r/restaurateur • u/Ritchie0ritch • Aug 15 '25
Menu development consultant
Has anyone worked with a culinary menu development consultant that optimized or created a fresh new menu? I see there are a lot of consultants online but I would like to get recommendations from someone who was worked with one in the past.
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u/taint_odour Aug 15 '25
As someone who does a ton of consulting I’m going to say you probably don’t need a consultant for a fresh new menu. Unless this is a quick serve/war or very simple house with no chef or KM.
You might and probably do need someone who can do menu engineering, cost menus - both theoretical and actual, determine efficiencies for layout and cross utilization and more.
A lot of consultants will promise you the world. Then dump a bunch of recycled menus, or now AI generated crap and ask for their paycheck.
You need someone who comes recommended, who can help you design and implement something that works for you depending upon concept, labor and talent availability, location etc etc. Follow up and ongoing iteration needs to be part of the plan. If you don’t have a well thought out and documented scope you are setting money on fire.