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Working on new portioning for sales


Wendy DeBord

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I don't know about anyone else but this past Feb. sales have been dead. Everyone is dieting and or sick and not going out to eat. Which has left me some free time to really think on my sucesses and failures and how I can do a better job.

I believe I saw this at Shaw's Crab House in Schaumburg, IL they did a $1.00 tasting of any dessert item on their menu. Which got me to thinking that I've got two types of clients, those that want value for their dollar (large portions) and those that want just a little nibble. So after some thought I'm going to copy Shaw's and do a $1.00 tasting on all of my ala carte menus. I'm excited to see how well this will go and nerious that it won't.

It seems to me that desserts sales "should" be near 100% if the waitstaff does their job. I'll keep you updated on how well this works or doesn't.

It seems to me that it could go over well or back fire and drive down regular portion sales, what do you think will happen?

I'm also going to jump into the diet dessert arena. I'll do one low cal. or reduced cal. dessert on each menu. I hope this won't highlight the rest of my desserts as being high in calories. I'm going to have to work off of published recipes so my calorie info. will closely match the amount stated in the recipe and on my menus. Just how hard is it to figure out calorie content in food? I recall burning items in grade school Science class to determine calories. Can you figure out how many calories are in an item if you add up the sum total calories of all your ingredients?

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There are programs out there that generate nutritional values from your recipes. They all have limitations, but it's generally not too difficult to add ingredients as necessary.

I think the tasting menu is a great idea! I have the same sort of dichotomous clientele; divided between those who are fanatically loyal to our 250g muffins and 150g cookies, and those who just want a little bite and don't want to indulge overly.

Hopefully this will work out well for you. My February's been going well, but I have the good fortune to have 1200-1400 people through my location in the run of a day (busy-downtown-pedway Hell-office-lunch-crowd). Even the dieters buy things, they just buy *different* things.

“Who loves a garden, loves a greenhouse too.” - William Cowper, The Task, Book Three

 

"Not knowing the scope of your own ignorance is part of the human condition...The first rule of the Dunning-Kruger club is you don’t know you’re a member of the Dunning-Kruger club.” - psychologist David Dunning

 

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oooooh, Wendy, I love that idea! I totally want to go to a restaurant and order a sample of every dessert. I'd skip dinner and spend 15 or 20 bucks on dessert. Our sushi place has dollar sushi night and there is always an hour wait to get a table. They do not offer the price on take out items though.

do you have to go low cal? I hate that Americans can't just go for a walk or drink one less starbucks caramel ooh la la. Dessert is meant to be an occasional indulgent treat. If we could just give it the proper respect, life would be perfect. Accomodate the diabetics if you must but leave the fat and sugar on the menu for the rest of us.

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Is that the Market you want to go after?

steve

I work at a private Country Club so our "market" is very limited. It's all about pleasing people with whatever they want and minimal profit, we a non-for-profit club. That changes things.

But keeping things real: we all don't work at high end restaurants. What types of product you can do really can vary from one restaurant to another.

The reduced calories item is hopefully something our diabetics can order too. I definately don't have this down pat, but I want to try to do something for people that have to watch their intake. At least I can say to them "to the best of my knowledge this item has this many calories_, grams of carbs_, sugar_, etc...."

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Wendy, i understand your dilemma! i also work at a private country club and encounter many of the same problems as you. Some weeks dessert sales are great and other weeks nothing. i also tried the low carb option and it didn't seem to go over. It seems that if people are going to order dessert they are going to splurge on something that is fattening and tasty, which makes sense to me.

I too have thought about a sampler dessert . This way they find out how delicious all the different desserts are and want to order the large version!? You can call it the "Dessert Teaser"! just tiny portions! Minute!!! Yeah, and than they want more.

Whaddya think?

Sarah O

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I think the "dessert teaser" is a wonderful idea! I would totally go for it. I'm wondering if this in part would help with your customers who want "low-cal" since they're only having a taste, not the whole dessert.

In regards to finding out how many calories somthing has, I recently purchased MasterCook Deluxe at our local drugstore for $10.00. It's intended for home use but would give you the info you need. You would just start a new recipe by typing in the ingredients only and it will calculate for you all the nutritional info you could possibly need, including food exchanges which might help with your diabetic customers.

Don't wait for extraordinary opportunities. Seize common occasions and make them great. Orison Swett Marden

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I use MasterCook all the time and it's quite easy. If you have a recipe now that you want analyzed just give the ingredients and the yield and I'll give you the info.

