is where you dive into the details o what your guests could expect.  How many flavors would u offer? How favorable are these flavors to your target market?  The answers to these kind of questions should play a major role in the drafting of your menu.

Suppliers for Menu Items

Subsequent to choosing the right items for the menu draft, this is the stage to contact your providers. This is where you decide what the ingredients of your menu items would include. Would your items be seasonal; meaning you will prepare items according to what fruits or vegetables are in season? Yes there can be a whole list of ice cream recipes that can be seasonal and yes vegetables make for great ice cream recipes.  We’ve seen such creativity in the flavors, including carrot ice cream, pumpkin ice cream and the new craze Ube which is purple sweet potato made into a creamy serving of ice cream.  Or, would you be creating a standard item menu in which the menu ingredients are readily available all year round, like chocolate and vanilla based flavours. When planning you should have the option to source out the things cautiously and completely. It is ideal to contact a few different suppliers beforehand to figure out who can give the best quality, who’s most reliable, and of course in this pandemic time who’s the most effective costs.

This stage in menu writing likewise, decides the costs of the menu items to be served. The expenses of your ingredients straightforwardly influences the cost of the completed items. Now it might very well be the best thing to switch out certain ingredients that may be too costly; for you to even think about selling the final item at a sensible cost, or in worse cases, have to throw out an item absolutely on the grounds that the expenses made it too difficult to be sold. Living in the Caribbean we do have it a bit easier because to access fresher raw ingredients, but costs should always be a driving factor to menu writing.

Testing The Menu

Now that you’ve selected your items, and your supplies; it’s time to test the menu. You’ll need to gather all the menu ingredients, and prepare each item as you would for your guest. Many people would often seek the assistance of the new staff members, and the people who have lent a hand into building this new business, to give their host feedback on the taste and presentation of the menu items. This will not only familiarize the staff to the items, but it will simultaneously help assess if the items will be great to serve. At this point tweaks can be made to the item according to the feedback of your staff and peers.
Toward the end of the taste test you will know whether there are essential changes to be made in the menu items. After which, the menu can be finished.

Menu Design

The last stage will be the actual design and printing of the menus. Ice cream shops may not place much emphasis on this stage as many are convinced once the flavours taste great nothing else matters. But just like the layout of your kitchen is built around functionality, your menu should be designed around the company’s identity and driving profits to the business.

A fews simple tips to keep in mind when curating your menu design;

Ensure all your items are readable.
Section off your relevant items
Consider adding illustrations
Refrain for using too many photos
Choose your font wisely

The menu might be a few pieces of paper or it may be a board secured over the cash counter; but in both instances it is the spine of a successful food service business and more importantly it is the first visual guide to who your business is.