F&B Management

F&B Management

Chapter 9:Communicatingwith Menu

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Learning Outcome

Upon completion of this chapter, you should be able to:Evaluate menus for effective communications.Explain how standards of identity and truth-in-menu legislation provide guidance for factual menu communications.Author consumer advisories to caution guests against menu item hazards.Explain conditions under which nutrition labeling must be provided on menus.Discuss and apply key principles of descriptive menu content and imagery.Discuss and apply key principles of menu organization.Identify principles of menu layout and design, and the impact upon customer purchase decisions.

Discuss the scope and merchandising features of menu communications media. 2

Effective Communications

• What is the primary objective of the printed menu?

– To clearly communicate intended visual and narrative messages to customers

– Stimulate imagination about the upcoming choice– Provides sufficient information to make the choice– Assist customer to filter out those items they don’t

like– Initiate the customers purchase decisions– Ensure income and optimizes profit through guided

sales 3


You must use language, graphics, and menu design in a calculated and thoughtful manner.You must be aware of the communication you send to the customer with the Menu.

Asiago Crusted ChickenTender breasts of chicken seasoned with Italian herbs

and freshly shredded asiago cheese. Flash-fried to crispy perfection in olive oil and served over a

steaming portion of vermicelli pasta and our home-style pomodoro sauce.

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• Asiago-crusted . . . • A savory flavor evocative of Asiago cheese should

be noticeable in a crust that is visible by sight (color) and sensory feel by (crisp) texture.

• Tender breasts . . . • The meat should not be tough or chewy, and there

should be more than one breast portion.• Flash-fried to crispy perfection . . .• Infers that a high level of culinary attention is

lavished in the preparation, yielding a superior cooked product.

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• Every word has the power to conjure sensory images in your customers’ minds.

• What is affected by a sensory imaginary? sight, smell , taste, touch, sound• To avoid surprises, what needs to be

expressly communicated?– Ingredients that are common for food allergies– Ingredients that are sensitive and unusual to taste – Ingredients that are exotic– Ingredients that would offend a religious belief– Methods of preparation and cooking style

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When is it okay to intentionally use vague description in a menu?

• Your concept is braded as a adventure dining like Moto, the El Buli, Linea

• Your target market expects an out of the box experience

• You purposely like to create intrigue for one item and it is communicated as such.

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• What do you think about the monetary signs $ £ € in the use to announce the price of a menu item?

What role to they have in communicating?• Recent phycology studies have indicating that the

use of the words and the signs have a subconscious negative effect in the selection process.

• Customers understand what twenty-one fifty or 6 refers to without monetary descriptors or symbols

• Their maybe some geographical zones where the monitory denomination used could be confusing

• The solution could be a one time mention! Prices are in US Dollars

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Truth-in-menu

What consequences will disclosing the truth have on your business?As the final seller, you are required to advertise your menu factually, and you are subject to strict liability if you don’tIn most countries it is a legal requirement and failure to comply is prosecuted by lawIt is your obligation to be informed about the law of disclosures, it is your obligation to investigate the source of your product.Providing accurate information should be viewed as a moral obligation for all professionals selling F&B to the public

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F&B Management students

Hand in your Learning Audit The latest on 3h of April Thursday at 15.00 pmWednesday in class after class Hand in Room 209

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Truth-in-menu

The complexity of commercial foodservice supply chains make identifying certain items hard.How can you ensure that the food you purchased and advertise in your menu is what you think it is ?To Assist you in your task to provide your customer with accurate information many governments have established standards of food safety and food identity• Food Safety and Inspection Service • Department of Agriculture • Food and Drug Administration • Department of Health and Human Services• Regional producers associations

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Truth-in-menu

What else?• The closer you are located to the origin of the

ingredient, the more able you are to know it is what it should be.

• The personal contact to the provider / grower is still the best guarantee

• Buy from recognized suppliers• Learn about labeling, food brands, foods and be

informed about best practices and worst practices• Remember your business and your personal

reputation may be at stake!

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Truth-in-menu

• Truth-in-menu legislation, require that any expressed or implied claims be substantiated with facts.

• Violations are subject to civil and criminal penalties.

