Making your Menu Work for You

Presented by James Keppy & Jayne Harvey

Defending Your Menu

The only way to keep your health is to eat what you don't want, drink what you don't like, and do what you'd rather not.

~ Mark Twain

Welcome to the Church of the Holy Cabbage. Lettuce pray. ~ Author Unknown

Nothing would be more tiresome than eating and drinking if God had not made them a pleasure as well as a necessity. 

~ Voltaire

Hunger:  One of the few cravings that cannot be appeased with another solution. 

~ Irwin Van Grove

What The “F” Word Really Means!

Life expectancy would grow by leaps and bounds if green vegetables smelled as good as bacon. 

~ Doug Larson

-FOOD-

Red meat is not bad for you. Now blue-green meat, that's bad for you! 

~Tommy Smothers

• Past focus has been on the individual because he/she is the most important.

• Future focus needs to include extended family

• Family members need an opportunity for social experiences outside of individual’s room while visiting.

• Family members need to see the establishment as a solution to their meal needs

• Participating in meal planning and special events at the establishment ensures greater comfort and purpose to the experience of visiting and offers choice when ability of the individual is a barrier to social events.

Spread The Focus

Who Are We Targeting?

• Those enjoying the meal experience

• Those promoting the meal experience

• Those preparing the meal experience

Those Enjoying The Meal

• Those who enjoy the meal experience must be perceived as the owners and staff must recognize this customer as their boss.

• Every Adjective Matters - Menu descriptors may assist a menu item to sound more appetizing.

• Choice enhances an individual’s sense of value and appreciation – Add customer choice to menu choices. – “Mr. Smith’s Salsa Sauce”

• Choice offers customers/residents a perception that they can choose where to spend their dollars.

Those Promoting The Meal

• Staff are under pressure to satisfy their customer as the customer’s view may be that they have paid handsomely for the meal and expect to be heard or the quality of food must match the ability to eat and improve health.

• Involve them in menu development

• Never serve a meal before they taste a meal

• Teach them the art of simplicity when enhancing quality– “Sauce of the Day”

• Products that steal back time

Those Preparing The Meal

• Kitchen Feedback on Meals

• Order of Operations There are a lot of pieces to complete for each meal service and the order they are produced matters

• Work on Timing Serving residents from multiple locations on property with staggered dining times

• Assessing what is returning on the traysThis has always been a measure of the success of a menu item in restaurants - whether the plate comes back clean

• Both customers and the staff need to “buy in” to menu items and relate to them as quality, encourage social engagement and inspiring to wellness.

• Approval of menu changes and choices needs to be controlled by the customer and the staff.

The Customer Is Boss

Involve Them In Menu Development

Resident Council

Dining Committee

FamilyCouncil

EmployeeCommittee

Marketing

• Customers/residents vote with those dollars and businesses succeed or fail based directly on that feedback.

• Menu design is an art. – When surfing a menu, the restaurant recommends and

nudges the patron towards items which they know are signature dishes and profitable.

– Patrons notice and are most likely to choose items centered on the menu or boxed in a different colour.

• Healthcare residents need to see their meals as a choice, rather than a limited option. Menu design can do this.

Menu Design with Colours

Red, orange, yellow, green & white stimulate the appetite -There are always successful exceptions…

Menu Design Adjectives

• Using Adjectives wherever possible

finished with a light tomato sauce

Baked golden brown

Fresh lettuce tossed with …

Light & flakey haddock

Meatloaf simmered in roasted tomato sauce

penne tossed in alfredo sauce with mushrooms

Turkey pot pie baked with a flakey puff pastry topping

• Organizes calendar based events for annual holidays, as well as creates special occasions for their patrons.– Example: Mexican night, Pasta night, Ice Cream night, etc.

• Ensures high quality menu– Avoids poorly written or overly simple menus that suggest a

lack of concern for mealtimes and food preparation.

The Restaurant Model

One of the very nicest things about life

is the way we must regularly stop

whatever it is we are doing

and

devote our attention to eating… 

~ Luciano Pavarotti

Thank you for participating in this presentation provided by

SYSCO Canada &

FCS International

www.sysco.ca www.fcsinternational.com