Menu

“ With hundreds of restaurants to select from, each specializing on some particular dish, or some peculiar mode of preparation, one often becomes bewildered and turns to familiar names on the menu card rather than venture into fields that are new, of strange and rare dishes whose unpronounceable names of themselves frequently are sufficient to discourage those unaccustomed to the art and science of cooking practiced by those whose lives have been spent devising means of tickling fastidious palates of a city of gourmets. ”

“ Rows of grieved and vaguely disturbed people can be seen in restaurants every day—being mowed down by menus.
In a Childs restaurant business success is based on turning the whole idea of a menu around, and instead of the customer's coming in and studying the menu, the menu studies him. ”

“ Where several courses are to be served, and it is the aim of those planning the menu to keep the appetite stimulated, acids, meat extractives and warm foods should be served first. Cloying foods such as sweets, very cold foods and foods which are satisfying tend to depress the appetite and hence have no place in the first course of a meal, except for luncheon where the menu may be very simple. In institutions which have fixed menus, it is especially desirable that the meal, no matter how simple, be so planned that it may be served in courses. ”

“ The tea-room menu is characterized by daintiness and excellence in food, garnish and service. Large tea rooms serve a variety such as is found in large [Pg 37] hotels, with practically no changes in their menus from day to day. They are open to the same criticism as are the cafeterias that serve everything in the market at every meal, and so make their menu monotonous. Smaller tea rooms offer limited choices,--soups, relishes, hot dishes, vegetables, salads, breads and beverages. To add choices to a menu beyond the number which will satisfy the patrons is not economy. ”

“ At the same time, due credit must be given to the chef for the part he has played [Pg 16] in the general improvement of gastronomics and the art of feeding during the past two decades. The mere multiplication of restaurants is nothing; but the general improvement of the average menu is everything. Here, for instance, is the menu of a dinner of the year 1876, recommended by no less an authority than the late Fin Bec, Blanchard Jerrold, whose Epicure’s Year Books, Cupboard Papers, and Book of Menus are by way of being classics.
MENU.
Crécy aux Croûtons. ”

“ She must select a menu which she and her maid can together carry out successfully.
The composition of a dinner menu is an employment that gives scope for talent and originality. The range of possible dishes is large, the variety in the way of combination inexhaustible. To plan a dinner that is at once palatable and pleasing to the eye requires no mean ability. To a woman who has a genius for culinary feats, this sort of accomplishment may be an exercise of the artistic faculties ”

“ The preparation of a number of dishes assembled for a meal requires a skill quite different from that necessary for the making of a single dish. A menu being decided upon, it needs an accurate sense of time, forethought, and promptness, to have a number of dishes ready at the same time, or in proper sequence if several courses are served. ”

“ In considering the three chief points of a menu, the first, the materials to be provided, depends upon the occasion, the season, and the number of persons to be provided for. The more elaborate the meal, the more difficult is the task of selecting dishes which, while they differ from one another in material, appearance and flavour, will yet, when blended together, form a harmonious whole. Nothing can be more unsatisfactory than a series of badly assorted dishes selected without adequate consideration for variety in composition, flavour and colour. ”

“ The menu must be appropriate to the season. Tea or coffee are never served in the drawing-room after the informal luncheon. If at all, they are served right at the table at the conclusion of the meal. ”

“ Well-balanced and appropriate menus are absolutely necessary to the success of any establishment serving food. Given the best of raw materials and the most competent cooks, the institutional manager will fail to please his patrons if his menus show lack of careful planning. The truth of this assertion is verified by the analysis of many failures.
On the other hand successful menu planning is not especially difficult. Like any other art it requires careful study and observance of a few simple rules. ”

“ Though it may be necessary to offer slightly more choice in foods in the commercial cafeteria, some cafeterias offer such a wide variety of choice that the patron is confused and has difficulty in choosing his meal. Furthermore too much variety makes for sameness from day to day. In all cafeterias where the same group is served each day, and where there is little or no competition, a simpler menu may be used. The following menu outline is suggested for use in the average cafeteria. ”

“ However difficult the elaboration of a menu may be, it is but the first and by no means the only difficulty which results from the rapidity with which meals are served nowadays. The number of dishes set before the diners being considerably reduced, and the dishes themselves having been deprived of all the advantages which their sumptuous decorations formerly lent them, they must recover, by means of perfection and delicacy, sufficient in the way of quality to compensate for their diminished bulk and reduced splendour. ”

“ The dinner should always be more elaborate than the menu. One may have a simple menu and an elaborate dinner, but if the order be reversed and long pompous names given to simple inexpensive dishes, the repast may prove a disappointment to those who partake of it. ”

“ Then, of course, it must be understood that, while the dinner for six or eight persons is designed as an harmonious whole of few, well-chosen dishes, all of which are intended to be eaten in their order, the menu of the larger party must offer various dishes for choice to meet the differing tastes of more numerous guests, and it must therefore be larger. ”

“ Nothing so delays the service of a dinner as dishes that must immediately be followed by necessary accessories. If there is no one to help the butler or waitress, no dish must be included on the menu—unless you are only one or two at table, or unless your guests are neither critical nor "modern"—that is not complete in itself. ”

“ The menu cards afford much opportunity for adding attractiveness to a company dinner. If one possesses artistic skill, a floral decoration or a tiny sketch, with an appropriate quotation, the guest's name, and date of the dinner, make of the cards very pleasing souvenirs. A proper quotation put after each dish is much in vogue as a means of promoting conversation. ”

“ The cost of the dinner, including wine, came to about two guineas a head.
And now as a contrast I give you the menu of the banquet given in the Guildhall on Lord Mayor's Day, 1837. This was a Royal entertainment. The menu [Pg 305] is a yard in length, and it comprises the dishes at the Royal table and the general bill of fare as well. I only give you the dishes served at the Royal table, which form an extraordinary mass of flesh, of fish, fruit, fowl, in season and out of season. The buffet, no doubt, held the dishes for which there was not room on the table. ”

