Festive Food: 'Tis the season to get planning...

Christmas menus can present a difficult challenge for publicans who offer food.

You want to offer people the great traditional Christmas dinner that they will know and love, but at the same time you want to give your customers something unique and special that sets you apart from your competitors.

Offering top notch food to an increased number of customers over the festive season can be stressful, which is why effective menu planning is essential for business to run smoothly.

Planning in advance

Menu planning for such an important time in a pub's calendar usually starts months in advance, so it's vital to remember that food should be tasty but also straightforward.

Paul Wright, business development chef at Unilever Foodsolutions, advises: "Planning is all-important, don't overstretch the kitchen with menus that are too complicated or take a lot of finishing unless you have the staff to do it.

"Customers who have to wait a long time for their meals from a frantic kitchen will be dissatisfied and probably won't return in the New Year."

Of course the sheer number of increased covers you'll be dealing with can put immense pressure on the kitchen.

Using devices such as Maggi Solutions Pub Tool can be helpful. The website (www.maggi-menusolutions.co.uk) gives free advice and recipe suggestions with nutritional data and a profit calculator.

It can be a successful online planning service that offers publicans a one-stop-shop for fresh inspiration. Using tools such as this can be a way of finding a new twist on a traditional meal.

What's more, early and efficient planning means you can calculate projected profit in advance and make sure you are getting good deals from suppliers.

"Talk to suppliers, particularly if you're using local specialists, find out what your raw costs are likely to be so you can plan and cost your own menu," says Wright at Unilever. "Make sure they are going to be able to meet demand through the Christmas period."

Timing
When deciding what food to include in a Christmas menu, it is vital to consider exactly how many people you'll be serving, as well as the number of courses. So timing is important for the evenings to run smoothly.

"With any functions or banquets where you are serving a large number of people you want dishes that are quick to produce," says Ben Bartlett, food development manager at Scottish & Newcastle Pub Company (S&NPC).

"The actual eating time for a three-course meal is 22 minutes so you also have to be able to get all the dishes out onto the tables within 15 minutes for each course.

"Work on the timing, look at the dishes and whether they have too many components and identify what you can do in advance. For example, prepare your potatoes well ahead. Keep them in water with a slice of bread in the top of the pan to absorb the starch and preserve their life."

Sourcing locally

When drawing up a menu, it's a good time to really sell what makes your food unique and worth forking out for.

According to Lamb Weston, food miles, provenance and sustainability are all key factors in customer choice, with 59 per cent of British consumers believing it is important to buy British.

Isabelle Davis, marketing manager at 3663, agrees. "Consumers are very savvy when it comes to provenance and want to know where the food on their plates originates," she says.

"This does not fall off the agenda at Christmas and our customers could include the Red Tractor certifications on their menus to add a further point of difference from the competition."

Bartlett, at S&NPC, urges all licensees using local produce to highlight this on their chalkboards and menus including the name of the farm that the meat comes from if known.

Traditional favourites are what customers want at Christmas and roast turkey should still be at the heart of any Christmas menu. "Combine this with the current trends of fresh and local produce and you'll be onto a winner," Bartlett says.

Cheryl Hickman at the Olde Bull Inn in Suffolk also believes this is important. "We source our supplies as locally as we can, with most of the vegetables coming from someone only three miles away," she says.

"We do make it known that it's locally produced on our website. Our customers may not realise that it matters, but the veg tastes so fresh - so the meal tastes much better."

Traditional turkeys

Then there's the difficult decision on what to serve. And many agree that it's a good idea to stick with traditional Christmas food like a turkey dinner. Carl Scothorne, sales director at Rectory Foods, sees this as the best idea for the festive season.

He says: "It's important to get the food offering right and to get supplies in place to make sure all Christmas party bookings run smoothly. Putting tasty, familiar, reasonably-priced dishes on the menu is important to meet customer demand in the run up to Christmas and over the festive season."

And Christmas really is the season for turkey. Duncan Marsh, general manager of Bernard Matthews Foodservice, says British turkey is a meat option that is cost effective, tasty and innovative. And even at Christmas some customers will be thinking of their waistlines, so you could market your offering from a health-conscious angle.

"Quality and price are just part of the equation. Turkey breast has excellent flavour, is a perfect protein and naturally low in saturated fat," says Marsh.

"In simple terms, skinless turkey breast contains 34g of protein and 0.7g saturated fat per 100g compared with 30g protein and 1g saturated fat per 100g in skinless chicken breast.

"This is the type of information pub chefs need to be digesting right now, especially when research on key pub food drivers shows that more than ever consumers want to know what they are eating - with more than 20 per cent saying they want to know the fat content of their food and one in five saying they want to know the calorie content."

Unique offerings

But Christmas menus don't always have to consist of the standard turkey feast, and can offer pubs the opportunity to try something a bit different.

On those late party nights such as New Year's Eve, providing a buffet or a range of snacks can tempt customers to stay a bit longer.

Delice de France has launched a special range of seasonal offers. The selection includes 13 festive products including mince pies, cakes and savoury snacks: sage and onion pave crusty loaf, festive savoury slice, and pork and stuffing roll.

Given that the festive period is a particularly busy time, the snacks can be speedily prepared, for example the pork and stuffing roll can be baked in just 20 minutes.

The selection can be an addition to festive buffets, or used as cocktail bites to accompany a Christmas drink.

So whatever you decide to do at your pub this Christmas there is something out there to suit every taste and budget, which ticks all the boxes for customers from lower calorie content to local sourcing. Take advantage of the advice available from suppliers and get planning now. After all, a successful Christmas season will certainly be on your list.

Offering something extra

Cheryl Hickman runs the Olde Bull Inn at Barton Mills in Suffolk with her partner Wayne Starling. The pub is a finalist in this year's Publican Food & Drink Awards, in the Sunday Lunch Pub of the Year category.

In the run-up to Christmas they set up a marquee in their courtyard to cater for the increased custom. The marquee holds 140 diners, to add to the 60 covers that can be catered for in the main restaurant. They open the marquee for diners on Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays during December, with a themed disco after.

The Christmas menu is a set three-course meal with four starters options, four mains and four desserts to choose from. The meal co