Menu Engineering in the Restaurant Business: A Study on Kitchen Chefs

Abstract

The study aimed to determine the approaches of the kitchen chefs of restaurant businesses to the menu engineering processes. A focus group interview with six professional kitchen chefs was held in 2020 to achieve this goal. The analysis of the data collected by the focus group interview method was carried out with descriptive analysis, which is one of the qualitative data analysis methods. In the research findings, it was determined that restaurant kitchen chefs tended to use different applications in menu engineering processes due to intense competition and changing guest expectations. In this process, it was determined that guest satisfaction, raw material cost, labor cost, efficiency, availability of materials, suppliers, qualified personnel, equipment needs, compliance with guest requests, target customer, and concept were the most striking factors. Overall, it was determined that kitchen chefs prioritize guest satisfaction more in menu engineering processes.