I've done a great deal of work in this lower cal, low carb world. My thoughts now are mixed. Cutting out where you can and making it still an indulgence is a nice direction because it doesn't scream diet for the rest of your customers. Getting portion sizes down to control the calories is another way to handle it without having them aware of anything "lacking" in the dessert. You can also choose items which are simply healthier in nature, such as a fruit combination. If you mold something like this:

sponge cake

fresh caramelized tropical fruit

fruit gelee

chiboust, bruleed

sauce for the plate

This in passionfruit only comes out to 150 calories and is low in fat. But no one feels like they are eating a diet dessert. It simply takes advantage of a lower fat biscuit choice, whole fruits and puts fat in only one component, the chiboust. But even that is not very high.

It's about pairing and how you spend that fat budget that makes this work.

And I'm all about the minis! Give me a buffet any day to make lots of choices and I'm happy so doing the same in dessert is great. My personal opinion is that it's not going to draw anyone to your main sized desserts and will simply be another offering on your menu. The tasters in the bunch like me will just order that to have 3 or 4 little bites of different things. And you could mix that up so it's not always the same bites...

Josette

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Okay, Steve, you've pulled my arm. I'll order dinner too.

Wendy, maybe I'm nuts but.....okay, surely I'm nuts but....I'm not sure people have any idea how many calories they really consume. Most seem to think of every dessert as calorie laden and it's not really true. If you can convince them that this dessert is worth it's calories I think you'll sell more. Are they playing tennis or getting some other kind of exercise at your club? Can you equate your chocolate cake (or whatever) to X number of minutes playing tennis or number of golf holes, laps in the pool, etc?

I have a friend who recently found out what her resting metabolic rate is and eats her meals accordingly. In order to maintain her current weight she now goes jogging for additional calories like ice cream and caramels.

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Being that our company is called "Desserts Plus", when our restaurant was open I think we may have sold a higher-than-normal percentage of desserts. One option we gave was to buy a sampler platter and share (we were one of those odd places that encouraged sharing). A regular piece of torte cost $3.95 (sheesh..that was a few years ago) and they could get three 1/2 portions for $6.95. We sold a lot of them... the problem was that we let them choose from anything in the showcase and often ended up with an extra 1/2 piece. We had tables of 4 sharing this, and tables of 2 ordering 2!

As for 'diet' desserts - we really limited what we did here. We always had sugar-free apple strudel available. That's it. We stayed away from sugar-free cakes and tortes... I don't know how they would do. splenda does wonderful things though.

Good luck!

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Wendy, maybe I'm nuts but.....okay, surely I'm nuts but....I'm not sure people have any idea how many calories they really consume.  Most seem to think of every dessert as calorie laden and it's not really true.  If you can convince them that this dessert is worth it's calories I think you'll sell more.  Are they playing tennis or getting some other kind of exercise at your club?  Can you equate your chocolate cake (or whatever) to X number of minutes playing tennis or number of golf holes, laps in the pool, etc?

I think some of the problem is educating the consumer. I think most people think dessert equals something very high in calories, they'd rather get a larger steak. Which one is better for you? If they had some nutritional facts available on one item they could weigh things out in their head. And for those that think it's a waste to eat a dessert with reduced fat, well I won't have nutrition facts on those desserts to be highlighted.

I'm not so much looking to gain the dieter as my client, I really want to get the people with special needs. So I'm looking to do things that fit their needs and if it's also low in cal. thats great too. If I can hit the low in carb crowd.... to the best of my understanding that will also help/forfill the diabetic crowd.

In the Mid-West it's hard to get people to share items. They don't order that way.

The "dessert teaser" is a good name. I've looking for a good name and way to describe it on my menu. Thanks!

Really, all this can backfire.....who know's how people will respond or if they will. Now the last couple days of the month (dues time) our dinning numbers are way up. Nothing ventured, nothing gained.

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  • 4 weeks later...

Update: so far the dessert "teasers" have been a huge hit. "On the Lighter Side" has had mixed results. Diabetics like it because I'm using splenda but people dieting don't seem to like it because they aren't used to the compromise in taste sugar sub.s give.

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Wendy -

Your dessert teaser idea sounds great. I hardly ever order desserts when eating out because a.) I tend to be too full from my meal, and most desserts are too huge, and b.) most are just too pricey and I am already mentally adding up the cost of the entrees, apps, and drinks.

