Trying to get customers to remember your signature dish!

Creating "signature dishes" is not only good for restaurants to build up their reputation and brand, but also can facilitate the purchase of goods, reduce the loss of ingredients, reduce costs and improve the speed of food delivery. As a caterer, how do you create "signature dishes" to make the restaurant business prosperous?

1

Four conditions to explore the "signature dish"

First, let's talk about the four conditions that make a dish a "signature dish". In other words, if any three of these conditions are not met, it cannot be called a "signature dish".

1. The dish has an element of differentiation (impact)

Compared with competitors, the taste is good, the quantity is sufficient, no competition ...... dish itself's an overwhelming advantage is the first element.

2. High popularity, many customers order

If it is a ramen store, western restaurant, and other business with low order volume, find out the most popular food and drink products in the restaurant. If it is a high-volume business such as Izakaya or yakitori restaurant, find out the dishes that half of the customers must order.

3. Low-cost rate

Although the standard cost rate of a dish varies depending on the type of business, it is a prerequisite to keep the cost rate below 35%.

When a merchant sells freshness of ingredients such as sashimi and grilled meat, the high-cost rate is often due to the need to "differentiate the dish", so it is sometimes difficult to generalize. However, it is only by always paying attention to the cost rate of dishes with high order rates that you can achieve high profits. Be careful to avoid falling into the misconception that "the dishes with high costs will win or lose".

4. Fast food delivery

The "signature dish" is a dish with the highest order rate in the restaurant. When customers focus on this dish, the business should pay attention to improving the speed of the dish, do not let the guests wait a long time. It is important for restaurants to either avoid making time-consuming dishes in the first place or to revamp existing dishes.

If your restaurant already has an alternative "signature dish" or has a standout dish, you can further "upgrade" the dish. Conversely, if your restaurant does not have a decent "signature dish," then here's how to create a "signature dish.

2

Select "signature dishes" from the existing menu

"Our store does not have a good reputation dishes" "Our store has not reached that level ......" I'm afraid that most restaurant operators are on this issue of attitude.

You simply do not need to worry. There is no difficulty in the world, only fear of the person who has the intention. As long as you are willing to try, your restaurant has the same ability to launch "signature dishes".

Please first try to review the four conditions mentioned in the previous article.

1. The dish has an element of differentiation (impact)

2. High popularity, many customers order

3. Low-cost rate

4. Fast food delivery

How about? Meet the above conditions, your store is not difficult to pick out a few dishes, right? Note that you are not required to find a dish that meets the above conditions right from the start.

It is no exaggeration to say that as long as condition 1 is met, you can play further. Condition 1 is crucial, in other words, no one has what I have, no one has what I have, no one has what I have, and no one has what I have (a unique taste and full portion compared to competing stores), and by doing this, your store will have the leverage to win.

For example, "× × dishes generally can not eat, people who have eaten are full of praise" "many people are rushing to this dish" ...... such dishes have the most potential to become "signature dish".

Looking at condition 2 again, in fact, condition 2 can be easily achieved by making slight adjustments to the menu design. satisfying condition 3 can be achieved by adjusting the portion size of the dish code, adding side dishes, etc. Satisfy condition 4 can be achieved by adjusting the production process, the use of materials under the material, and other ways.

In short, meeting conditions 2 to 4 is not difficult.

The restaurant I consulted, Dragonfly, is a restaurant specializing in yakiniku with a high-end Wagyu beef cuisine brand and a customer price of about 4,500 yen. The specialty of this restaurant is beef dishes, ranging from beef back, beef tongue, beef tenderloin, beef brisket, tendons, brains, and beef offal, and it also offers one-of-a-kind dishes for customers who come to the restaurant.

However, a few years ago, as the price of beef in the Japanese market went up, Dragonfly's cost of ingredients rose steeply. At the same time, the market size tended to shrink, and the store's revenue dropped significantly compared to the same period the previous year. The decrease in sales and the increase in the purchase price are a disaster.

When I visited Dragonfly for the first time, I asked Murata, the owner, a question.

"At present, your restaurant is facing great difficulties in business, which dish would you most like to recommend for your customers?"

The owner replied, "All of them!"

"The owner of Dragonfly, Murata, worked in a butcher store in his early years and had a unique insight into sourcing meat products. I wasn't surprised by his answer because of the high quality of the ingredients he selected.

So, I asked a little more in-depth.

Then the boss replied, "However, the cost of the beef tongue is sometimes very high indeed, and at the most expensive times the increase is even more than 100%."

I said, "In that case, isn't it true that the more you sell, the bigger the loss?"

But the boss said, "Having said that, we can't lower the quality of ingredients!"

As a result of the exchange between the two sides, the overall operating cost rate of their store had increased to 45% at that time, even though the owner, Murata, asked me to help with advice. By the way, the average cost rate of a restaurant should generally be controlled at about 35%. Compared with the industry average, Dragonfly's cost rate was nearly 10 percentage points higher. Therefore, the first issue in front of the restaurant was to cut costs.

