You wear multiple hats at the restaurant every day. As a professional chef, you keep staff organized, oversee stocking duties and hold down food costs.
You do it all and still run an efficient line during the busiest shifts.
You also know how to combine the business side of successful operations with your culinary creativity.
Menu development is an invaluable strategy for ensuring customer loyalty and bringing new guests to your tables.
Let us help by serving you with a little inspiration. Here at Hitchcock Farms, our roots in the foodservice industry run deep.
We offer these 15 innovative ideas for your restaurant menu.
Stay Open to More Than One Menu
1. Give Guests a Taste
Showcase your range of specialties with a tasting menu featuring samples of your best dishes.
Regular customers get to enjoy multiple favorites in one setting. New guests enjoy an expanded dining experience that makes a memorable impression.
Make sure everyone stays happy by offering tasting menu combinations that can be finished in a reasonable amount of time.
You want customers to feel satisfied, but you also want the tables to turn.
The right balance results in a dining experience that encourages repeat business.
2. Bring Back Brunch
It's not a new concept, but brunch still fills dining rooms with profitable, pre-lunch crowds.
A weekend brunch menu becomes especially marketable when it's served with champagne.
Keep in mind that brunch helps control food costs.
For example, an elegant chef's frittata can be made with fresh, low-cost ingredients, such as eggs, napa cabbage and onions.
Try marketing the service as a type of in-house catering for special occasions. Birthday celebrations, family reunions and even bridal showers are great candidates for private brunch parties.
3. Develop a Chef's Menu for Kids
If your restaurant fits the fast-casual model, kids are a big part of your customer base.
If your operations center around traditional dining, the younger crowd is still an important demographic.
Make sure they enjoy your restaurant by offering visually interesting and truly tasty selections.
Only their parents need to know that your chef's menu for kids is healthy too.
Keep It Fresh With Seasonal Menu Planning
4. Let Spring Inspire You
Revitalize your menu by crafting recipes around the fresh flavors of spring produce. Start by promoting your restaurant's springtime celebration through social media.
Let customers know you're putting your professional chef's touch on dishes designed around this time of year.
Give them a variety of salads, sides and entrees featuring healthy springtime ingredients.
You have a bounty of premium vegetables to work with, including napa cabbage, romaine hearts, broccoli and English peas.
5. Keep Summer Menus Cool
Make it easy for guests to cool off with a summer menu that offers lighter options.
Try these simple modifications for food prep and presentation that match the season.
Turn tapas into cool appetizers with chilled toppings, such as cream cheese, veggie spreads or smoked salmon.
Serve up miniature salads with radish and cherry tomatoes in edible bowls of baby iceberg lettuce.
Trade out rich sauces and slow roasts for light marinades and grilled entrees sided with summer-fresh veggies.
6. Make Fall and Winter Inviting
Use your seasoned experience as a chef to rework favorite cold-weather menu selections.
For example, transform a hearty vegetable soup into a rich, creamy bisque.
Elevate the traditional goodness of a beef Bourguignon or stroganoff by using dry-aged, boneless rib eye.
Use your kitchen ovens to slow roast vegetables or bake housemade bread as perfect sides to hearty entrees.
Finish the dining experience with winter-centric desserts based on your restaurant's most popular sweet courses.
7. Serve Holiday Chef Specials
When the season calls for extra festivities, make your restaurant menu a part of the celebrations.
This strategy is especially important during November and December.
Consumers are less inclined to dine out this time of year. Counter that trend, and wrap up better restaurant sales with these ideas for holiday chef specials.
Capture customer attention with colorful crostini destined for social media shares.
Create appetizing excitement with bright carpaccio plates of thin-sliced grapefruit and blood orange.
Go casual with tall turkey and cranberry sandwiches that streamline prep and maximize guest satisfaction.
Decorate holiday pasta salads with red roasted peppers, deep green pesto and tiny mozzarella balls.
Showcase a special chef's dessert as beautiful trifle, buttery pecan brittle or creamy rice pudding.
Open Your Kitchen to the World
8. Let Your Customers Help
Incorporating different cultures into the menu can be an adventure.
There are so many rich culinary traditions to choose from, but which ones might suit your restaurant best?
