A menu or a bill of fare is a list of prepared dishes of food which are available to a customer. The compiling of a menu is one of the most important jobs of a caterer, and there are a number of factors that must be taken into consideration before any menu is written.
The aim of a menu is to give the customer what he wants and not what the caterer thinks the customer wants. In general, it is better to offer fewer dishes of a good standard rather than having a wide choice of dishes of mediocre quality.
To be able to compile a luncheon or dinner menu is an art in itself, and the composing of an elaborate dinner menu needs great care in the selection of the various courses, so that each dish will harmonize with all of the others on the same menu.
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Historical Context of Menus in Culinary Arts
The menu as we know it today first came into being in the early 19th century. It was born in the celebrated restaurants of the Palais-Royale, which, at that time, were the gastronomic centre of Paris.
Types of Menus in Catering
A menu is a list of food dishes that are available to the customer. There are four main types of menu, which are as follows:
1. Special Party Menu: This is a menu compiled for private parties, banquets, or special functions.
2. Table d’Hôte Menu: This is a menu compiled for private parties, banquets, or special functions.
3. À la Carte Menu: This is a menu containing a large selection of dishes for each course. Each dish is individually priced, and, therefore, the client is permitted to compile his or her own menu. Clients are also allowed to choose as many or as few dishes as they wish. “À la carte” dishes should be individually prepared and cooked, and the customer should be informed that he or she will have to wait for this service.
4. Carte du Jour Menu: This is a menu containing “special” dishes that are selected by the chef or management, and may be available for a limited period of time. A modern example of “carte du jour” is “The Chef’s Special,” which appears on a large number of restaurant menus today. In composing the menu, the aim should also be to express, as far as possible, the spirit of the occasion for which it is intended.
Guidelines for Writing Menus in Agricultural Catering
The requirements of the menu must depend on the occasion, the season, the number of people, the price being paid, and the class of catering.
- Each dish should be different in composition and mode of cooking.
- The harmonizing effect is obtained by arranging the dishes that each one is distinct from the other, bearing no relation in appearance to the preceding or the following dishes.
- No two similar vegetable garnishes should ever be placed on the same menu, with the exception of mushrooms and truffles.
- The various meats and other important ingredients forming one complete course must not be repeated on the same menu from one course to another.
- The various kinds of sauces and accompaniments employed must be entirely different in colour, taste, and appearance.
- The menu must be compiled with a view to achieving a successful service in the restaurant. It is better to have fewer dishes or courses well cooked and correctly served than a pretentious, many-course menu, which would put too much stress on the kitchen, its staff and equipment, and upon the service and waiting staff.
- A careful selection of raw materials, paying attention to the time and season of the year, must be made in all cases.
- Ensure the use of correct cookery terms and spelling—especially when using French. Avoid repeating “à la” on a menu; this term means “in the style of,” and in many cases, can be omitted.
- Never write the word “gravy” on a menu.
- Sauces and/or garnishes are written directly after the dish to which they belong. Add the vegetables after the main course and its sauce and/or garnish. Follow the vegetables with the potato dish.
- Give a sufficient choice on the menu to satisfy the varying tastes and digestions of your clientele.
- Bear in mind quality, quantity, and, from a customer’s point of view, “value for money.”
- Place on the menu dishes that are attractive and appetizing, and will combine to form a well-balanced and pleasing meal.
It is necessary to make certain that menu terms are expressed accurately so that the customer receives exactly what is stated on the menu. For example, pâté Maison must really be home-made pâté, not factory-made.
If Fried Fillets of Sole are offered on the menu, then more than one must be offered, and the fish must be sole, and if an 8-oz rump steak is stated on the menu as the portion size, then it must be 8 oz raw weight.
If the sole is advertised as ‘fried’ and the steak as ‘grilled,’ then these processes of cooking should be applied; if the soles are stated to be Dover soles and the steak as rump steak, then the named food must be served.
Likewise, if the sole is stated to be served with a sauce tartare and the steak with a particular sauce, then the sauce should be correct and accurate. The description on the menu should give an indication as appropriate of the quality, size, preparation, and composition of the dish.
Characteristics of Different Menu Types in Catering
1. Special Party Menu
These types of menus are compiled for a previously arranged number of dishes (covers) and, more often than not, do not offer the guest at the table any selection in dishes. Because of these factors, large numbers can successfully be catered for at the specials, banquets, or special functions.
2. Table d’Hôte Menu
This type of menu is available in most hotels and restaurants, and provides for a quick service. All dishes are prepared, if not cooked, beforehand. Adequate supplies of produce are ordered to cater for a large clientele, and staff is quite easily organized. In addition, not so many staff is required like in à la carte service.