At Mr. Murata's request, cost cutting is the priority, but only if the quality of ingredients is not sacrificed. We started by introducing "star products" other than beef dishes and reduced the total cost of restaurant operations through other means.

After many attempts, we finally introduced "Miso Beef Potato", another strong dish of Dragonfly, which is made of beef and other ingredients, as a "signature dish". Signature dish" focuses on the launch. This dish has achieved remarkable results, and not only has Dragonfly's business income increased rapidly but also has successfully reduced the cost rate to less than 35%.

As the order rate for "Miso Beef Nabe" has increased, it has achieved what owner Murata had hoped for: a cost rate of less than 35% while maintaining the quality of the ingredients.

In fact, "Miso Beef and Minced Pork Nabe" started as an ordinary dish of the Dragonfly family. It was made by adding miso sauce to the "beef pot", and not many customers ordered this dish.

Our strategy was to make a few adjustments to the original dish to improve its merchandising power, turning it from a little-known dish to a popular dish with a unique flavor and low cost.

The next step was to promote this dish as Dragonfly's "signature dish", which led to a rapid increase in sales and a decrease in the cost rate, attracting a large number of customers to the store. "Dragonfly's miso beef pot roast tastes great," and gradually, the branding was achieved through word-of-mouth from customers.

By the way, what does a 10% reduction in raw material cost rate mean? In the case of a restaurant with monthly sales of 5 million yen, it is equivalent to a monthly gross profit of about 500,000 yen. The annual gross profit of the restaurant is about 6 million yen.

What astonishing effect can a small change in the menu have? This is an example.

3

Three ways to refresh the "signature dish

"We don't have any special dishes," "We have all the popular dishes ......," and similar situations are quite common in real life.

There are rules to create a new "signature dish", here are three specific methods.

1. based on the existing dishes to push the new

This is a way to use the ingredients used to make existing dishes to create new dishes, or to make significant changes to the original dishes to create new dishes.

For example in method one, if there are channels to get some special ingredients, use such ingredients as a selling point to launch a new signature dish. Method two, add creative elements (such as seasoning, etc.) to existing goods to launch new dishes.

2. Draw on popular stores to create new trump cards

This is a method to create a new dish based on the most popular dishes of popular stores. Simply put, it is "imitation".

Note that imitation is not to draw a tiger from a cat, but to integrate its elements based on borrowing. For example, customize flavors, portions, and side dishes according to the target consumer group of the restaurant. Or by adjusting certain ingredients to enhance the impression of the dish in the customer's mind. Ultimately, it requires localization based on borrowing dishes from other restaurants.

It is important to note that you should not follow the fetishism of copying other restaurants wholesale. Of course, it is difficult to create star dishes based on originality, and customers will know who is imitating whom as soon as they taste them. If you copy too much, you may not be able to get real experience.

3. Take the lessons with an open mind

This method is highly recommended to multiply the effect of your signature dish.

This is done by taking lessons from a popular restaurant on the street and asking for tips on how to create popular dishes

"How does that work?"

Hearing this advice, many people may question it. How can someone tell you their best work without reservation when they are competing with each other in the industry? However, this approach is not unworkable.

From my personal experience: it is wishful thinking to think it won't work. I've been nudged by others more than once and learned the secret recipe for popular dishes more than once. I've even been allowed to photograph some of these restaurants in the back of the house.

The restaurant industry has a relatively small business district. Not to mention the outskirts of the city, even a street away from each other, will almost rarely compete for the same source of customers. The chefs in this line of work have one thing in common: the face of open-minded people generally will not refuse to teach but will feel proud.

The following are the specific steps to ask for advice, if you need it, you can try it in practice.

Step 1: Visit a rumored popular restaurant

Step 2: Go to experience as a customer

Step 3: Make direct contact two or three times to get acquainted with the chef

Step 4: Visit or call and ask directly

Step 5: Spend a few days helping out in the other restaurant to learn from the experience

The most crucial point in the above steps is an open-minded and sincere attitude.

"Based on the current situation, our store may not be able to support for too long. Please give us more guidance!"

Remember: sincerity trumps everything. Of course, after getting the other party's guidance, must be reflected in your store's menu, such as: "x x dishes from x x store true", please mark the other store's store name clearly, this will play a better effect.

Of course, it does not exclude the case that some people will ask for a reward. At this point, as long as it does not affect the normal operation of your store's funds, you can consider paying a fee. The signature dish is often the result of the culinary staff's hard work, time, and experience, so it has the valuable value of gathering popularity. As long as the other party's request is within a reasonable range, you can readily agree to it.

This is how to create a "signature dish".

How about it, it is not difficult, right?

There is nothing difficult under the sun, only those who have the will. As long as you have the determination, your store can also launch a popular "signature"!