Menu Engineering: 14 Principles for Selling Great Desserts

March 3, 2013 Thomas Kilroy

This post is part of a series to help you build a winning menu that will engage with your customers, assist your team and most importantly, drive your bottom line.

Before you start building your dessert menu, start with this in mind: What if you had to offer desserts to a family of six (perhaps your own family..)?

Now, go round the table and try and guess their choices… What would Granny have? ( Something soft, perhaps some ice cream. ) Or that teenage daughter watching her waistline? ( How many calories are in sorbet Mum? ) What about Dad? ( Creme Brûlée… I like what I know .) Or Mum? ( Ooh chocolate, ‘cos I deserve a treat !) Or Granddad who’s kinda stuck in his ways? ( I like me custard, does it come with custard? )

As you can see, a picture of what might be on you dessert menu starts to take shape...

With this in mind, here are my topmost guiding principles in creating a powerful Dessert Menu that will generate sales:

Keep it to eight items
The more choice you have the more wastage you have.

Rotate your dessert list on a fortnightly or monthly basis
Achieving consistency takes a little time, so changing your menu too often can have a negative impact on quality.

Daily Specials
If you have a lot of regular diners, then offer one or two daily specials. These then tie in with the seasons and annual celebration days such as Shrove Tuesday.

Think contrast
...creamy vs crunchy, gooey vs brittle, warm vs frozen, perfumed vs tangy

Portion Control
- To ensure you control your food cost, items served in ramekins, glasses or coupes should be encouraged, especially if you are on a tight budget. And since everyone pays the same, they should get the same.

- For pies, tarts and gateaux, use one of these. They’re available in different denominations.

- If you’re following the latest trend of rectangular shaped bakes (what Patissier's sometimes call a tranche ) then use a ruler (or scale) to ensure portion control.

- Bottom line? The trick is to leave your guests full, but wanting more...

Garnish, not garish

Creme Brûlée: Clever use of Caramel to add lift.

Get rid of that stupid out-of-season strawberry or mint garnish on everything. It costs you on every single plate you send out and doesn’t have the impact you think it does. Clever use of Chocolate, Caramel or even Tuille Biscuit can be far more dramatic.

Take a blank canvas
Invest in some great plates. I mean, really great plates. You can add a premium for this and it will have the impact you were looking for with that stoopid strawberry thingy.

Artistic flair
Dusting your plate with cocoa powder or icing sugar is a quick and dirty way to making a dessert look artistic. You can even cut out a stencil of your logo and use that. (Make sure the waitstaff know to serve any dusted part of the plate AWAY from the guest to avoid getting it on their clothes.)

Keep your reader informed
Don’t forget to mention if a dessert is Gluten Free, Low Calorie, Fat Free; Contains Nuts or any other dietary information that your guests should know about.

All good things
And if it takes time to prepare (such as a souffle), let them know in advance on the menu as well.

Create the experience
Never miss an opportunity to celebrate a guest’s birthday with a candle in their dessert. (More on this to follow in a separate post. Yeah, it's THAT important.)

Sell the Experience
If any of your desserts have a story, or an inspiration, or a unique selling point, then tell it. People are intrigued by this and will give it a go to see for themselves.

Don't ignore Cheese
In my experience, the type of person who orders cheese tends to be a good spender, especially when it comes to wine. If you offer a great cheese selection, you will encourage them to come back often more. At whatever level you decide to pitch it, make sure your cheese is fresh and preferably at room temperature, biscuits crunchy and fruit/celery washed.

A sale is a sale, even if it's half a sale
And if your guests are wavering, make sure service staff know to remind them that all of your desserts come with two teaspoons should they like to try one to share. It may even lead to coffee or digestif sales…

Apply these guiding principles to your dessert menu philosophy and you will have a range of products and services that your Service Staff can believe in and SELL.

In my next post, I will be looking at the dishes that all good dessert menus should have.