Sample Menu Post-It Note Party
Designing sample menus is a key part of any personal chef business. If somebody is interested in your services, you send them your sample menu. If somebody wants to know what type of foods you offer, you send them your sample menu. Rather than creating a custom menu every time you get an inquiry, you can have a few sample menus on hand!
In this episode, I teach you a fun way to get your creative juices flowing so you can finally create your sample menus! Grab some post-it notes and markers, turn up the music, pour yourself a glass of wine, and let’s make booking clients an easier and faster process.
What You’ll Learn From This Episode:
How many sample menus you should have on-hand
What to offer in a sample menu
Why pictures of food aren’t enough
What a quote should include
How to make it easy for your potential client to say yes
From gathering menus to saving your sample menu as a pdf file, you’ll learn it in this episode. It’s time to get booking so you can start cooking!
Featured on this Episode:
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Hello and welcome to the chef with purpose podcast. I'm your host, Stephanie Heller. This podcast teaches personal chefs, nutrition experts, and at home cooks how to become fully booked while growing your purpose, profit, and passion. Good food is just part of the puzzle. I'll show you what to offer and how to market so you can become fully booked and help people through your food. Now, let's get cooking. Hey, shots. Welcome to this episode. Today I'm going to show you how you can make three sample menus. And we're going to do something called a sample menu. Post It Note party. This is a really fun way to get your creative juices flowing and finally create those menus so it will be easier and faster to book the clients you want. So you'll also be able to use these menus on your website. You'll use them when you send quotes to clients after you talk to them on the phone. And you can also make them a way that clients can pick directly off them so you don't have to customize that much. And by having these ready ahead of time, it really saves you so much time, energy, and bandwidth when you're getting your quotes out. And you'll be able to take booking and payment faster. Custom menus are for after the booking is done and you received payment. This is really, really important. I'm going to show you why in this episode. But you don't have to do it before if you have really good, solid sample menus. So let's get cooking. So for this episode, you'll probably listen to it once, and then I want you to take some action and actually do it. You're going to get a couple of things together. Post It notes, markers, music, coffee, a beer, and you're going to actually do what we're talking about here. But let me explain first why this is so important and how it's going to help you. So I was just coaching a client in my program, the Personal Chef's Secrets are fully booked, and on module three, we have designing your core services, where the students pick out of three services. I teach them one or two to really focus on and learn how to sell and learn how to execute really well. That's the first part of the module. And in fact, I discussed that in the previous podcast, which services and definitions of them for you to choose. So if you didn't catch that one, just go back one episode. You'll see it. So in the course, the second half of this module is designing your sample menus. And what I do is I have them create three to six sample menus that you always have ready on hand to use. They, again, get used in quotes. They're going to be used on your website. They're also used in a portfolio that they create when they visit with partners and potential clients to leave behind. So this is something you really want to have and be ready with, it's not really something that you create on the fly and think like, oh, it's going to be great. I'll just make a menu in five minutes, because that's usually not how it happens. What happens is I know chefs will sit down to make a menu, but then they'll have so many different ideas, it'll get all jumbled up and they'll wind up doing nothing or spending over an hour creating a custom menu for a prospect or an inquiry who hasn't paid yet, and then they don't move forward. So you're stuck with this custom menu and nothing to do with it. So here's a problem that I see chefs having who don't have their sample menus ready. They are confused about the scope of the service and what to actually offer. Because if somebody comes up to you and says, hey, I'm interested in booking you, what do you cook? What do you have to offer? And you don't have a specific answer, it could go haywire. And these prospects are looking for an answer quickly so they can make a decision. So we specifically in my program have you choose your services ahead of time, and we have you make your menus ahead of time. What happens is, if the prospect can't envision themselves eating the food and enjoying it and saying, yes, that sounds so good, or, yes, this looks really good, I want them to come cook for me. It will kind of fizzle out and they might lose interest. So we keep them interested and engaged by showing them actual menus of stuff that you can cook. It may include pictures on your website or from social media, but we want to have two or three standard menus that you're always able to cook and that people know and love and that can pick right off of. So why pictures aren't enough. And I see this a lot on chef's websites who are taking tons of pictures but maybe not writing a great description or think that people just know what it is. Don't assume that people just know what it is, because you and I are cooks and we know what a lot of different ingredients are and how they go together and why it looks like this. Regular people don't know any of those things. So when you're putting up pictures of food and writing out your menus, make sure you're including a description. I would put literally almost every ingredient I was putting in the dish on the client's menu so they could see ahead of time what I'm putting in it. If something jumps out at them that they don't like or they want more of, or they're not even sure what it is, they get to see that ahead of time. So pictures are not enough. A picture isn't a menu. It doesn't explain what they get. So we really want to put the effort in when you're making these sample menus to do that. Also, having these menus set up ahead of time gives you the business owner, the entrepreneur, the chef, an outline and a structure for what you offer. Because, again, it can go haywire if it's so open ended and vague and somebody just says, okay, what can you cook? And you're like, I can cook anything. That is like the worst end answer you could give and will rarely result in money and a