Table of Contents:
Defining Menu Cycles and Menu Plans in Galley
Creating Collections with Optional Items
Publishing Menu Cycles and Creating Menu Plans
Creating and Managing Constraints
Highlighting Ingredients and Category Values
Defining Menu Cycles and Menu Plans in Galley
Users establish a 'skeleton' structure with the Menu Cycle. Think of the Menu Cycle as a template for all future Menu Plans.
It is possible to create many Menu Cycles where each is re-usable and can be iterated on. A unique cycle may represent a unique type of operation or even seasonality so, for example, a winter Menu Cycle versus a summer Menu Cycle.
The Menu Cycle structure captures data including:
- Total Budget
- Cycle Length
- Events
- Items Groups
By carefully crafting the Menu Cycle structure, you can optimize menu planning efforts, streamline operational workflows, and facilitate budget management and forecasting. Let's take a closer look at the Menu Cycle structure.
Total Budget, Cycle Length, and Headcount: Here we have a Cycle where the total budget is $35000 for 90 days, and each day, the expected headcount is 200 people for each event.
Event and Event Item Groups: To illustrate, let's consider an Event called Breakfast.
For each day within the Breakfast Event Group, the event will include items from specific item groups like Eggs and Protein. Item groups serve as a valuable organizational tool for structuring and classifying related items. They provide clarity and coherence through the Menu Cycle/Plan, and are designed to have a hierarchical relationship within an Event.
Week at a Glance: In this same example, the Menu Cycle presents a weekly view, allowing users to navigate through different weeks by selecting the "<" and ">" buttons located next to the week name. It's important to note that, at this point, specific dates for each day of the Cycle are not yet defined in a Cycle. This information will be included later in the Plan once the start date is defined.
Day View: In the context of the Day View, you can access information specific to each day, like the start and end time of an event, the concept, and any additional notes. Particular actions like exporting an ingredient list, adding concepts and notes can be taken on this page.
Constraints: A Constraint is an asset that restricts the items eligible for inclusion within the Cycle or Plan. To create a constraint, use category values or dietary flags.
Summary side tab: In the right side tab section, you can observe the budget distribution throughout the entire Cycle. Additionally, you can view the total cost of the cycle and how much it represents compared to your total budget. Finally, the summary includes the cost per meal (calculated by dividing the total cost by the total headcount of the entire cycle).
Menus Plan Structure
At the local kitchen/ location level, the Menu Plan combines the location's actual calendar and the parent Menu Cycle to create a Plan that can be customized.
In general, a Menu Plan has the same structure as the Menu Cycle with two main differences:
- The ability to add a start date
- Are location-based
All cost calculations will be based on the current Menu Plan's location. Both start date and location are set when publishing the Cycle, which we will cover later on.
For the moment, let's focus on the overall structure. The Menu Plan inherits its Event, Item Groups, Products, Constraints, Budget, and Cycle Length defined within the Menu Cycle. The Menu Plan starts as a copy of the Menu Cycle, allowing for efficient resource allocation and scheduling without changing the original Menu Cycle.
Start date and end date: For this example, we have a start date of Friday, 02/09, and an end date of Thursday, 02/15. Now that dates have been added, the Menu Plan now reflects day 1 of the Menu Cycle as 02/09.
Day View: The Day View feature in the planner offers additional advantages: the capability to include specific service location addresses and contact phone numbers. This information enables users to precisely pinpoint where each service will take place. By providing these details, users can coordinate their activities, ensuring the execution of services at the designated locations.
Menu Cycle as foundation: The Menu Cycle is the foundational framework for Menu Planning at the corporate level, establishing a template for plans from which to build.
Menu Plan serves as local implementation: At the local kitchen level, the Menu Plan integrates the Local Calendar and parent Menu Cycle.
Event: Encompasses information such as item groups and items.
Events
An Event is a customizable container of Event Items.
An Event encompasses essential details such as the headcount, total food cost, and all the items served on that particular Event. Events are the building blocks for designing and coordinating menus.
- The name of the Event can be customized for example: "Breakfast", "Dinner", "Coffee Service", "Birthday", "Wedding", "Lunch", etc.
- Every Menu Plan has at least one Event. For example, an entire day can be described potentially with day parts of "Breakfast", "Lunch", and "Dinner."
- An Event can be populated with items on one or more days of the plan when the menu plan is multi-day.
- Items planned to be served at the event are captured inside the Event card. There can be from 1 to N items in a single Event.
- An Event is the smallest grouping for subtotaling food cost and reflecting headcount.
- Inside of an Event, a Chef may define custom Items Groups to help differentiate the intention of the items on the menu. For example item groups may be: "Entree", "desserts", "appetizers", "proteins", "eggs", "sides", etc.
Summary Side Tab
- Target Weekly Budget: Within the Menu Cycle and Menu Plan, a summary section is conveniently located on the right sidebar. The summary highlights a graphical representation that compares the target weekly budget with the actual weekly budget. By examining this graph, users can quickly assess how closely the actual expenses align with the set budget.
