By: Anna Skyttä
Menu is a significant document that leads commercial kitchen operations. Titles for menu items tell the kitchen and the customers what is being served, but they are just the ”tip of the iceberg”. With the recipes for the menu items you can prepare food with the right ingredients and the right quantities. When you are preparing food for a large amount of diners, you need to scale the recipes according to the amount of diners. And even if you would prepare menu items based on single orders, you have had to forecast sales for each menu item to be able to order ingredients. In addition to this, there is lots of other information related to the menu. For example information on ingredients and allergens.
Menu Holds the Information For Preparing Food
In the kitchen’s perspective the menu compiles all the recipes you need to prepare at a certain time. Managing all of that is easy with a kitchen system that covers the whole food production process of a restaurant. In JAMIX Kitchen Intelligence System you can build menus from your recipes in the system. When you set portion sizes and portion amounts for the recipes on the menu, the system will calculate the quantities for ingredients you need. You can then send your purchase orders to your suppliers electronically and directly from the system.
In JAMIX System the menu provides you information for preparing food, as well. That is recipes including ingredient quantities and methods. You can also save images of different stages of preparation, or of the finished dish in the recipe. If needed, you can change portion sizes or the amounts of portions and the system will automatically calculate the quantity you need to prepare. If you have registered sales information in the system, you can utilize it in future menus. The system will update figures and calculations even in a large menu with just a couple clicks.
The Content And the Quality Of Food On the Menu
Ingredient and allergen information of the menu items is tightly linked to the menu, as well. A kitchen system is extremely useful for managing this information. All information is linked within the system and detailed information on ingredients will be automatically included in the menu. In the system you can easily manage diet information, as well. Diets you have added on recipes will follow along to the menus.
JAMIX Kitchen Intelligence System automatically calculates nutritional content for the menu in a detailed level. You can also compare your menu to nutritional recommendations in the system. JAMIX System also has a unique CO2 calculator. It calculates the carbon footprint of food based on CO2 values registered for ingredients.
Communicating the Menu To Your Customers
You usually communicate the menu to your customers at least on the item level. Often it includes information on the most common diets, as well. In addition to this ”tip of the iceberg” the kitchen has to be prepared for opening also the world under the surface: You have to be able to provide your customers information on allergens in the food. In addition to must have information, the customers are also interested in information that lies deeper. Such as the origin of food or the environmental effect of food.
JAMIX Kitchen Intelligence System makes communicating with your customers smooth and easy. You can publish the menu you have created for operational purposes in a customer friendly format online, directly from the system. The published menu will include detailed information on the menu content. Your customer can browse it with a smart phone, for example.
Menu is just one part of the diverse food production process in a commercial kitchen. On the other hand it is the menu that leads kitchen operations aiming at preparing and serving food to customers. With a kitchen system managing all menu related information and tasks – in practice the whole food production process – is accurate and smooth, and it significantly saves time.