booking. We want to be very clear and concise with what we offer. So when inquiries come in, which is people calling you inquiring about your service and you have your menus ready, this is an outline already set up in your mind of what you're able to offer, how you offer it, the quantities they get, the actual thing that they receive. So it makes it much easier for you to explain. Also, your quotes can go out much faster because you have these ready. You can also set up a template for your quotes. I'm sure I'll do a podcast on that. We teach that extensively in the course. And after you've had the console, let's say you set up a time to talk. You talk for 1520 minutes. You gave them an idea of how you can help them, and then you said, okay, I'll send you your quote. By the end of today, you already have 90% of the stuff already ready because you'll have your quote template, you have your menus ready, you set up your services, you know your pricing, and then they have all the information to say yes. When we are leaving lots of stuff out, we're putting holes in it that maybe the client doesn't even understand that it's a hole. They just know that they're not going to move forward and they're not ready to make a decision. That's how you know you've left something out. So here's what the quote will include. It will include exactly what they get, the meal size, the portions, when you're going to show up. It'll include a sample menu and pricing. That's it. You really just want to get them the basics so they can get to a yes or no, I want to move forward, or I have more questions. So from that information, they'll be able to make a decision and decide what they want. If you don't have that, you're slowing that whole process down, and that's why we don't want that. You're also leaving more work for them, the client, to do by continuing to instigate a conversation, going back and forth, hey, I don't understand this, or I don't really get what I get, or Why is it this price? We're leaving a lot of open holes, and you extend the decision and the communication for no reason. They want to solve their problem, and you could solve it. So we got to do that in a clear, succinct way. So clients will disappear or ghost you or disengage if you're making this process harder, longer, or more difficult for them to think. And then they're tired and don't want to make a decision. This is why we have those menus ready. This is one of the really big decisions. So let's get to the actual post note party and what you're going to do. I like to do this first round in one sitting. So you'll block anywhere from one to 2 hours in your calendar. You want to make the time to really concentrate and get it to be cohesive. Like, first it's going to be all over the place and I'll explain that. But you want to give yourself enough time so you can edit whatever you have. You're going to want to copy other people's menus and recipes and that's normal. But allow yourself to let your creativity and your uniqueness come through. Because we're not just preparing food. That's one of the things you're doing. What you're really doing is being a real live person, a personal chef in their home that has experiences and flavor palettes, places you visit, things that you've done the way you grew up. All of that is going to go into your cooking. If we're copying other people's menus and like just looking online to copy stuff to make it easier. You take out your creativity and uniqueness and ultimately you take out your ability to stand out and to differentiate because you're not going to stand out and differentiate just on food. It's just not enough. There's too many people doing all types of food. We want to differentiate with our uniqueness and creativity and being ourselves. So let's say you allotted 2 hours to this and you're going to take the first 30 minutes. Actually, let me tell you the materials that you're going to need. And this will also be in the show notes. So you're going to need a pen and paper, post it notes or like a book that you could rip it up. I like to see postit notes and put it in front of me on a board so I can move them around. Or put it on a wall or on your desk or the floor. I've done it on the floor too. So you need pen and paper, post it notes. Probably the internet. Not necessarily your phone, maybe your phone, but like you might need a laptop or desktop to really look for stuff. Pull out any cookbooks that you love. Maybe you have recipes from your family that you always wanted to try and make modern or things that you make for your family now that people know and love that they know that you can make really well. So take out all of those recipes and books, any old menus that you've worked with from clients previously, or if you're just starting your business and you used to work at a restaurant or somewhere else, pull those out. I used to work at the Princess hotel here in Scottsdale at Bourbon Steak. When it first opened, it was a Michael Nina restaurant. It was like the most exciting thing ever. And we got this massive book of how to make every single thing on the menu. I literally have it to this day, 13 years later. And when I get really fancy clients who want fancy, fancy stuff, I open that book and I look at the stuff that we used to make in the restaurant, and it's hilarious and fun and exciting because I get to make a lot of things that I don't normally make. So you can pull out anything from previous jobs, or if you have to get on the phone with somebody and call your sister, call your grandmother, ask them for the recipe or for something. Get that ready. Okay, this is all the materials needed. You'll also need to be on a computer with a Word document or a Google Doc so you can put everything on after the Post it notes. First, we're going to write it out. Then you're going to put it on the computer. You're going to save it as a PDF, and that is how you're going to send it to clients and you'll put it on your website or any social media that you're using. So here's what you're actually going to do. Now that's the first half hour you've gotten all your materials together, you're going to take a half an hour and do some research. You're going to put all of your thoughts together, look online, and decide which two or three menus you're going to make in that sitting. I suggest you do these two first. First one will be your greatest hits. It's not what you're going to call it. It's just what it for. Easy access of what actually should be on it. So Greatest Hits sounds and means exactly what it is. These are things that you can make without a recipe. You've made them 100 times before. You know they turn out good. You don't have to taste it in the middle. You don't have to worry that you cooked it too long. These are things that you cook all the time. Blindfolded, hands behind your back, comes