Designing a Menu :: Curriculum

Culinary Arts 1 and 2 Model

Units:

Employment Portfolio
- Job Applications
- Writing a Resume
- Letter of Introduction or Cover Letters
- Letters of recommendation
- Job Interviews
Careers and Job Skills
- Job or Career?? What do you want?
- Becoming a Chef
- Bobby Flay's Road to Success
Safety and Sanitation
- Handwashing 101
- Introduction to Micro-organisms and Foodborne Illness
- Preventing Slips, Trips, and Falls
- FIFO First in First Out
- Critical Temperatures
Knives and Small Tools
- Basic Knife Skills and Cutting Techniques
- Table Setting and Service Etiquette
- Basic Knife Handling Skills With a Chef's Knife
- The Cook's Tools
- 2. Knife Safety & Sharpening
- 3. Getting Started - Kitchen Tools & Equipment
  - Chef's Guess
  - Culinary Tools & Euqipment
Equipment, Policy and Procedures
- The Importance of a Proper Work Station
- Microwaves, Friend or Foe...Home and Away?
- Food Preparation Terms
Recipes, Formulas, Costing and Applied Business to Food Service and Hospitality
- Standardized Recipes
- Understanding Recipes
- Vocabulary Memory Review Game
- Following a Recipe....
  - Follow the Yellow Brick Road
  - What's Cooking?
- How to Concassé
- The "Price" of Today's Food
Garnishes and Plating
- Effects of Mouthfeel on Food Evaluation
  - Warm-Up
  - Effect of Mouthfeel on Food Evaluation
- Eating With Our Eyes: Factors in Plate Presentation
- Learning to Properly Cut Orange Segments
- Plate Presentation Based on the Elements and Principles of Design
Herbs and Spices
- An Introduction to Herbs
Salads and Dressings
- Composed Salads
- The Making of Bound Salads
- The Vinaigrette
- Salads the Cold Sides
Sandwiches, Cold Pantry and Appetizers
- Stimulating the "App"etite
- Devilish Eggs
  - Heavenly vs. Devilish egg videos
  - Create your deviled eggs
- Which "Wich"?
- Sandwiches
Culinary Nutrition and Food Science
- The Food Pyramid (& Now Plate) & You
- Improve A Recipe Project
- Juice Critique
- Fat and our Daily Diet
- Calculating Calories
- Culinary Caregiving
- Burn, Baby, Burn - The Role of Metabolism and Activity Level
- "Health-i-fied Cake Mix???"
- Chewing Gum Lab
- The "Price" of Today's Food
Front of the House and Serving Techniques
- Customer Service
Menus and Marketing Strategies
- The Menu
- Menu Planning
- Designing a Menu
- Menu Pricing
Stocks,Soups and Sauces
- Stocks The Foundation of the Kitchen
- Types of Soup
- Potato Leek Soup
- Cooking 101, Sauces
- Making Sauce A La Minute
Grains, Pasta and Vegetable Sides
- Introduction to Whole Grains
Eggs, Dairy and Short Order
- Functions of Eggs in Recipes
- French Rolled Omelet Day 1 of 2
- French Rolled Omelet Day 2 of 2
- Milk Definitions and Milk Comparisons
- Making Pudding
- 1. Egg Foams
Poultry
- Butchering a Chicken
Meat
- Beef Cuts and Basic Cookery
- Ground Beef Comparison
- Beef Wholesale/Retail Cuts and Yields
Fish and Shellfish
- Fish Basics
Bakery, Cakes and Pastry
- Pie Pastry
- 1. Pretzel Logic with Alton Brown The Who, What, When, Where, Why and How
- Introduction to Laminated Doughs
- Croissants
Desserts
- Ganache
- Caramel Making
Cultural and Global Food
- Cultural Foods Project (Part 1 of 4)
  - How do food and culture relate to each other?
  - Geography and it's specific effects on food
- Project Guidelines (Part 3 of 4)
  - Cultural Foods Project Guideline
- Culture and food (2 of 4)
  - Food and it's role in culture
- Lab - planning and cooking a 3 course meal (4 of 4)

Designing a Menu

Part of Unit: Menus and Marketing Strategies

Lesson Plan Overview / Details

Students will learn how to design a menu by using tools and knowledge they have gained from previous lessons on different types of menus, menu planning, menu pricing and design.