The answer is often seated in the dining room.
Take a break from the kitchen, and mingle with guests. Ask about their favorite cuisines and why different ones are popular.
Thank them for sharing their ideas, and assure them that you'll be using their suggestions soon.
Follow through with new menu items that reflect customer feedback. Enjoy knowing that guests will enjoy coming back and taking partial credit for helping you with menu development.
9. Explore Unique Fusions
Imagine tandoori chicken transformed into a burger.
Consider tossing a falafel Cobb salad or prepping Mexican ravioli. While these examples might seem unusual, they demonstrate how well fusion cuisine livens up restaurant menus.
Unique fusion can be casual. For example, corn tortilla tacos take on a fresh twist as wraps for roasted purple Brussels sprouts.
A fusion dish can also be an elegant blend, such as a classic fattoush salad nestled in romaine hearts.
Highlight Healthy Menu Options
10. Make Menu Recipes Healthier
Consumers have an appetite for improving their diets. Satisfy them with new recipes that serve up old favorites.
Small changes in ingredients, proportions and prep make a big change in a regular entree. Most menu selections are easily slimmed down so that they present with a healthier profile.
Pizza is a great example of a menu item that can be refreshed with a few changes. Trade out Italian sausage and pepperoni toppings for thinly sliced Brussels sprouts and broccoli florets.
You've created a guiltless pizza pie that satisfies with delicious flavors and plenty of nutrition.
11. Offer a Veggie-Centric Menu
A veggie-centric menu opens your kitchen to customers who might otherwise dine elsewhere.
Develop it as a side menu offering a variety of vegetable dishes, from appetizers to entrees.
This strategy can boost restaurant sales with ingredients that hold down food costs and minimize food waste.
It all adds up to an impressive return on a small menu investment.
12. Feature Diet-Specific Options
Some dietary preferences are based on choice, while others follow specific regimens.
Adding a few diet-specific options to the restaurant menu can significantly increase customer interest and invite new guests to your tables.
Use your chef's creativity to develop a few menu items specific to these dietary requirements.
Vegetarian – Include menu selections crafted around plant-based proteins.
Vegan – Upgrade basic vegan dishes with a variety of legumes, fruits, and whole grains.
Gluten-Free – Develop recipes based on gluten-free grains, flours, and lentils.
13. Source From Trusted Suppliers
As each plate comes off the line and heads out to the dining room, make sure it reflects your best by sourcing the best from trusted suppliers.
This is especially true for vegetables.
You take pride in preparing every recipe with the freshest ingredients available. Stocking walk-ins and pantries with premium produce helps maintain your highest professional standards.
It also holds down food costs, gives you higher yields, and ensures happy restaurant guests.
Showcase Your Signature Dishes
14. Adjust Plate Presentations
Take a second look at your current plate presentations. You don't need to rework an entire dish to improve its reception.
A few simple adjustments can elevate plate presentation from interesting to impressive.
Layer ingredients so that they build height and invite exploring forks.
Create visually interesting plates by arranging items in lines, triangles and circles.
Wake up monochromatic dishes with colorful toppings and bright sides.
Use swirls, smears and dots of sauce to add an artistic touch to the plate.
Push past clutter by not overloading plates with too many ingredients.
15. Impress With a Signature Dish
When someone talks about how much they enjoy blooming onions, chances are very good they're recalling dinner at a well-known fast casual chain.
That kind of branding is invaluable.
It's also a marketing strategy that you can develop in-house. Perhaps you have an appetizer based on hyper-local ingredients.
It might be an entree lovingly prepared from an heirloom recipe.
Even a unique dessert can serve as a signature dish that sets your kitchen apart from the competition.
Make it special, and customers will share it on social media. That kind of free branding is priceless.
Our Ideas at Your Service
We salute the hard work and dedication of professional chefs in all types of restaurants.
As long-standing members of the food service industry, we're proud to do what we can to support your commitment to serving your best.
It's our pleasure to share ideas you can use in your restaurant kitchen every day. Check back with us soon for updates on the latest industry trends, tips, and news.
Here at Hitchcock Farms, we're always at your service with the finest premium produce available.
