The Logistics of Menu Change

Most people have never worked in a restaurant. If they had they would understand why its one of the toughest jobs in the world- more on this in another post. Changing a menu, especially one as large as ours- 43 items- is an intensive week of little free time above and beyond the everyday work one has to do. With all that I love it.

The job actually started nearly a month ago when we began talking about what old summer items we needed to bring back (i.e.: Beef Adana; Chicken Breast alla Bianco; Brides Fingers) which ones we wanted back but with changes (i.e.: Ahi Crudo; Shrimp Tartlet; Pasta Tutto Gardino) and which items will stay on the new menu. Items that never leave each seasons' menu always include the Filet Mignon (the one item guaranteed  for the meat & potato crowd), soup, bisque and pate- which are du Jour items, so they change anywhere from every other day to weekly, depending on sales; and therefore reflect the season no matter the time of year.

A quick aside.... Besides the desire to have the menu reflect the season and what is freshest in availability, my menus change- and are so large- because I get bored real easy. Most chefs do. But not all chefs have the creative control to make the changes.

Two weeks ago my Sous Chef George and I started to create dishes based on the menus criteria (summery; chilled items; using fresh fruits & vegetables) in a mock contest, with the staff and each other as critics. We included new products we had found that sparked our creativity. We adjusted the recipes until they were where we wanted them to be and until they came out consistently the same way each time. George added 2 new dishes to the menu- a first for him- Pasta Frutti and Lenguado al Jorge, which I named after him against his wishes (he's like my son and I'm very proud of him).

After that came the costing of every item. This includes knowing the present price of every item we use, figuring out various costs for how we use the item- example: sugar comes in 50 lb bags. I need the cost per pound and the cost per cup since different recipes use different measurements. I then need to know the amount of waste in a given product- example: we only use the leaves of parsley in a recipe, so the cost of a tablespoon of parsley includes any bad leaves that had to be composted & the stems, though it isn't used; though we don't waste the stems- they go into stock- there cost figures into the dish with parsley even if we are only using the leaves- not all stems make it into stock. I also have to, during this volatile time of bad weather and ever changing prices, figure in a 5% increase on each item as the price food stuffs continue to increase monthly and for potential waste from something rotting before use- it happens despite our best efforts to have it not- or a guest not liking a dish and it going into the garbage- rare, but it happens and we never charge the person for it, so its a loss.

After all that I have to apply these costs to all my recipes. I don't have a computer program for this yet- the hubby is building me one- so its all done with paper and a calculator. Despite that, I actually enjoy the process. I know, I'm sick. But if I didn't have a sick mind I would have never come up with Cabrales Blue Cheese & Blood Orange.

Thankfully, the actual layout of the menu is the hubby's job. This he will complete today. Today and tomorrow we prep for the new menu. Tomorrow before open the menus are stuffed with the new sheets- the old sheets are reused for scrap paper. And tomorrow night we serve the new items to the public for the first time.