• What are common claims made on menus?• Portion size, • Place of origin • Preparation methods• Fresh

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Truth-in-menu

More common Menu claims?• Qualitative attributes (“homemade”, “aged,” “original”) • Health-related benefits must not mislead customer-

purchase decisions.• Pure vanilla - pure is pure• Grilled - not grill marked and finished in the oven• Homemade - home-style or house-made• Smoked Wild Scottish Salmon – wild, caught from

Scotland • “World’s Finest” and “Award Winning”- The award needs

to be real• Imported/ local

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Consumer Advisories

• When must you provide disclosures, reminders, and advisories to your customers ?

When food items may present a health risk or safety riskExamples

– “We use peanut and soybean oil in our kitchens.” – “Consuming raw or undercooked food may increase your risk

of food-borne illness”– “Small bones are natural to this item and may be present.”– “Wines have been treated with sulfates.”– “Dishes with an * contain small amounts of added MSG.”– “Dishes with an * contain gene modified organisms”Some countries impose advisories on operators like origin of meat, poultry and fish, product that contain gene modified organism etc.

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Nutrition Labeling

• What is your opinion about disclosing nutritional values of menu items?

• Research indicates that customers make healthier choices when nutritional information is included on menus.

• Despite the consumer health benefits of nutrition labeling, many foodservices are resistant.

• Many operators that serve a health conscious target market see a benefit in disclosing the nutritional values

• In some countries declaring nutritional value of food is regulated by law and compliance not an option

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Nutrition Labeling

• If you make a claim about nutrient content (“fat free,” etc.), relative amounts of a nutrient (“low fat,” etc.), or health claims (“heart healthy,” etc.), they automatically invoke a Nutrition Labeling Act and/or Declaration Act in your country!

• Declaring nutritional content involves conducting a “reasonable basis determination” that the nutrition information it provides is accurate.

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Descriptive Menu Content And Imagery

• The Menu Copy?• Communicate the overall dining experience to the

guest• Provide Information about your business and

brand• Should complement the décor, service, food

quality, and price range of the restaurant• A properly designed menu copy can direct the

attention of the diner to specific items and increase the likelihood that those items will be ordered

• Your menus should display proper grammar and meticulous attention to detail.

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The Descriptive Copy?• You should always include the main ingredients in your

description so guests know what they’re eating• Economy-of-word is essential, select words and phrases

that are least prone to misinterpretation• Avoid descriptions that are too longwinded some

operators go so far as to include nearly every recipe component and their origin in a menu listing.

• You should change up the rhythm or flow of your menu descriptions on purpose to draw attention to certain items

• Humans are conditioned to notice what’s different use this as an excellent technique for selling signature

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• Descriptors should add perceivable value and entice your diners. Examples

• Wellfleet (Oysters)• Hand-cut (French fries)• Line caught (Fish)• Brand Ranch (Beef)• Hydroponically grown (Watercress)• Day-boat (Scallops)• Free-range (Poultry)• Organic grown (Vegetables)

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Superlatives and over use!!• You also can overuse adjectives ( delicious,

mouthwatering, etc.) to the point where they neutralize each other.

• Better to avoid superlatives (the best, the most tender) and focus on actual attributes.

• Every description should enhance the perception of each item; however, you should apply your strongest descriptions to your most profitable items.

• Today’s consumer is willing to pay a little more for a better experience at a restaurant they trust

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• What is nested pricing? • Deemphasize the monetary aspect of the price

listings.• It is not the attempt to deceive the customer about

the price.• It is a technique that motivates customer selection

according to a menu item description and not its value

• Prices should be listed no larger or bolder than the font used in the menu item listing.

• Prices should follow immediately after the end of the descriptive copy

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• The purpose of the descriptive copy is?• For the operator is to sell what you like to sell• For your customer it provides information to allow

him to make the right choice. • It should be viewed as a win win situation!• The descriptive copy as a promise to comply!• The promises made in the descriptive copy affect

customers expectation and needs to be fulfilled• It is easy to write a descriptive copy that rise the

customer expectation only to be disappointed

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The importance of design?• Text must be legible and easily read.• The average customer should be able to

read all elements of your menus with little to no effort

• A lot of studies exist of what assists reading and how we read

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Principles for Better Type Design

Type face and styleTry to limit the type face and style to maximum 2 to 3 different styles per menu

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SpacingTo not crowd the text. It is important to have some white space around the text

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Alignment Don't throw things on a page that looks like you couldn't decidewhere to put anything. Have everything on the page in relation

tosomething else

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Decorative type faceYou've found a nice decorative font, wonderful! That doesn't mean that it will reinforce your message,

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Size mattersReally think about the size of the text. Titles are nice bold and large, but if you set your paragraph too large, it tends to feel cheap. If you are using heading and paragraph text, don't be afraid to make the headings much larger than the body.

