What's on my menu?

I keep watching Kitchen Nightmares, but not because I’m food obsessed. I’m obsessed with problem solving and systems thinking. Why do restaurants fail? Often the problem starts with the menu.

I don’t know how these menus get so bloated. Maybe the menu is born from a brainstorming session. Things I can cook well. And I say this knowing that I do the same when I write. I think about the dish in front of me rather than the whole menu. And the menu isn’t just about what the customer sees, it determines what happens in the kitchen and what ultimately ends up on the plate.

If a menu has too many dishes with too many ingredients, the chef now has to stock all those ingredients. And all the spoilage leads to a death spiral where the chef takes more shortcuts, batching food, freezing it, and reheating it in the microwave. And that’s not what people go to restaurants to eat. But if the chef focuses on making fewer dishes with a few fresh ingredients, the kitchen runs more efficiently, spoilage is reduced, and customers eat well.

Same with me. I’m constantly filling my freezer with more and more research because I’m trying to serve too many dishes on my menu. So instead of grabbing fresh ingredients and serving them in a simple dish, I serve up a reheated overcrowded plate, if I even get the meal served.

A good menu has boundaries that makes the restaurant legible to the customer, but also a good spread within those bounds.

People rarely sit down in a restaurant looking for a specific dish, and won’t walk out if they can’t find that dish. Customers read the menu looking for specific features that the dishes fulfill. But, I think I’m starting to crowd too much onto this plate, so I’ll stop there for today and send this out.