Lesson Time 110 - 155 minutes

Introduction: 5 - 10 Minutes
Independent Practice: 10 - 15 Minutes
Power Point Presentation: 15 - 20 Minutes
Group Work: 60 - 90 Minutes
Closure: 20 Minutes

Standards

California Career and Technical Education Standards

California Academic Content Standards (Reinforced)

ELA.9-10.R.SFIM.2.1 Analyze the structure and format of functional workplace documents, including th...32
ELA.9-10.W.2.6a Write technical documents that report information and convey ideas logically an...

Objectives and Goals

Students will know the difference of different menu types, recall information gained from menu planning, pricing and design and be able to incorporate this new knowledge into creating a menu using all of these elements.

Activities in this Lesson

TO DO's before this lesson - Other
A week before this lesson, tell each student to bring in a menu from a local foodservice establishment. It can be ANY type of menu that we learned about in the previous lesson. The teacher will collect these various menus and keep them to use during this lesson.
Introduction - Hooks / Set
Teacher will show students this video clip "Cracking Up Movie" with Jerry Lewis. This is the restaurant scene.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J5MpO9grPpk

Tell students that menus do NOT have to be that complicated like in the video clip but they do need to consider menu style and design so a restaurant can attract and appeal to customers.
Independent Practice - Independent Practice
Teacher will now take out the local menus that the students brought into class and pass them around, tell students to look at them one at a time and then pass it on and look at another until they have looked at 4 - 6 different menus. Tell students that while they are looking at the menus, do not say anything but to think about which menus stand out to them the most and why.

Once students have had time to look at menus then ask students...

1. When looking at the menus you passed around, which menus stood out the most to you?

2. Why do you think that/those menu(s) stood out the most?

3. Was it the colors?

4. Was it the pictures?

5.Was it the description of dishes?

6. Was it the format?

7. Was it the prices?

Listen and discuss answers from students and point out if it was the food descriptions, prices, format, colors used, designs, or whatever aspect it was that stood out to them...

Explain to students that today they will learn about menu styles and design.
Power Point Presentation - Lecture
This is a power point presentation on designing a menu. It explains factors to consider, different menu formats & menu categories. It also has details for the students on their group "creating a menu" project.
- Designing A Menu PPT 2 [ Download ]
Group Work - Group Work
The creating a menu group project is explained in steps on the power point presentation. I have also listed it here for teacher reference... Teacher should print out copies of power point for each student or take the information from here and make a handout for each group.

Class will be broken up into small groups and each group will be designing a menu for a new local restaurant.

You will now break into groups of four & each group will be designing a menu for a new local restaurant.

Steps to follow…

One person from your group will draw an index card. On your card, it will list the specific type of menu your group will create.

(Du Jour, A’ La Carte, Semi’ A La carte, Table d’ Hote, Prix Fixe, Meal Based, California or Ethnic)

Your group must create a menu with…

1. At least four categories

2. At least six dishes for each category

3. Dish descriptions need to follow the truth-in-menu guidelines and should appeal to customers

4. Decide which pricing method you will use for your menu

5. Price your dishes

6. Organize and plan out design and flow of your menu

After each group has made their menu, they will present it to the class.

Students will peer assess by completing a rubric for each groups menu.

REMIND student groups that they will need to consider all they have learned from planning principles, truth-in-menu guidelines, pricing, style and design factors as you create your menu.
Closure - Closure
Teacher will pull students back together after each group has completed their menu. Each group will then go before the class and present their menu to the class. Students will peer assess by completing a rubric for each groups menu.