Menus are important – here’s how to get it right!

In the restaurant industry, food trends are constantly changing and evolving. As a chef, should you be continually updating your menu to fit current trends, or is this a waste of time?

We have spoken to two experienced Chefs about this topic, and here are their thoughts on if you should fit your menu to match food trends.

Fairley Wijesinghe – Hospitality Chef Manager in Health & Aged Care
Your menu has to reflect you and also cater to your customers. I have always had a few of the classics a few of the favourites and the chef’s special, which allows for the creative juices to flow - this is how you come about your signature dishes. I would also experiment with seasonal produce and design a menu for certain days of the week.

Knowing your loyal clientele and catering for them is as important as winning new ones.

Also, with the increased dietary requirements and preferences, you have to continually source products and be on the ball with your menu changes.

Jonathan Rowe – Leading Chef for the Royal Navy
As a chef in this day and age, things change so fast. With the internet being used as tool trends not only catch on fast, they go viral so quickly. Trends are trends they come and go. I believe that as a chef, you shouldn’t have to keep up with trends. What you have to do is just keep up with the times.

As a chef, there are so many outdated dishes out there; you need to keep everything modern. Update your dishes to keep up with the times. The bases of most dishes are there, what you can do as a chef is take a classic recipe and give it a modern twist. Work with the things you have already and bring them into the 21st century. That’s so much better than wasting your time trying to come up with the latest craze.

So what I’m getting at is as a chef you don’t have to keep up with the latest trends, if you’re cooking excellent modern dishes that taste good and are well presented, then people will come back for more. Go with what you want to do and don’t keep trying to copy what other chefs are doing.