1.3 Writing a menu

What a menu is

For many guests, the food matters more than anything else about eating out, so the menu does much to make a restaurant popular and to sell food and drink. A poorly planned menu can spoil even a very good dinner.

Where menus came from

The word menu goes back to 1718, but the habit of listing dishes is older. In 1541, so the story goes, Duke Henry of Brunswick was seen checking a long strip of paper. It was a program of the dishes still to come, so he could save his appetite for the ones he wanted. This may be how menu cards began.

For grand ceremonial meals, a bill of fare used to hang on the wall so kitchen staff could follow the order of service. Modern menus came in the 1800s, when the Paris restaurant Palais Royale gave guests a small, handy copy of the menu posted on its door. By the middle of that century menus were placed at the end of the table, and later each guest got a menu of their own.

What a menu does

• Informs. It tells guests what food there is, how it is cooked and served, and what it costs.
• Orders. It puts dishes in a sensible sequence, usually under course headings, so the menu is easy to follow.
• Sets choice. It decides how free the guest is to choose.
• Shows image. It presents the style and character of the restaurant.
• Sells. Well-written descriptions make dishes appealing and lift sales.
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To do all this, a menu must be accurate, clear, informative and well designed. Every dish on it should always be available and arrive exactly as described. A guest who chooses a dish and then hears it has run out, or gets something different, is let down.

Styles of menu

• À la carte, meaning "from the card": a list of every dish the kitchen can make. The guest builds a meal from it and pays the total of the dishes chosen. Here the server can use suggestive selling, helping guests combine dishes they will enjoy.
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• Semi à la carte: a mix. Some dishes have their own price and are ordered singly; others carry a price that covers other items too.
• Table d'hôte, meaning from the host's table: a meal in several courses, with little or no choice, at one fixed price.
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Menus are also sorted by how often they change.

• Static menu: the same dishes for every guest, every day.
• Cycle menu: written for a set period, then repeated from the start.
• Market menu, also called a seasonal menu: built on what the market has.
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• Hybrid menu: a mix of static, cycle and market menus.
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The classical French menu of twelve courses

The modern menu of seven courses

• Amuse: a refined savory of two or three bites, hot or cold, meant to stimulate the appetite and amuse the mouth.
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• Potage: a soup, such as a bisque, consommé, purée or chowder.
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• Poisson: fish, whole or filleted, with vegetables.
• Intermezzo: a sorbet of citrus or fresh fruit, not too sweet, to clean the palate.
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• Entrée: the meat course, a portion of meat or poultry with a starch such as potato, rice or pastry; for example, beef Wellington, sliced, with sauce bordelaise.
• Dessert: the sweet course, perhaps a custard, pastry, pudding or mousse.
• Salad or cheese: for example endive or romaine heart with small tomatoes and vinaigrette, or a cheese course, or both. Coffee follows, or a ruby or tawny port with the cheese.

Planning a dessert menu

Dessert menus sell best when they stick to flavors people already love. Most guests see dessert as comfort food, so a new idea for its own sake rarely pays off. Chocolate always sells, but chocolate with beets will put most people off. Unusual ingredients belong at special events, tasting menus and catering.

A useful starting point is the five Cs.

• Chocolate: probably the best seller in any restaurant. Always offer one dark chocolate dessert; if you want a second, use white or milk chocolate. A good chocolate makes a simple dessert special, and a high-percentage, single-origin chocolate lets its flavors tell a story on the menu.
• Citrus: refreshing, and popular with guests who do not care for chocolate.
• Coffee: think of tiramisu, or an affogato, which joins coffee and dessert in one. Starting from a well-loved pairing like this and adding to it is a good way to design.
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• Custard or cheesecake: cheesecake, crème brûlée, flan or bread pudding; rich, creamy desserts like these are always wanted.
• Caramel: toffee pudding, caramel parfait, candies, caramel apples, sundaes, and caramel ice cream with crunchy toffee.

More points to plan around follow.

• Write descriptions in plain, simple words.
• Avoid using one ingredient in two desserts.
• Use fruit when it is in season: guests have waited a year for it, it needs little work, and it lowers food cost. Where little fruit grows between seasons, use other ingredients.
• Not every dessert needs a frozen part.
• Offer only as many desserts as the kitchen can serve well on its busiest nights; five to eight is usually about right.
• Fit the menu to the restaurant's style, its cuisine and its guests, and to the season: lighter desserts in summer, richer and warmer ones in winter.
• Put the best sellers at the very top and bottom so guests read past the others. The eye tends to go first to the top right of a page, so a dessert that sells less well can go there.
• Keep portions small. A guest who wants just a little more is happier than one who cannot finish. Smaller portions also waste less, stretch each recipe further and lower food cost.

Designing one dessert

Once the main flavor is chosen, there are several ways in.

• Favorites: take a well-loved classic, such as a hot soufflé, crème brûlée or lemon tart, and serve it cleanly and simply. Classics last because they comfort people and bring back good memories, and a simple dessert done perfectly satisfies.
• Ingredient first: start from something at its best, such as ripe peaches, and build contrast in flavor, texture and temperature around it. Soft fruit, a syrup-soaked sponge and a tart sabayon browned under the broiler can balance the sweetness of the peaches and honey, and the warm top plays against the cool parts below.
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• Seasonal: make one fruit or vegetable the star in the season it is picked, such as apple desserts in fall and winter, or local strawberries with ice cream in summer.
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• Deconstructed: take the main flavors of a classic and present them in a new way. Black forest cake, with its chocolate, cherries and whipped cream, can become a plated dessert of broken brownie, chocolate "sand", a quenelle of crème fraîche, candied cherries and a cherry-kirsch sorbet.

Then plan it on paper. A drawing helps you place each part, choose its shape and size against the others, and pick a garnish. After that, make the dessert again and again, adjusting each time, until every part is in balance.