Composing a menu

Yup, but only for a school project. We were asked to work on four à la carte menus for the four seasons respectively. At a first thought it's pretty straight forward for an imaginative restaurant--all I could do is put on the the dishes I like from various restaurants, and at most I can make the menus more coherent by coming up with a theme.

Well, after reading the book Culinary Artistry I have a second thought. Here's a quick list of what I learned from Chapter 10, Composing a Menu:

1. First of all, the menu is the contract between you and the customers, so what you better bring the right things with the precise doneness.

2. Using seasonal ingredients is very important.

3. Know your audience--what your clients usually want to get?

4. Consider a themed menu.

5. Consider the pacing of courses, the progression of flavors and other relationship between every single dish. When and how do you build the climax? And how do you calm down the customers?

6. Think about this: are the dishes on a menu overlapping in flavour, taste, or texture?

7. Be careful of the wordings--pair them accurately.

8. If wine is a big thing in your restaurant, pair food to wine and not vice versa.

9. Think about logistics for the back of the house--don't rely too much on one single station.

10. Quality consistency is very important. Test, and re-test your recipes before you put in on the menu.

11. If you have to repeat the main ingredients of a dish throughout the year, think about using seasonal garnishes.

12. Diversify your menu, have enough variety to satisfy various customer's needs.

13. Consider signature dishes, set up restaurant identity. Do not change the menu so drastically that makes the restaurant loses its character. Customers need to be familiar with what they get. It's time to open up another restaurant when you need a big change.