Craft Guild member Philippe Avril may indulge his sense of French flair when he cooks, but when it comes to writing menus he prefers to keep things simple
Different people have different ways of writing menus but I recommend a menu that is very simple. I serve predominantly French food so the name of the dish is always written in French to convey authenticity but the description is always
in English.
Chefs shouldn't state every ingredient within a dish as it can get too complicated and the customer may get lost. Instead, focus on the main ingredients, for example the fish, the main ingredient of the sauce and any accompaniment.
For local village pubs like mine, once you have built up a reputation for good quality food it's not essential to state where the produce has come from. Instead leave it to the waiter to enlighten customers that the scallops are fresh from the west of Scotland, for example, as this shows that the staff know their food and it encourages interaction with the customers.
When writing your menu make sure you don't give false information. If you state that you serve bouillabaisse, be sure that it's not salmon and prawns stew with chips and tartare sauce - which I was served once! And ensure you have a price range that corresponds to your market and area.
There's no point selling a fillet steak for £19 if the area doesn't have the purses to match. Likewise offering pie, beans and chips for £2 in an affluent area might not attract the customers either.
The number of dishes on a menu really depends on the kind of pub you are running but, for me, if you are serving freshly prepared food it should be kept to a minimum - about eight
starters, eight main courses and four sweets.
If you have much more than this it is difficult to get orders out on time, to keep the food fresh and to maintain stock control. And customers are much more aware of what is and isn't fresh these days and when they see a long menu they are immediately suspicious about whether their food will be made to order.
Although it might sound as if you are not giving your customers a lot of choice, to widen the choice chefs can serve larger portions of the starters as a main course and vice versa.
A smaller menu will also allow you the flexibility to follow the seasons and change the dishes and ingredients accordingly. The other option is to offer a specials board.
For small village pubs that don't get a lot of passing trade and where customers may eat twice a week it is a great way
to add variation.
I often ask my customers "What would you like to eat next time?" and they may say "game" or "venison". So I will put it on the specials board that week. It is a great vehicle for chefs to use their imagination and try new things, but also to serve dishes that are outside of their normal cuisine.
Although we serve predominantly French food, on a Friday I
always have fish and chips on the menu. It's proved so successful that I now offer it as a takeaway option and it's going extremely well.
My passion for simplicity goes through to the menu design as well. Chefs shouldn't assume they need to invest in an elaborate menu put together in a fancy folder. Mine is a simple A4 card which I design and print myself.
It includes the name of the restaurant at the top, a picture
of the restaurant, followed by the starters and main courses and our address at the bottom. I then have a separate menu for sweets and coffees as customers tend to order these at the same time. And they work well as they don't make the table too busy and people don't have to fight for somewhere to put them down.
The down side, I guess, is that I get through them very quickly so I am forever printing new ones. Especially as customers tend to fold them up and take them away - either as a souvenir or as a reference for their next visit.
Philippe Avril is head chef and manager at the Glenleven Inn, 25 New Street, Kilbarchan, Renfrewshire, Scotland