3. À la Carte Menu
Many people prefer to choose from an à la carte menu, and in doing so, compile their own menu from dishes that they particularly like. This type of catering is obviously more difficult and costly to provide, and is reflected on the menu by the rather high prices of the individual dishes.
As every dish is prepared and cooked to order, service becomes more personal, and highly specialized waiting and restaurant-management staff is also required. Quite a number of the dishes are finished on “the lamp” in the dining room, for example, Crêpes Suzette; Steak Tartare.
4. Carte du Jour Menu
This type of menu allows a wider choice than the table d’hôte menu, and usually serves to bring to the notice of the customer a particular characteristic either of the restaurant or of the town or region in which it is is situated. It can also be an opportunity to display the particular skills of a specialized chef.
These joints would be cooked by the sauce cook in a first-class hotel or restaurant, and could be cooked by any method except roasting. They are usually cooked on casserole, braise, or poêle, and generally cooked in a sauce and served with it.
Luncheon Menu Structure in Agricultural Catering
1. Luncheon—Déjeuner
i. First Course: Hors d’oeuvre or a soup, offering a choice of thick or thin (consommé).
ii. Second Course: Egg, farinaceous, or a fish dish—usually offering a choice of all three.
iii. Third Course: A roast joint, grill, a lightly prepared dish such as a ragoût, navarin, or blanquette, etc., or a choice from the cold buffet. Vegetables and potatoes, or a salad, is served with this course.
iv. Fourth Course: Sweets—hot or cold, or selection of cheese served with greens (watercress, spring onions, celery, radishes, etc.).
v. N.B. Coffee (café) is never included as an actual course.
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Order of Courses for a Dinner Menu in Catering
A full-course dinner is seldom served today, but the sequence of courses should be respected even if some are omitted. The general standard at present is for a four- or five-course meal to be served for dinner. Theoretically, however, all the courses of a full-dinner menu must be studied and learnt by heart so that perfect compilation of menus can be achieved.
2. Dinner—Dîner
i. Three-Course Dinner Menu:
- Hors d’oeuvre or soup
- Main course—with vegetables and potatoes or salad
- Sweet or savory
ii. Four-Course Dinner Menu:
- Hors d’oeuvre or soup
- Fish course
- Main course—with vegetables and potatoes or salad
- Sweet and savory
iii. Five-Course Dinner Menu:
- Hors d’oeuvre or soup
- Fish course
- Main course—with vegetables and potatoes or salad
- Sweet
- Savory
iv. Six-Course Dinner Menu:
- Hors d’oeuvre or soup (potage)
- Fish (poisson)
- Entrée
- Main (relevé or remove) with (pommes et légumes ou salade)
- Sweet (entremets)
- Savory (savoureux ou bonne bouche)
v. Seven-Course Dinner Menu:
- Hors d’oeuvres or soup
- Potage
- Poisson
- Entrée
- Relevé/Remove—Pommes et Légumes
- Roast (rôti)—Salade
- Entremets or Bonne/Bonne Bouche
vi. Eight-Course Dinner Menu:
- Hors d’oeuvres
- Potage
- Poisson
- Entrée
- Relevé/Remove—Pommes et Légumes
- Rôti—Salade
- Entremets
- Savories/Bonne Bouche
Detailed Account of Courses on a Full-Dinner Menu
1. Hors d’Oeuvres in Agricultural Menus
Being of a highly seasoned and piquant nature, this course is used to manipulate the appetite for the dishes that are to follow. In recent years, hors d’oeuvres have gained in popularity, and now appear even on simple menus in modest eating places.
Although the actual term “hors d’oeuvres” applies to the service of various cold salads and morsels of anchovy, sardines, olives, prawns, etc., it also covers whatever items are served before the soup.
Examples of such hors d’oeuvres are as follows:
- Melon Melon Frappé
- Oysters Huitres Nature
- Smoked Salmon Saumon Fumé
- Caviar Caviar
- Grapefruit Pamplemousse
- Salami Salami
- Potted Shrimps Petites Pots de Crevettes
- Shrimp, Prawn, or Lobster Cocktail
- Fruit Cocktail Coupe Florida
- Soused Herrings Hareng Dieppoise
- Paté of Goose Liver Paté de Foie Gras
There are also quite a number of items that may be served hot, such as Bouchées, Croquettes, Fritters, etc., and these are known as Hors d’Oeuvres Chaud.
2. Potage in Agricultural Menus
Being an extract of meat (in some instances fish), hot water, aromatic herbs, and vegetables, soup is a digestive stimulant. Two soups are generally served on a menu: one a clear soup (consommé) and a thick soup (cream).