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ReadabilityWhatever you do, make sure that people can read your message. Remember less is more, this has never been truer than behind text that is supposed to communicate a message

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ColorWhat color is best for type? Generally, believe it or not, black or white is often best and cost efficient

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GroupingGroup related pieces of information together. This will clean things up a lot.

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LeadingThis is the spacing between lines of text. It's much classier to open up the spacing. As a rule of thumb, try to use at least 2 points higher than the type size. For example: 10pt type should have a 12pt leading for maximum readability.

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KerningKerning is the Individual spacing between characters. In a word the Kerning should be equally spaced

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"It's possible to blow away three-quarters of our readers simply by choosing the wrong type. If you rely on words to sell, that should concern you deeply.“ONE million surveyed readers found serif easier to read than sans serif

Serif Garamond Chicken 66% ideal for text

Serif Times Roman Chicken 31.5%San Serif Hevetica Chicken 12.5% ideal for headings

Serif fonts are Times New Roman, Palatino, Georgia, Courier, Bookman and GaramondSan Serif fonts are Helvetica, Arial, Calibri, Century Gothic and Verdana

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• Font point size• Headings should be made to stand out with fonts of

14 points or greater• Text should be in 12 points • Lower and upper case mixed is 40% easier to read

than al capital. Why?• Small letters vary in height (b p)• Capital letters are the same height (BP). • We read whole words and phrases. And we

recognize these words and phrases partly by their shape

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• White space or Negative space?• Generous white space (negative space) without

content should allow easy reading of text and viewing of graphic elements.

• When the area is cluttered, and one spot has nothing there, the eye will go to the empty spot.

• Use this concept in your menu design. Putting negative space around an item can call attention to it and help you sell it.

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• Color?• Black on white is by far the best reading

combination!• Colored text and colored backgrounds, although

attractive, should be used thoughtfully.• Readability is further complicated by the level and

nature of ambient lighting.• Candlelight is notorious for making menu reading

difficult.• Highlighting with color “eye magnets” can be

effective in attracting the eye to a certain point38

Principles for Better Design

Format?• A legible menu supports the rhythm started with

seating and followed by ordering• The size of the menu needs to take into account the

size of the table, the place setting and the table appointments.

• Oversized menus are? • Awkward to hold and handle while sipping a

martini• Obstruct the view of your dinner companion • Difficult to maneuver in tight quarters /knock

glasses/burn /can not be placed on the table39

Principles for Better Design

• Graphics?• Menu graphics should be approached in a

purposeful manner.• They should be used to enhance product

messages.. • Icons ?• Are an effective way to assist your guests in their

decision-making. Do not overuse!• Photographs?• A picture being worth a thousand words!• This can back-fire if you don’t deliver what the

picture promises 40

Menu Organization

• Diners don’t typically read the entire menu;• Gallup reported that most customers

will spend an average of? • 109 seconds reading a menu• Organize the layout to capitalize on the

precious few moments you have to capture their imagination.

• Guests have come to expect that your menu organization will parallel the sequential dining order they are used to

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Menu Organization

• Some menus are so category-specific that they do not require organizing into more than one or two major sections, e.g. dessert menus.

• Other menus are sufficiently broad, deep, or ambitious enough that they require enhanced organization.

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Menu Layout

• Short menus are more likely to be read. • The longer the menu, the more likely it is to

be scanned rather than read.• Interesting survey done with menus 50

to100 items• 60 to 70 percent of multi page menu

sales came from fewer than 18-24 menu items.

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Menu Layout

• There are a few generally recognized patterns observed in menu reading:

• Diners tend to remember the first two items on a list, and if they scan the entire menu, they will usually recall the last two items also.

