There’s an art and a science to developing the best new dishes for your menu. When it comes to cooking up new menu items, we work closely with our clients to uncover what you need, so we can create delicious dishes to meet the brief. There are a number of key considerations that go into this.
Customer desires
What your customers want, ask for, and buy already are crucial pieces of information for any restaurant. Sometimes customers don’t know what they want until you offer it to them, but knowing their general dining choices can help you innovate and keep on delighting them.
New trends
Food never stays still for long. The industry is always adapting with new innovations and trends. While being totally trends led can be risky, keeping on top of changing habits and up and coming ways of cooking can help you stay ahead of the game.
Your brand
Not every dish will work for every menu, because of your unique style, tone and brand. Customers come to you for a reason, and keeping new additions to your menu on brand means they know what they are getting.
Other dishes on the menu
It’s important to factor in the other dishes already on offer when adding new ones. If you already have three popular chicken dishes on the menu, you might not need another one. Consider gaps and don’t overwhelm diners with too many similar options.
Price and ingredients
The ingredients, cooking method and portion size can all affect the price of a dish. It’s important to keep the price of new menu options relative to other items on the menu and in line with your customer expectations. Swapping in or out particular ingredients can be a way to affect the cost price of dishes.
Taste and appearance
Ultimately, we all want dishes that taste delicious, and don’t forget they need to look good too. Taste is subjective, and can change over time, so reviewing dishes with experts and focus groups can be a good way to ensure new dishes are delivering.
Dietary requirements
Vegetarian, vegan and gluten free dishes are all growing in importance. Restaurants must consider a range of dietary requirements and ensure they are offering suitable choices for all dinners. When adding dishes consider which requirements you need to fill, and how accessible you are trying to make the new option.
Nutritional factors like calories, sugar and salt levels
There are a growing number of nutritional levels that restaurants need to consider. Calorie labeling can impact dinner choices as can salt and sugar levels. It’s useful to think about what you would like to achieve with a dish and then work to tweak levels via portion size, specific ingredients or cooking methods to find the perfect dish for you.