Menu System: Recipes

Recipes are critical for cost control, customer satisfaction, and regulatory compliance.

Recipes tell the cooks how to make items. Recipes should be quantified for the amount necessary for the meal. If they are not, the cooks may not take the time to adjust the recipes for the amount actually needed but just double or triple the recipe. This leads to overproduction, waste, and increased costs.

If the recipes are not followed, the product will not be consistent from one time to the next. Customers like consistency. They like to receive what they expect.

If the recipes are not followed, the residents will not receive the nutrients in the amounts necessary for health. They may receive too little or too much. Both can be detrimental. Poor nutritional status can affect survey results.

In a manual menu system, recipes need to be quantified by hand. This is time consuming! Some menu systems will quantify the recipes for the amounts entered. This is better, but someone must still determine the amounts needed. A computerized integrated menu system will take into account diet orders, food preferences, and selections and determine the quantification level of the recipes for a particular meal.