• The primacy and regency theory • The upper right corner of a page is typically

where readers’ eyes go to when first scanning a menu page.

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Menu Layout

Format• There are four basic types of formats you can use

on a menu. • The single-page format in which the entire menu is

contained on a single page or card.• The two-page/single-fold menus• The three-panel, two-fold menu• The multipage menu that includes a front and back

cover• The most common sized menu was 23cmx30.5cm.

This is the result of no other reason than to accommodate the standard A4paper size of 29.5x21cm

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Menu Layout

• Gaze motion patterns will vary according to the page format, graphics, layout and number of folds in the menu

• The pattern of eye movement is fixed, however it can be altered and directed by “eye magnets.”

• Eye magnets are little graphic techniques that will attract the eye and guest’s attention

• The same items on a menu sell differently if placed in different locations on a menu page.

• A “sweet spot” exists on the page for every item.

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Menu Sales Concentration

Single page The area of sales concentration is in the top half of the

pageThe one fold two pageThe most valuable location is the right page above the

center, then scanning across to the left top before moving down the page on the left. Then they move to the right before ending on the center on the left

The three-panel menuWhen guests open the menu, their eyes immediately go to

the middle of the middle panel. Then they move to the top right of the right-side panel. And from there their eyes move across to the top of the left panel. That’s sort of the Golden Triangle

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Focus Areas and Scanning Sequence on a Menu Page

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Effective Page Layout

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Communications Media

• The media you select to communicate your menus must align with the style, design, and overall concept of your business.

• Verbal Presentation – servers explain the scope of the menu

• The Inside Secret– Selections that “diners in the know” can order– Guests who have tapped into the underground

buzz.– “Will the chef prepare a special dining experience

for our table?”50


• Kiosk and Wall-Mounted Menu Boards

– Post menus in strategic locations or on interior walls

– Traditional approach – chalkboards– With the advent of affordable high definition digital

flat screen monitors -- a new breed of kiosk– Tabletop touch-screen menus that customers may

use for ordering

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• Menus on Paper: the most common means of communicating menu items

– Word processing software is truly all you need to generate menu copy.

– Desktop publishing software such as Microsoft Publisher, Adobe InDesign CS4

– Specialized software expressly designed for menu design

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• The introduction of inexpensive printers has enabled low-cost in-house printing of menus and wine lists.

• One advantage to in-house printing of menus is the ability to produce daily fresh sheets .

• These menus can be printed daily to feature seasonal or farm to table produce

• Once printed, menu pages typically are bound, stapled, or inserted into covers.

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Example of Menu Design Software

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• Innovation in menu communication• The Cork ‘n Cleaver restaurant chain

engraves their menu on a real meat cleaver• Perhaps the most innovative is produced by

Chef Homaro Cantu at his Moto Restaurant in Chicago.

– Edible menus in flavors as diverse as garlic bread or filet mignon

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Edible Menu from Moto Restaurant, Chicago, Illinois

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• Emergent Technology• Dedicated proprietary Web site• Guests are able to order various hotel services,

including in-room dining, from a dedicated page on the in-house channel

• Compact devices such as iPads offer inquisitive customers the opportunity to drill down to details, including winemaker bios, climate at time of harvest, sensory profiles and food affinities

• iPhone app for mobile ordering and pay for selections directly from their iPhone or iPod touch.

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iPhone App for Ordering at Chipotle Mexican Grill

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Web Menus

Include your food menus directly on your website, integrated with the design.

Designed in such a way that makes them easy to update. This way, visitors can see accurate information at any given time.

Your restaurant menu website display contact information, location, and operating hours.

Essential that you include a photo gallery that nicely portray the interior décor, the view and the features

Include social sharing buttons (Tweet, Facebook like, etc.) to individual pieces of content. For example, let users share their favorite items from your food menu, or share your latest blog post.

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Web Menus

Online reservationsThe most common way to take reservations online is

integrating a service like OpenTable.com or FreeBookings.com, which integrates nicely into your website.

Online orderingFor some restaurants, having an online ordering

system could add a huge boost in sales. Restaurant blogPost interesting content from your restaurant’s menu

food items, Video tours of the kitchen, or stream live video of your restaurant events

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