out really good. There are also things that people know you for and that have come up to you and said, this is amazing. I want the recipe. How do you make this? Or can you make this again for me? Even if it's your family or your kids, that every time you make this spinach white lasagna, your kids, even little kids who don't really eat a lot of good foods, come up to you and say, mom, can you make this again? That would go on there. If you have a food service now, you're doing some personal chef work, and you notice that people pick the same thing over and over. I used to make this pineapple apricot jerk chicken. I didn't even know what I was doing, but I kept putting the same type of things together, and I would throw it on people's menus every single week. The same four or five clients would ask for it over and over. So I knew that that was eventually going to go on my website and my greatest hits. These are the things you're looking for as you put this together in that first half an hour, you're researching, gathering information. I also like to look on different websites for the start of an idea, not necessarily to copy the whole recipe, but I want to see what trends are and a good way to do this. I don't look really at other personal chef websites. I'll look more at hotels or much larger catering companies, venues like stadiums. These are going to be things that they're serving to thousands of people daily, weekly, monthly, so they know they are popular. And it doesn't have to be like a boring Caesar salad. Like, I want to see what people are doing to spice up a Caesar salad this year, what's kind of hot. So looking at hotels menus is a great idea. Any place where you know they're serving a lot of people, those are going to be popular things. Then you can put your take on it and put it on your greatest sense. Here are some things to look out for. If something looks really interesting and unique and you know you want to try it, but you haven't done it before, put it on a separate list that won't go under your greatest hits, that might go under a specialty or theme menu. And that's the second menu that I want you guys to try when you're doing this. So you'll have your greatest tips, and then you'll make a second menu, which is specialty or a theme menu or very unique things to your area or the type of clients you want to serve. So an example for that could be like here in Scottsdale, we would get so many inquiries for Southwest, southwest type theme, Mexican style cuisine, but not Taco Bell stuff like really high end Mexican. That's what people would always call and ask for. And for the first three or four years, we would just make menus as they were requested. And then I realized, out of like, ten inquiries a week for dinner parties, at least four of them wanted Southwest. Like, they came asking for that. So we made a really gorgeous Southwest menu that took local things from the area and made it accessible for them, but nothing was over the top. Crazy fancy that they didn't know what it was. So we might use prickly pear juice in something, but it wouldn't be like something, they totally wouldn't know what it was. And that's something also to keep in mind. So now you've finished your first half hour of gathering info. Now you're going to sit down for another half an hour and write everything, each dish on a Post It Note. And you don't have to do a lot of detail because this is for you at this point, but you're going to write like, white spinach lasagna. You know what it is and when you see it, you'll write out the ingredients when you get on the computer. But that's going to go in a certain category. Under Greatest Tips. If you are researching stuff for a theme or specialty menu, put that on Post It Notes and then see how everything looks together. You want to choose stuff to where it's easy for them to make a decision. The menu items that are on there make sense. They're not jumping around. Like, one thing is very, very healthy and then the next thing is like, full of fat and carbohydrates. You kind of want it to make sense so people know they're in the right place when they're looking at the menu. That's the next half hour, putting everything on a Post It Note. Then after that, and I really think try to do it all in one session because you'll break your concentration if you don't. Next part. You'll take the next hour and put everything on the computer. You're going to make just two documents and you're going to make two menus. And I love a very simple, easy to read menu. It should have no more than six to eight items on it. If you ever go to a restaurant and you have like, a menu that has tons and tons of pages and tons of stuff to read and you can't make a decision, but you want everything, but you're like, oh, I don't know, think of The Cheesecake Factory when they used to have a 15 page menu. I mean, you don't even know what to get. So six to eight items, that's it. Because they're really going to choose three or four off that menu. You don't need to have 100 things. Put it in a Word document, edit it, make sure it looks good, put your logo on the top, and then save it as a PDF. Then you will have your menus ready for the next time you get an inquiry. And even if you're not sure about what will work out or what people are going to pick, just put it out there. Ask your friends and family. Put it on your social media, hey, I'm working on this menu. What do you think looks good? And if you don't get the replies that you think maybe your menu is off track or you're not showing it to the right people, or if people are like, I love this, I want to order this, or like, I don't know what this is, can you explain it to me? Then, you know, you might have to change some stuff. So today is like a fun way for you to interact with your business that isn't necessarily cooking, and there's going to be more ways for you to do this as you grow and as you get more clients. But doing this ahead of time is so important. It will streamline your booking process. It will make it go faster. It leaves so many less questions for the client to ask, and it makes it so much easier for you to get to the booking and to get in their kitchen cooking. All right, guys, I hope you love this one. Check the notes out for some links, the show notes, and I will see you in the next one. Bye. Hey, guys, if you're done waking up each day saying, I don't know what to do first to fill my cooking slots, I have the perfect thing for you. Grab a copy of my free PDF guide, 14 daily marketing prompts for personal chefs to get their next five clients. It shows you exactly what to do each day to stay on track and motivated with simple prompts to get you in front of your champagne. Clients consistently go to chef Stephanieheller.com chefprompts to get your free copy today. I'll also give you the link in the show notes.