“ In the great gilded cage of the restaurant and the big room the windows of which open on to Glasshouse Street, the custom is to eat the lunch of the day, or to select dishes from it, while dinner is an à la carte meal. If one entertains a lady at dinner one probably orders a dinner which canters through the accepted courses, and I have by me the menu of such a one:
Hors d'œuvre Russe. ”

“ Some books give exact measures, each dish being reckoned enough for four persons, with instructions to increase the measures in proportion to the additional number of diners but here a rigid rule is impossible, for a dish which is to serve by itself, as a supper or a lunch, must necessarily be bigger than one which merely fills one place in a dinner menu. ”

“ The necessity for neatness and orderly arrangement of servings is obvious. At large parties where there is plate service it is wise to make up a sample plate before the time of serving in order to determine the best arrangement of food and in order actually to show those who are to dish up the food how each plate must look when it is placed before the guest. One who is inexperienced in planning menus, especially for parties, should accustom himself to visualizing the meal as it will appear when written upon the menu card and as it will appear upon the plate. ”

“ These tables are set in white, with centrepieces and other decorations to carry out the color scheme. Have first table near the door, and others arranged according to the menu, which can be changed to suit the seasons. It is necessary to have two sets of waiters, the first to clear away, and the second to furnish fresh supplies. All must dress to harmonize with the colors of their tables. Serve food in small quantities and in small dishes. At the ringing of a bell seven guests are seated at the first table. ”

“ Suppose you are to serve panned oysters, on squares of toast, lettuce salad, bread and butter sandwiches and coffee, or Welsh rarebit, potato salad and coffee and sandwiches. Any of these is a good menu as you will not want sweets or ice cream at such a supper.
For safety place your chafing dishes on metal trays and do not fill the lamp too full. Many hostesses prefer to have their ingredients on the table in bowls which will not break and on Japanese trays and use wooden spoons for stirring as they do not become hot, and do not scratch the dishes. ”

“ Let us add only that the size of the table and the dining-room was such that, instead of the narrow and inconvenient chairs which force you to eat, so to speak, with the elbows close to the body, each guest, seated in a large and comfortable chair, the feet on a soft carpet, had all the latitude necessary for the evolutions of his knife and fork. Here is the menu which the canon took with a hand trembling with emotion and read religiously.
MENU FOR DINNER.
Four Soups.—Soup à la Condé, rich crab soup with white meat of fowl, soup with kouskoussou, consommé with toast. ”

“ The economic condition of the group to be served may limit variety in the menu, on the one hand, or may permit of maximum variety on the other. The eight-page menu of the fashionable tea room as definitely reflects the ability of the patrons to pay as does the simple meal of three or four dishes served the immigrants at Ellis Island.
The occupation of the patrons, whether active or sedentary, determines to a large extent the kind of food served to them, from the dietetic standpoint and from the commercial standpoint as well. ”

“ I am bound to confess that the great salon with its painted panels, its buffet and its skylight screened by an awning, is not a lively room; but the attendance is quiet, soft-footed, and unhurried, and the cooking is distinctly good. It has of course its spécialités du maison, and classical dishes have been invented within its walls; but the man who wants to take his wife out to dine, and who is prepared to pay a couple of sovereigns for the meal, will find that he need not exceed that amount. Here is the menu of a little dinner for two which I ordered last winter at the restaurant. ”

“ Commercial cafeterias may find it necessary to add other choices to these menus. Very small [Pg 14] cafeterias may offer fewer choices. The majority of establishments, however, will find this variety ample, the idea being to serve the maximum variety within the week rather than within the day or meal.
A star has been used to indicate those dishes in which left-overs may be used to particular advantage.
CAFETERIA MENUS
** Indicates dishes in which left-overs may be used to advantage. ”

“ Take this time to tell her (or to show her pictures from cookery books) how you like to have the dishes decorated, and also remind her that one signal (or bell) from the pantry means to dish up and keep a course hot, and two signals (or bells) to send it up to the pantry, and caution her how a few minutes’ delay in the kitchen seems a long time in the dining-room, so she has to be quick. Write out the menu very clearly for her and pin it up in the kitchen, and then decide on the platters and dishes to be used. In fact, have all your conversation with her about the dinner the day before. ”

“ A dinner interlarded with a row of extra entrées, Roman punch, and hot dessert is unknown except at a public dinner, or in the dining-room of a parvenu. About thirty-five years ago such dinners are said to have been in fashion!
The Balanced Menu
One should always try to choose well-balanced dishes; an especially rich dish balanced by a simple one. Timbale with a very rich sauce of cream and pâté de foie gras might perhaps be followed by French chops, broiled chicken or some other light, plain meat. ”

“ When the evening of the tea comes, and the guests have all been introduced one to another, they may be ushered into the dining-room and the supper be served. The dining-table should be arranged in as old-fashioned a style as possible. At the four corners place candlesticks with wax candles, and for a centrepiece have a large bouquet of artificial bachelors' buttons. Use old-fashioned china and silver if you happen to have any. At each place put a few bachelors' buttons, to which attach a menu card by a narrow white taffeta ribbon. ”

“ At one end a semicircular screen of curtains shuts off the serving-room. At the other end great doors lead into a drawing-room. The chairs, of red velvet, have a comfortable look. The lights on the tables are electric globes with yellow shades.
[Pg 288]
This was the dinner that the manager had ordered for us. When I saw petite marmite on the menu I groaned. I am beginning to believe that it is a sort of fetish that restaurant managers worship:—
Natives. ”