- Total Food Cost: Directly below the graph, you find the total food cost of the Cycle/Plan, indicating the cumulative expenses associated with all the events planned. When comparing the total food cost with the total budget, it serves as a critical reference point for evaluating and managing expenditures with the overall financial plan.
- Average Cost per Meal: The summary section calculates and presents the average cost per meal for the cycle/plan. This allows for a precise understanding of the cost implications associated with each serving.
Event Items
Recipes and Ingredients or Collections
When building a Menu Plan, you can consider a variety of components like recipes, ingredients, and Collections.
What is a Collection?
Collections offer a highly efficient means of grouping related products that are served together when items may be optional and left for definition by the local chef instead of when designing the Menu Cycle.
Imagine, for instance, the practicality of a Salad Bar or Dessert Bar—these are everyday examples of Collections in action. Within a Collection, a diverse array of items can be defined. Moreover, optional items can be defined, providing even greater flexibility and customization.
Take, for instance, a Dessert Bar Collection. Within this Collection, you might offer strawberry ice cream, chocolate chip cookies, and options for a cake, such as red velvet or vanilla. An item with options is then up to the local chef to decide for a specific day, week and location.
By incorporating these choices, the Dessert Bar becomes not just a static item but a dynamic tool for the planner of the Menu Cycle to address diverse tastes and preferences to be determined by the local chef to fit the local environment and tastes.
Collections with Options
What are optional items?
When adding options to a collection, you give the local chef the opportunity to decide between a pre-set of options. Collections with options enable planners of menus to navigate the dynamic nature of their decision-making process. You can create a curated pool of products at their disposal. This empowers them to make informed and tailored selections based on evolving circumstances, such as ingredient availability, dietary considerations, or culinary preferences.
Creating Collections with Optional Items
Building a Menu Cycle
Publishing Menu Cycles and Creating Menu Plans
Start with Budget, Expected Event Attendance, and Cycle Length
The Menu Planning process begins with developing a Menu Cycle, which serves as the foundation for organizing the menu offerings. Several key elements come into play within this Cycle, including Budget considerations, Expected Event Attendance, and Cycle Length. These factors form the core information required for each specific Menu Cycle.
Structure your Cycle/Plan
Users can incorporate Event to represent day parts and Item Groups within the cycle to enhance the structure and ensure event consistency. The inclusion of these groups is dependent on the nature of the business. Some companies will publish a Cycle at this stage; others might like to be more specific about the Cycle offering by adding Events.
Published means done!
Once all the planning at the Menu Cycle level is complete, the Menu Cycle is ready to be published to specific locations. At this stage, the Menu Cycle Status transitions from "Draft" to "Published."
Each location selected will receive a copy of the Cycle, which we now refer to as a Menu Plan.
Constraints
Defining Constraints
A Constraint is a resource that limits the products that can be included within the Cycle or Plan. These restrictions can be based on criteria such as Category Values, Dietary Flags, or Event Item Groups.
Implementing constraints makes it possible to finely tailor the offerings, ensuring the selected items align with specific requirements or preferences.
Category-based Constraint example
Many Menu Plans and Menu Cycles follow restrictive guidelines, for example, the Summer Plan only includes recipes tagged as "Season/Summer". This ensures that the Menu adheres to specific business requirements.
On this Cycle, only items tagged with "season/summer" will be available to be added.
Dietary flag-based Constraint example
By implementing a constraint, any item containing a label with the dietary flag "Peanut" can be restricted from being part of the Cycle or Plan.
On this Cycle, all items with the dietary flag "peanuts" will be unavailable to be added.
Event Item Group Constraints
With the Event Item Group Constraint, you are not only able to choose the criteria of the constraint but also the level/object that this constraint will influence -- it could be at the plan/cycle or event item group level.
Creating and Managing Constraints
Highlighting Ingredients and Category Values
Review your Planning by Highlighting Specific Ingredients or Category Values
Crafting a well-balanced weekly menu is essential for enhancing menu acceptance and maintaining a diverse array of recipes. As you wrap up your event planning, use the Highlight feature to emphasize particular ingredients or category values and gain insights into their frequency throughout the week. Fine-tune and exchange recipes as necessary to optimize your menu.
- Highlight Ingredients: Go to the highlight search bar and type the ingredient that you would like to search for. In this example, we are checking the "chicken, whole" frequency. Visualize that all items that contain this given ingredient will be highlighted for the week.
- Highlight Category Value: Go to the highlight search bar and type the category value that you would like to search for. In this example, we are checking the "salad/green salad" category value frequency.
- Leverage your planning by Highlighting Ingredients and Categories values: Use this tool to check the overall frequency of a given attribute and improve the mix of items inside your Menu Plan.
Menu Plan Completeness
Access advanced workflows by selecting specific Events
Select one or multiple Events and access advanced workflows such as Production, Purchasing, and Cycle Counts.
Pay careful attention because an event must not have unresolved options in its collections or any constraint violations. This ensures that all necessary decisions have been made and that no outstanding choices or uncertainties could hinder the execution of the event.
On this Menu Plan, the event Lunch Event for 02/29 is selected, and all the actions available for this event are visible at the top of the page.