Menu engineering for catering is about optimizing your business lunch menu based on popularity and profitability per dish. With a fixed price per person, you need to strategically choose which dishes you offer to maximize your margin. In this article, you'll learn how to apply menu engineering to your catering offer with fixed prices.
What is menu engineering for catering?
Menu engineering is analyzing your dishes on two factors: popularity (how often it's ordered) and profitability (how much you earn from it). With catering at fixed prices per person, this is crucial, because you can't adjust with different prices.
The goal: promote your best dishes and replace or adjust your worst ones.
The four categories of menu engineering
Each dish falls into one of these four quadrants:
- Stars: Popular + profitable → Promote!
- Plowhorses: Popular + not profitable → Lower cost price
- Puzzles: Not popular + profitable → Promote more
- Dogs: Not popular + not profitable → Replace
💡 Example business lunch analysis:
Fixed price: €18.50 per person (excl. VAT: €16.97)
- Caesar salad: 60% choose this, cost price €4.80 → Star
- Carpaccio sandwich: 40% choose this, cost price €7.20 → Plowhorse
- Quinoa bowl: 15% choose this, cost price €5.10 → Puzzle
- Tuna wrap: 10% choose this, cost price €6.80 → Dog
Action: Promote Caesar, make carpaccio cheaper, explain quinoa better, replace wrap
Measuring popularity in catering
In catering, you measure popularity differently than in a restaurant:
- Choice percentage: What percentage chooses this dish at buffets?
- Repeat requests: Do clients ask for this dish again?
- Compliments: Do you get positive feedback?
- Leftovers: Is there a lot left over after lunch?
⚠️ Note:
At buffets, people often take more than they eat. Measure popularity by what disappears from the buffet, not by what's left on plates.
Calculating profitability per dish
With fixed prices, your profitability per dish is crucial:
Formula: Margin per dish = Fixed price per person - Cost price of dish
💡 Example calculation:
Business lunch €16.97 excl. VAT per person:
- Brie sandwich: cost price €3.80 → margin €13.17 (77% margin)
- Niçoise salad: cost price €6.20 → margin €10.77 (63% margin)
- Chicken wrap: cost price €5.40 → margin €11.57 (68% margin)
The brie sandwich is most profitable, but is it also popular?
Strategies per category
Stars (popular + profitable)
- Place these dishes prominently on your menu card
- Mention them first when pitching your menu
- Take photos of them for your website
- Train your staff to recommend these
Plowhorses (popular + not profitable)
- Lower the cost price: cheaper ingredients or smaller portions
- Replace expensive ingredients with alternatives
- Or raise your fixed price (if the market allows)
⚠️ Note:
Change popular dishes carefully. Customers will notice if their favorite suddenly tastes different or becomes smaller.
Puzzles (not popular + profitable)
- Give the dish a more attractive name
- Add a short description that whets the appetite
- Position it strategically on your menu card
- Have your staff explain the benefits (healthy, fresh, etc.)
Dogs (not popular + not profitable)
- Replace with a new dish
- Test small adjustments first: different sauce, different presentation
- If nothing helps: remove it
Practical tips for catering menus
💡 Example menu card optimization:
Instead of a random order:
- Start with your Stars (popular + profitable)
- Put Puzzles (profitable but unknown) in second place
- Plowhorses (popular but expensive) at the bottom
- Remove Dogs entirely
- Seasonal rotation: Refresh your Dogs every quarter with new dishes
- A/B testing: Test new dishes first at a small number of events
- Ask for feedback: Explicitly ask clients what they enjoyed most
- Cost control: Monitor your ingredient prices monthly
KitchenNmbrs for catering menu engineering
With KitchenNmbrs you can:
- Automatically calculate cost prices per dish
- See margins per dish at a glance
- Track and update ingredient prices
- Compare different catering menus
This way you immediately see which dishes are your Stars and which Dogs you need to replace.
How do you apply menu engineering to catering? (step by step)
Gather data from your last 10 catering jobs
Note per dish: how often it was chosen (popularity) and what was the cost price (profitability). At buffets, count how many portions disappeared; for à la carte, count the choices.
Calculate the margin per dish
Subtract the cost price of each dish from your fixed price per person (excl. VAT). This gives you the absolute margin in euros per dish.
Place each dish in the right category
Popular = >30% choice percentage, Profitable = >65% margin. This gives you Stars (both high), Plowhorses (popular, low margin), Puzzles (high margin, not popular) and Dogs (both low).
Adjust your menu card based on the categories
Promote your Stars, lower the cost price of Plowhorses, give Puzzles better names/descriptions, and replace your Dogs with new dishes.
Test and measure again after 10 new jobs
Menu engineering is a continuous process. Measure again after every 10 jobs which dishes are popular and profitable, and adjust where needed.
✨ Pro tip
Take photos of your most popular dishes during events and use them on your website. Visual appeal can turn a Puzzle (profitable but unknown) into a Star.
Calculate this yourself?
In the KitchenNmbrs app you can do this in just a few clicks. 7 days free, no credit card.
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Frequently asked questions
What if a dish is seasonal in catering?
Analyze seasonal dishes separately per season. A summer salad can be a Star in June-August, but a Dog in December. Adjust your menu each season based on data from the same season last year.
How do you measure popularity with pre-assembled lunch packages?
With fixed packages, you can measure popularity by repeat requests from the same client, compliments during service, and how much is left over. You can also ask clients after the event which part they enjoyed most.
What if all dishes are roughly equally popular?
Then focus purely on profitability. Promote the dishes with the highest margin and try to lower the cost price of expensive dishes. With equal popularity, profitability determines your success.
Can I use different fixed prices for different dishes?
You can, but then it's no longer a 'fixed price per person'. You'd have an à la carte catering menu, where each dish has its own price. Menu engineering works differently then.
How often should I adjust my catering menu?
Analyze your data every 10-15 jobs and adjust where needed. For seasonal changes, do this every quarter. Changing too often confuses customers, changing too little misses opportunities for better margins.
📚 Sources consulted
- EU Verordening 852/2004 — Levensmiddelenhygiëne (2004) — Official source
- EU Verordening 853/2004 — Hygiënevoorschriften voor levensmiddelen van dierlijke oorsprong (2004) — Official source
- EU Verordening 1169/2011 — Voedselinformatie aan consumenten (2011) — Official source
- NVWA — Hygiënecode voor de horeca (2024) — Official source
- NVWA — Allergenen in voedsel (2024) — Official source
- Codex Alimentarius — International Food Standards (2024) — Official source
- FSA — Safer food, better business (HACCP) (2024) — Official source
- BVL — Lebensmittelhygiene (HACCP) (2024) — Official source
- Warenwetbesluit Bereiding en behandeling van levensmiddelen (2024) — Official source
- WHO — Foodborne diseases estimates (2024) — Official source
Food Standards Agency (FSA) — https://www.food.gov.uk
The HACCP standards shown in this application are for informational purposes only. KitchenNmbrs does not guarantee that displayed values are current or complete. Always consult the FSA or your local authority for the latest regulations.
Written by
Jeffrey Smit
Founder & CEO of KitchenNmbrs
Jeffrey Smit built KitchenNmbrs from 8 years of hands-on experience as kitchen manager at 1NUL8 Group in Rotterdam. His mission: give every restaurant owner control over food cost.
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