Most executive chefs and head chefs know the basic costs of a particular dish, but do most know how that particular dish performs as part of the restaurant sales mix? From my experience, the majority of chefs around the world have no idea what menu engineering is and how it can play an important role in determining overall profitability and food costs.

Menu engineering examines the sales history for each dish on the menu, and examines the item's selling price and cost price. It then relates their profit margins and their menu mix percentages to see which items are proving popular and thus profitable.

The best resource about menu engineering was written by Michael L. Kasavana and Donald J. Smith and is titled Menu Engineering: A Practical Guide to Menu Analysis. The book was published in 1982 and is difficult to locate today. The book includes various case studies as well as detailing the process of menu engineering. Menu Engineering involves dividing the menu and its dishes into 4 categories;

Stars
Stars are extremely popular and have a high contribution margin. Ideally Stars should be your flagship or signature menu item

Plow Horse
Plow Horses are high in popularity but low in contribution margin. Plow horse menu items sell well, but don’t significantly increase revenue.

Puzzles
Puzzles are generally low in popularity and higher contributions. Puzzle dishes are very difficult to sell, but have a high profit margin.

Dogs
Dogs are low in popularity and low in contribution margin. Basically they are difficult to sell and when you do they are not all that profitable.

Recently Philip Norman emailed me a copy of a menu engineering spreadsheet which takes the Kasavana and Smith theory on menu engineering and automates the process in a excel spreadsheet. The results are automatically charted in the spreadsheet for complete menu analysis.

It’s well worth getting the menu engineering file and applying it to your current menu to better analyse the menu. Then simply use it when developing a menu in the future. After all isn’t it important to understand the financial position of your menu?

To get a copy of menu engineering spreadsheet, simply register at Kitchen Profitability and you’ll be emailed the file straight away.