Houlihan's (a chain, I know) a bit ago started offering 'mini-desserts' for 1.99, and I love it. They also have low-carb and low-cal offerings in them, making sure that anyone can endulge. I wish more restaurants would try something like this.

As for your low-carb/low-cal/diabetic desserts, I have been developing a lot of experience in that arena. You can't just sub splenda 1:1 for sugar and expect to get a product that is good as the original. However, with certain products on the market now, it is completly possible to make almost any dessert low-carb and much lower in calories, while retaining 99% of the original flavor/texture/etc.

First off, never use just one artificial sweetener, it wastes money, and provides lesser taste. There is a phenomenon called 'sweetener synergy' that occurs when you combine multiple artificial/non-caloric sweeteners. You can use less of each, they boost each other's sweetness, and you get much less, if any, overall aftertaste. I am particularly fond of a combination of Splenda (find a source to buy the liquid version, the bulk/packet version actually contains a fair bit of sugar/carb (maltodextrin) as a bulking agent, 24 grams per cup), plus liquid splenda is cheaper per unit of sweetness, so anyway, liquid splenda, combined with Stevia (get a good brand, Sweetleaf and NOW are good), and a little Ace-K (acuselfame potassium).

However, you also have to realize that Splenda has none of the bulking/moisture-retention/textural properties of sugar, which is why many low-carb baked goods end up seeming dry and crumbly. To fix this you should use either sugar-alcohols (and you have to be careful here, some, like Malitol, can cause unpleasant GI-tract distress) or a substance such as Polydextrose or Inulin (there is a thread around eG on the wonders of Polydextrose). If you go the sugar-alcohol route Xylitol is quite popular because it is all-natural, and has an incredibly close to sugar taste, while being just a bit sweeter, but I really prefer Erythritol, because it has no chance of causing any unpleasant side-effects from eating it, completely safe for anyone. Polydextrose is much cheaper than Inulin, and has all of the textural properties of sugar. You can melt it, make candy with it, make glazes, toffee, it will hold moisture in baked good, and even sort of carmelize. Both Polydextrose and Inulin are effectively 98% or so dietary fiber, and treated in the body as such, so are completely safe for anyone, including diabetics.

For reducing fat in baked goods, there is a new product out called Z-trim. It is made from corn bran I believe, but has no taste, and is again practically all dietary fiber inside of the body. Basically, you take it, and mix it 50/50 with whatever fat you are baking with, and it takes on the properties/tastes of that fat. You could thus cut in half the amount of calories from butter, sour cream, cream cheese, etc, in certain dishes. I haven't tried it yet myself, but from all reports I have head from others who have, it is pretty much indistinguishable from the real deal.

Anyway, low-carb/low-cal baking/cooking does require a lot of thinking outside of the box to do well, but the rewards are definately worth it. So much of the reputation low-carb has attained is undeserved because people have simply sampled really crappy low-carb baking mixes designed for profit margins and shelf life over actual good taste. I am confident I can bake/prepare almost any dessert, and make it low-carb/low-cal while still making it just as good as the original, and I have no real pastry training. With your strong background in traditional technique I'm sure you could really do some wonderful stuff.

He don't mix meat and dairy,

He don't eat humble pie,

So sing a miserere

And hang the bastard high!

- Richard Wilbur and John LaTouche from Candide

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Houlihan's (a chain, I know) a bit ago started offering 'mini-desserts' for 1.99, and I love it.  They also have low-carb and low-cal offerings in them, making sure that anyone can endulge.  I wish more restaurants would try something like this.

When I read this thread, I was thinking the same thing. I love the mini-desserts that Houlihan's offers. It's just the perfect size (and price) for anyone who has already eaten a full meal. Plus, it also worked well for anyone trying to exercise portion control.

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We only charge $1.00 per teaser.

I did find out the hard way about the quantity of splenda to sub. in place of sugar. I made a cheesecake and went a little short of the called for amount of spenda, thinking I was playing things safe. HA! I wound up cutting that batter with 8 batches of cheesecake with no sweetener. Definately, less is more with splenda. I will follow your example and mix my sugar subst.'s.

I'm still stuck with 3 splenda cheesecakes in my freezer taking up space. Lesson learned!

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Wendy, on the thought of including nutritional info on the menu, we discussed that very subject in class last night. The instructor said anyone doing that is just asking for trouble. What if you have to sub an ingredient one night? What if the portion size isn't exactly what it's supposed to be? If there's a sauce, what if there's too much/too little? I've seen places with net carbs listed for some items and that could run the same risk, but it would be safer than listing calories, protein, etc. Not to mention what the sugar substitutes do to the equation!

