Oriental Food - Top tips for delicious dishes

Dave Howarth, trading director for Woodward Foodservice:

Test the water by trying new dishes on a specials board before reprinting menus.

Hold an oriental theme night to test your new dishes. The bestsellers can then be added to your regular menu.

Keep things simple and cut costs by choosing a sauce, such as hoi sin or sweet chilli, which can be used as a dip, a marinade or to accompany a main meal.

Choose your menu carefully. With a little preplanning you can select a few core ingredients that can be combined in different ways to create a range of starters and main courses.

Jim Charlesworth, business development chef for RHM Foodservice:

Offer as many dishes as you can without compromising on quality - customers like to try a bit of everything.

Offer different portion sizes so that people can either enjoy a main course or pick lots of smaller dishes to share.

If you aren't an expert in Chinese cooking use ready-to-use sauces to create an array of dishes.

Avoid the trap a lot of chefs fall into by serving rice with everything. Instead offer just one rice, one noodle dish and plenty of mains.

Always include one or two soups - they are quite light and won't leave customers feeling bloated. A favourite of mine is one I developed while in Hong Kong called silver and gold thread soup. It's based on the popular Chinese chicken and sweetcorn soup but just before it goes out, whisk an egg white and a yolk and pour them in separately. The effect is excellent.

Use good quality meat that can be stirfried. Cheap meat cooked quickly at high temperatures will result in a chewy, tough dish.

Don't forget your vegetarian and health conscious customers - offer a vegetable chow mein and add fruit, such as mango, to give it an exciting edge.

Decorate your pub. Theme kits made from crèpe paper can be a bit tacky, try investing in some Chinese lanterns. Subtle lighting will create the perfect ambience.