The guest chooses one or the other. The clear soup is always placed first on the menu. On good-class à la carte menus, a fish soup is also usually offered for selection, the two most common being “Bisque d’Homard” or “Bouillabaisse.”
3. Poisson in Agricultural Menus
Fish, being soft-fibred, prepares the palate for the heavier meats that follow. Deep-fried or grilled fish dishes do not generally occupy a place on the “classical dinner menu,” but are freely offered on the shorter-coursed luncheon menu.
This also applies to the coarser members of the fish family, and the dinner menu is usually comprised of the finer fish prepared and cooked in the more classical manners.
Ideal fish for dinner menu compilation are: Sole, Salmon, Halibut, Escallops, etc. Rarely seen on a menu for the evening meal are: Cod, Bass, Haddock, Brill, Hake, and Plaice.
One deep-fried fish dish, which normally finds itself on the dinner menu, however, is “Blanchaille,” and this only because Whitebait are so light and in no way too filling for the comfort of the guest.
4. Entrée in Agricultural Menus
This is the first of the meat courses on a menu. It is always a complete dish in itself. It is dispatched from the kitchen garnished and sauced in the manner in which it is intended to be served. The “entrée” is always cooked and garnished in an artistic manner and usually served with a rich sauce.
The “entrée” can be devised of almost anything light. This course consists of all the small cuts of butcher’s meats usually sautéed, but never grilled. Grilled steaks, cutlets, and chops invariably replace the joints as the roast (rôti) course.
The following items, with their appropriate garnishes and sauces, can be successfully employed as entrées:
- Brains (Cervelles)
- Liver (Foie)
- Oxtail (Queue de Boeuf)
- Kidneys (Rognons)
- Calves Head (Tête de Veau)
- Tripe (Tripes)
- Rump, Entrecôte, and Tournedo Beefsteaks
- Lamb Chops and cutlets—Noisettes and Filet Mignons
- Pork Chops and cutlets
- Escallops, Granadins, Medallions, and Côtes of Veal
- Sweetbreads—(Ris de Veau/Agneau)
- Hot Soufflés or Mousses
- Bouchées
- Pilaws and Rizottos
Small cuts or portions of poultry, individually cooked, are also served as entrées. In first-class hotels and restaurants, all entrées are cooked, garnished, and presented for service by the sauce cook (saucier).
5. Relevé/Remove in Agricultural Menus
This is the main meat course on the menu, and is commonly known as the “pièce de résistance.” It may consist of a joint of any of the following:
- Lamb (Agneau)
- Chicken (Poulet)
- Beef (Boeuf)
- Duckling (Caneton)
- Veal (Veau)
- Tongue (Langue)
- Ham (Jambon)
- Fowl (Poulard)
- Pork (Porc)
These joints would be cooked by the sauce cook in a first-class hotel or restaurant, and could be cooked by any method except roasting. They are usually cooked on casserole, braise, or poêle, and generally cooked in a sauce and served with it.
6. Entremets in Agricultural Menus
This may consist of a sweet, such as various soufflés, soufflé surprise, omelet au rhum, omelet à confiture, etc., or a cold sweet with an ice-cream base, which consists of anything with ice cream, such as coupe, biscuit, bombe, meringue glacée, poire Hélène, pêche Melba, etc.
7. Bonne/Bouche in Agricultural Menus
Various tidbits served on toast or canapés to counteract the sweetness of the previous course. Simple savories include mushrooms, anchovies, sardines, beef marrow, etc. However, there are many more combinations of foodstuffs that make excellent savories.
Savory soufflés may be served, and an ideal substitute for the savory is, of course, the “cheese board” served with an appropriate “miniature” salad consisting of watercress, radish, spring onions, etc.
Additional Courses in Agricultural Menus
1. Sorbet
This course is a rest between courses. It counteracts the previous dishes and rejuvenates the appetite for those that are to follow. Normally served between the relevé/remove and the rôti, it is a water ice flavoured as a rule with champagne and served in a glass.
2. Entremets de Légume
This course follows the rôti and is not a part of it. Invariably, asparagus is served, accompanied by hollandaise sauce or melted butter (beurre fondue).
3. Dessert
Comes from the French term “desservir,” and means “to remove all” items from the table; in other words, the end of the meal. Fresh fruit is always served for this course.
Whatever menu compiled should give an indication as appropriate of quality, size, preparation, and composition of the dish. The name of each course on the menu and the place they occupy on a menu must be carefully studied and strictly adhered to.
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