Creating a menu for vegetarians, many food services do not think about the specifics of the nutrition of such people. Moreover, a lot of additional factors are to be considered about vegetarians while developing a menu fir them. Much attention should be paid to the reasons people have applied to which choosing their diet.
The food services are to understand the psychology of vegetarians to make sure that they have developed the menu for them correctly and to know some particular rules according to which the menu is to be developed.
Amir Shani and Robin B. DiPietro in their article “Vegetarians: A typology for foodservice menu development” discuss the problems the food services ace when they are about to develop a menu for vegetarians. Firs of all, the authors state the fact that the research in the sphere is not enough.
The food service menu development is the theme which is considered in many journals, however, the problem of vegetarian menu is not usually discussed. Dining is one of the Western activities and vegetarians want to have a perfectly developed meal if it is possible.
Therefore, paying much attention to the motivation for being a vegetarian as the main factor food services should refer to while developing a menu, the authors of the article have decided to consider the problem as close as possible.
The authors refer to the following difficulties in developing the menu, lack of knowledge about vegetarian food, absence of the notification in the menu that a food is vegetarian, limited variety of choice of the vegetarian food, presence of the hidden meat in the food, such as beef flavoring, etc., and the inability to understand the reasons why people consume vegetarian food which is really important.
Dwelling upon the reasons of the little research in the sphere, the authors refer to the problem of boring and unsatisfying attitude to vegetarian food. However, this is not really correct and many cooks begin to pay more attention to vegetarian food in several reasons.
First of all, many people become interested in vegetarian food. Second, the demand on such kind of food encourages the cooks create something interesting and the development of the vegetarian menu becomes a new issue for the restaurants. Moreover, the tendency to healthy nutrition increases the number of those who prefer vegetarian food, however, there are people who are vegetarians because of other reasons.
Amir Shani and Robin B. DiPietro are sure that the reasons why people have chosen vegetarian diet should be considered while developing the vegetarian menu as to meet the desires of different customers, the restaurant is to try to satisfy the needs of each of the customers.
The individual approach is really important as trying to direct attention to each particular customer, the restaurant is going to win in comparison with the food service where the menu is directed for all vegetarians without differentiation.
Trying to differentiate the vegetarian diets with the purpose to pay attention to consumers’ needs, the author identify health-concerned vegetarians, weight-concerned vegetarians, sensory vegetarians, comfort vegetarians, religious vegetarians, economically vegetarians, social vegetarians, ethical vegetarians, environmental vegetarians, and humanitarian vegetarians (Shani and DiPietro 70).
Depending on the reasons why people have chosen not to eat meat and other products of living origin, people will choose the meals in the menu. Therefore, the restaurant managers are to consider the needs of each group mentioned above and to make sure that the menu is going to contain the items which are going to satisfy the needs of each category.
The article is valuable for its recommendations for the further research and implications for practitioners. The authors have conducted the literature review and they able dwell upon the future of the sphere. Thus, the authors of the research want to direct the restaurant managers who want to attract more clients to heterogeneous market segment.
The researchers are sure that the motivation for following the vegetarian market is important in choosing the products. Therefore, the food service managers are to develop the menu in accordance with the needs of the customers. The authors conclude that the main factor the restaurant managers are to pay attention to is the strictness of the diet.
To the point, while developing the menu for vegetarians, managers are to pay attention to market segmentation, appropriate staff training, menu design, and small details which may be really important. The example of such detail is the serving of the soy milk along with of cow milk.
Developing an effective menu
“Foodservice operators must regularly develop new products and tweak old ones to pique consumer interest and attract repeat business” is the statement which serves as the prologue in the article “Developing an effective menu” by Heather Henstock. The main idea the author of the article wanted to deliver to the audience is the idea that changes in the menu are obligatory.
No matter how successful the menu is, the managers are to understand that only constant and regularly improvement may be a guarantee of success. The Nice Easy Grocery shops are chosen as the example at the beginning of the article.
The shop has been selling the particular type of salads and the products were successful, however they could not reach their full potential. The hiring of the new chiefs to the store helped to conduct the slightest changes which have increase the potential of the menu and of the shop as a result.
The authors of the research have made the change in the menu the central idea for the discussion. Moreover, the author states that the changes are to be conducted regularly in order to make the clients interested in the future changes.
Thus, if the customers get used to the fact that ach week (month, decade) the restaurant change the menu, the increase of the visitors in the day of changes may be observed as people like changes, they are interested in new dishes and the ability to provide the customers with what they want is exactly what should be the main idea of the menu development process.
Heather Henstock stresses the idea that demographic and psychographic factors are to be considered while developing the menu. The menu developers are understand what kinds of clients attend their restaurants and how the choice of this or that meal may impact their desire to come to the restaurant again.
The menu developers are to understand that the food which is too popular in one part of the city may be absolutely out of demand in another. This is connected with people and their preferences in eating.
In combination with the changes which are to be present in any restaurant, the menu developers are to remember about the meals which are too popular to be changed.
Thus, if a menu developer will provide the changes in the product some particular group of people attend the restaurant for, they will not come to the restaurant again if they fail to get what they need. Therefore, the author of the article stress on the idea of rational changes to the menu while its development.
Along with changes, the author of the article recommends to pay attention to the absolutely new products which may be interesting to the consumers. There are a lot of meals and products and it is impossible to have all the variety of items in the menu of one specific restaurant. However, the attempts to add something new o the menu should be encouraged as this is one of the aspects of a change.
Presenting a new product in the menu, the menu developers will have to remove one of the items from the menu. To the point, it is economically advantageous to remove the items from the menu which are out of demand and substitute those with the changed or the new ones.
The author of the article states that the failure of provide changes to the menu may spoil the reputation of the restaurant. People live in the modern civilized world where globalization plays an important role. Globalization of all spheres of human life has created the circumstances that people got used to constant changes and improvement. Stable life is not what people have got used to.
Therefore, when people do not see the changes (in the menu in his case) they lose interest. Those who do not want the customers to lose the interest in their restaurant should regularly change the menu and implement the novelties as the part of the menu development process.
Works Cited
Henstock, Heather. “Developing an effective menu.” Convenience Store Decisions 22.10 (2011): 62-66. Print.
Shani, Amir, and Robin B. DiPietro. “Vegetarians: A typology for foodservice menu development.” FIU Hospitality Review 25.2 (2007): 66-73. Print.