Know Your Stuff: Advice for Learning the Menu
Know Your Stuff
This might seem obvious, but you can only make suggestions and confidently answer guest questions by knowing the food and beverages your restaurant offers. It’s not just what’s on the menu (the guests can see that) but it’s knowing the stuff they can’t know! By understanding the nuances of your restaurant’s food and beverage offerings, you can create meaningful experiences for your guests while also making more money. So, for those of you in the back of the room: you will make more money the more you know about what you’re serving guests.
Level Learning
You can’t learn the entire menu of food and drinks all at once, so take it one step at a time. Start with the basic elements of each dish, cocktail, wine, or whatever menu item. You’ll be able to put more advanced information into context, such as pairings, details of ingredients and preparation, etc., by starting with these simple questions about each item on the menu:
What is it called, and does it have a nickname that you use when referring to it amongst employees?
What are the main ingredients listed on the menu?
What are the allergens you need to be aware of?
What does it look like? Can you identify by site?
What is the dropline, or what do you say when the item is served to the guest?
Once you know these basics, you can start to put together a story to tell the guest about the item with more detailed information. This is sometimes called a “spiel” (pronounced: sh-PEEL), and it involves the basic selling points of the item. Guests are dining with you for the experience: the sights and smells, the flavors and stories… It is really important to sell experiences, not things.
Food and Cocktails
Reciting a list of ingredients is not an experience, it’s a recipe. Learning how to paint a picture in the guest’s mind of what they will be enjoying is a crucial skill. When you understand more than just ingredients, you will unlock ninja-like potential to create a perfectly curated dining experience for your guests:
Portion size: Is it good for sharing?
The shape of the plates or glasses it’s served in so you know how much can fit on the table at one time (really important for coursing out a meal!)
Fire times: You can better pace a meal when you know how quick or long it takes to make.
Is the dish light? Is it very rich? This can help you avoid allowing a guest to order too much food.
Which silverware is required to mise or mark the table?
What are a couple things it can pair with that would make a great combination?
Are there common modifications?
Wine, Beer, and Spirits
People dedicate a lifetime of study to these things. There are books upon books written about the history, regions, production methods, and other details that date back thousands of years… So, how do you even start?! Luckily, most guests are focused on how this information impacts their dining experience more than they are interested in how much you know about the subject.
In the beginning, focus on the story. What can you learn on an item-by-item basis that can help you sell these things to guests?
What does it look / smell /taste like?
What is special about the way it’s made that’s unique or different?
Is there something special about the region or producer that you can share with the guest?
What are one or two food items that go really well with it? Why?
Even if you never spend time learning about beverage on your own, as you work through your menu, you’ll pick up themes. You’ll start to see that wines from a certain region or producer share a set of characteristics, how certain cocktail ingredients tend to work really well together, or the kinds of food that pair well with IPA. You’ll also start to see that you have an almost-superpower to get guests excited to try new things because you spoke about them so confidently.
It's a good use of time to learn as much as you can about the different offerings that guests can enjoy. Avoid getting overwhelmed by taking things one step at a time. The more you know about your menu, the higher your sales will be because guests trust you to lead them on an amazing experience. Happy guests and higher sales mean higher tips!
For managers: using MISEbox is the easiest way to put all of this information for your team in one place. Our templates make it easy to create tech sheets for anything on your menus, and we offer in-app chat support in case you need some help or advice.
Photo by Sunrise Photos on Unsplash