As for sweeteners, I'm a huge fan of Whey Low. It's much cheaper than Splenda ounce for ounce and it tastes like sugar and acts nearly identically to sugar. It's all natural. The regular version carries a net 1g of carbs and there's also a diabetic version. There's been plenty of discussion at eG about it, both positive and negative, so you may want to give it a go.

And I love the dessert tasting idea! Do you have a 'one of everything' offering? That would be me, hands down.

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I realized I couldn't put down exact calories, etc.. since I can't get each guy to cut a consistantly sized piece.

Maybe you can help me...with a little issue I've gotten stuck on with the teasers. The way we have it worded people are typically only ordering 1 teaser per visit. I'd like to get them to buy more then one. Because we don't put pricing on our menus (and don't want to) and I have only about 4 words to describe what a "teaser" is............I haven't found the right wording.

Right now I have it written:

The Dessert Teaser

Sample tasting of any one dessert

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At Houlihans, they just term theirs Mini Desserts. Each item is listed ax Mni XYZ. For example, it may say something like Mini Cheesecake.

Could you say something like "miniature version of our classical XYZ" or "reduced size portion of our XYZ".

Edited by BROWNSUGA (log)
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How many desserts do you have?

The description of 'sample tasting of any one dessert' ... which I think sounds just fine ... starts them thinking of only one choice right off the bat. Maybe a different phrase could be used for the single tasting and for multiples.

Wildfire sells wine in 'flights' which are a sampling of four different wines, each about half a glass. Maybe you could develop a few dessert flights of three or four mini-servings that play with contrasting textures or flavors. Come to think of it, I also went to a Thai restaurant a while back that had a platter of like 18 different single bites of dessert. I can't remember the name of the restaurant, or if the platter represented all the different desserts available...I don't think so.

So maybe you can keep 'The Dessert Teaser' as is, then follow that with a 'Teaser Trio' which is any three of their choosing and then maybe a 'Grand Teaser' which offers all the desserts (unless you have some ungodly number of them).

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How many desserts do you have?

The description of 'sample tasting of any one dessert' ... which I think sounds just fine ... starts them thinking of only one choice right off the bat. Maybe a different phrase could be used for the single tasting and for multiples.

I was thinking the same thing. I am putting my consumer hat on....if I were a customer and came across that phrase, I would think that I was limited to just one. When you get a "sample", it is usually just to "taste" it. But you dont want them to just "taste" it, you want them to eat more and more and more and more.... :biggrin:

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...It seems to me that desserts sales "should" be near 100% if the waitstaff does their job.

I think there's more to it than that.

My husband and I dine out at least once a weekend, many times two or three times. No way am I going to eat dessert all of those times, and I usually don't order it at all.

One reason is that there's usually just too much there. When I'd just love a small scoop of vanilla ice cream and some fruit, the restaurant is offering "Triple Brownie Hot Fudge Chocolate Mousse Overload." This, after a dinner with huge portions.

Honestly, it seems like I'm trying so hard to eat reasonably and get my weight down, and restaurants are working against me! Give me a smaller portion of steak, with some thoughtfully prepared vegetables (and not that godawful carrot/broccoli/cauliflower steamed medley), a baked potato, a salad consisting of something more interesting than the same old lettuce and bottled dressing, and yeah, I'll order dessert. Or let me order half a slice of really good cheesecake or pie, and I'll do it. Better yet, how about a sorbet?

I would LOVE to order dessert. But what I want is something wonderful and sweet to end a lovely meal, not something I'm going to have to atone for.

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Wendy, have you looked at any recipes by Cooking Light? Granted, a lot of the time, especially with their desserts, they tend to go short on the portion size to reduce the calorie count (like a 9-inch cake yielding something like 20 servings), but they do have some lighter recipes, sometimes using reduced calorie versions of traditional ingredients like sour cream, sometimes focusing on an ingredient like fruit and cutting back on the fat elsewhere.

I haven't done any light baking in a long time, but I have had pretty decent results with their recipes.

I like the idea of a "flight" of dessert teasers - giving the customer a chance to pick three or four (or you selecting it for them) of your desserts. "Bite-sized selections of three of our dessert menu favorites"

"I just hate health food"--Julia Child

Jennifer Garner

buttercream pastries

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