Kennyz wrote:Chef Phillip,
I think the question you posed in the thread title and the one in the content of the post are actually quite different, so I'll take them separately.
Regarding whether increased sales of an item is universally a good thing, the answer - imo - is no. Spikes in sales of a particular item can certainly be good, but can also lead to at least two problems. First, if that dish's ingredient costs are high compared to other dishes, the spike could have a negative effect on the bottom line. Then again, sometimes the higher cost is offset because - depending what the dish is - customers who order it may be more (or less) likely to spend big money on wine, after dinner drinks, etc. So, as you noted, chefs have to use instinct, judgment, (and - very importantly - feedback from waitstaff and a study of end-of-night receipts) in these instances.
Kennyz wrote:The second problem is potentially more important: most restaurant kitchens rely on a certain number of "easy" dishes: stuff which may be conceptually complex and require significant prep work, but which requires little more than heating (if that) and plating at service time. There are other dishes which must truly be "cooked" to order, and require more focus (and time) during the service rush. If the sales spike happens to be in one of the more intensive dishes, this can have a hugely negative impact on the whole kitchen.
Kennyz wrote:Regarding how to get an item to sell, I agree with the two tactics you noted (pricing and getting the staff excited about it). You also noted that some ingredients are sure to sell because they are universally loved, which brings up a strategy many chefs employ to move more "exotic", traditionally unpopular stuff - namely, the top it with a runny egg strategy. Or a piece of lobster. Or a strip of bacon. Or a Hooters waitress.
Bacon-wrapped durian. Lobster and rutabaga napoleon. Coddled egg with lima beans. Etc, etc. Bull testicles with, oh never mind.
DutchMuse wrote:Only speaking as a professional diner not employed in the restaurant industry, the greatest thing to cause me to order a menu item is the wording of the dish on the menu. Forget the server, even the price, but make it sound amazing and I'm all in. But then the restaurant should deliver on the promise.
DutchMuse wrote:As for the contest amongst servers as to who can sell the most of item x from the menu. That's, to me, a bad approach from the customer's perspective, at least at more upscale venues (Ok, it might be fine for something like a Denny's) but I think there is a certain loss of integrity between wait staff and customer with that, even on a subtle, nonconscious level. Recently I joked, when asking for suggestions (at a place where I am a regular and know the chef) "Ask the chef what he would order tonight, and I don't mean what he's trying to sell the most of. I mean what he, himself, would want." In truth, I was only half joking, as I didn't want an item pushed on me the restaurant was trying to get rid of. (The meal was fantastic, by the way).
This doesn't mean the wait staff should figure out what I want; rather, it means, as we interact and they give me information, they can guide me to informed choices of my likes and dislikes. But trying to push an item because of a contest is a little like my stockbroker pushing a stock because she/he will get a higher commission as the brokerage house is trying to make a market in a given stock. Good for the house; not always the best for the customer.
In the end, restaurants are in the hospitality business and those who offer the most hospitality will usually make the most money in the long run.
Mike G wrote:I read menu descriptions and I have no idea what the final thing will taste like. Of course that's because Menu-ese is deliberately opaque anyway ("Heirloom dirt-grown tomatillettes on a glacier of bark-root 'spackle'"). So it's no surprise if customers glom onto something that sounds like it will probably make it taste good, like bacon.
I'd be curious to see a menu which tried to describe dishes not in terms of ingredients (I don't need the ingredients, you're the one cooking it) and just in terms of what they're like. Say:
Beef— Big, bold, savory. This will wake you up, make the blood flow, and probably make you want to have sex right now.
Sturgeon— Delicate, a little fussy, multi-leveled. Enough going on that you can zone out of your partner's conversation and think about the fish instead.
DutchMuse wrote:Only speaking as a professional diner not employed in the restaurant industry, the greatest thing to cause me to order a menu item is the wording of the dish on the menu. Forget the server, even the price, but make it sound amazing and I'm all in. But then the restaurant should deliver on the promise.
As for the contest amongst servers as to who can sell the most of item x from the menu. That's, to me, a bad approach from the customer's perspective, at least at more upscale venues (Ok, it might be fine for something like a Denny's) but I think there is a certain loss of integrity between wait staff and customer with that, even on a subtle, nonconscious level. Recently I joked, when asking for suggestions (at a place where I am a regular and know the chef) "Ask the chef what he would order tonight, and I don't mean what he's trying to sell the most of. I mean what he, himself, would want." In truth, I was only half joking, as I didn't want an item pushed on me the restaurant was trying to get rid of. (The meal was fantastic, by the way).
This doesn't mean the wait staff should figure out what I want; rather, it means, as we interact and they give me information, they can guide me to informed choices of my likes and dislikes. But trying to push an item because of a contest is a little like my stockbroker pushing a stock because she/he will get a higher commission as the brokerage house is trying to make a market in a given stock. Good for the house; not always the best for the customer.
In the end, restaurants are in the hospitality business and those who offer the most hospitality will usually make the most money in the long run.
Jayz wrote:And for Phillip...I think it's so many things. Menu items must be listed differently depending on location, restaurant, day of the week and so much more.
GAF wrote:Moderators, I think that it belongs under Other Culinary Chat.
GAF wrote:As important as getting a diner to try a dish is the need for that diner after having ordered the dish to wish to return to the restaurant. What one is attempting to do through food and service is to persuade the diner that the restaurant is a place to return, hopefully again and again. Put another way, the staff wants the diner to see the restaurant as a "home space." Now this relates to the menu writer as novelist: the diner must be persuaded that s/he has a choice, but also that what s/he imagines the dish will be like is what it is (or that the dish is better than the imagination)...So the chef needs to be concerned not just with what it takes to get a customer to order, but also what it takes to get the customer to feel that the order was wise in retrospect.