new lunch menu dish from work

[drhowser]

a few of you will know that i am a chef.

i have recently started a new job along with a friend at a hotel restaurant close to blackburn.
the aim is to achieve a michelin star and improve turnover/losses along with the profile of the restaurant.

as part of the re-launch there is going to be a new website which we have just begun taking some pictures for.

this is one of the starters currently on the lunch menu. locally shot pigeon with braised lentils, bacon, roast baby red onions and goats cheese bon-bon's

what do you all think? both the food and the pictures. ta

 

[Vish]

Looks great mate.

Been watching a lot of the last Masterchef lately and loving the presentation of dishes like that. Food looks interesting!

Pics wise, IMO, second pic is better for website but have a selection - like getting the whole plate in like the first pic, maybe with a cutlery and glasses but not that big metal thing. And also some pics of close up in the food. Just kind of things that I think might look good off the top of my head, I don't know too much about restaurant websites.

 

[drhowser]

cheers fella!
i've just seen the tray too.. i do have quite a few more shots of this, just posted the wrong one. let's just say lighting was "interesting".

fortunately, all we have to do for the website is supply the pictures.

 

[Gally]

The 2nd one is perfect as you can actually see the dish and what's in it ect... not a lot of places do that these days imo.

 

[vinny172]

how much would that " starter " cost...........

 

[drhowser]

thanks Gally!
we spent a morning trying to get it right and get set up for dinner! time is tight at the moment, so it's good to know it wasn't wasted.

vinny, the lunch menu is £19.95 for two courses with coffee and petit fours, we are just about breaking even on it to be honest!

 

[Gally]

Not bad if it's a really posh place tbh.

Cafes don't serve Pigeon so im guessing you place can get away with charging a good price.

 

[drhowser]

aye, it's posh enough! it belongs to the same people as blackburn rovers, so they have a bit of cash!

http://www.stanleyhouse.co.uk/

this is the current site with the previous chef's menu's etc. it should be changing over the next couple of months.

 

[Gally]

Very nice, has it taken a little down turn in occupancy recently mate?

 

[drhowser]

from what i can tell it's always been fairly quiet, but i've been here just over two months.

why do you ask?

 

[Gally]

Just when you mention turnover/losses.

Like you see on Ramsay of course, just try and get the profile back up and try and get some more diners in.

 

[Vish]

Reasonable price, even for a lunch menu - providing it tastes as good as it looks! But if it's posh and clients are posh, I'd put the prices up a bit for food like that. If the food and place is getting a revamp and is a big jump up from the old then I'm sure they'd be happy to pay a bit more. Help the profits and cover yourself if costs increase etc.

A new site with pics of your food like that would look good mate!

Edit: Just seen it's a bit quiet so a price bump might not be good. Gally's right with the way Ramsay does it. Get some local press, heavily promote it, maybe some Blackburn players to eat in that night (?), special one night offer discount. Get it buzzing, should keep people coming back.

 

[drhowser]

cool, thanks!

i can't take all the credit for the food, i am the sous chef, but the head chef is a good friend of mine for a long time now, so probably 50-50 is fair.

from what i can tell the place has never been fully busy, but there is a two year expansion going on at the moment. there will be more rooms and a huge spa, as it is we get a lot of the blackburn players in, so with the spa we should be getting the wag's and their friends too.

the gp side of things is good for us too at the moment, we don't have to turn a profit for the first year, even though we are not allowing ourselves to make a loss on principle.

we also have a 20k investment on kitchen equipment due to arrive in a month or so, so lots of new toys!

 

[Budgie]

Looks awesome, that second pic.

 

[chris_182]

There's no way it should be more than £20, even in London good places are charging only a bit more than that.
Looks great anyway, shame it's too far to pop in.

 

[Budgie]

£20 for two courses?

Sounds fine to me.

 

[drhowser]

london is actually one of the best places for lunch menu deals. there is so much competition it is untrue.

i've spent the last year as Tom Aikens sous chef, and we were selling the lunch menu at a loss!!

 

[chris_182]

london is actually one of the best places for lunch menu deals. there is so much competition it is untrue.

i've spent the last year as Tom Aikens sous chef, and we were selling the lunch menu at a loss!!

yes, and helps if you can pay your suppliers too as Tom would know.

 

[jenic]

Looks nice, even if it is too small a portion :rasp:

 

[drhowser]

yes, and helps if you can pay your suppliers too as Tom would know.

too true!

when i started there (march last year) one of the first things i did was properly cost all the dishes on the menu. they had never done a proper cost breakdown and had no idea how much the food was costing!!

there was a seabass dish that cost £36 to produce, being sold on a five course £60 menu. absolutely crazy!

lovely food though

 

[Derelict-UK]

needs more food imo

 

[drhowser]

there is slightly more on the actual plate when we serve it, there are three of the goat cheese bon-bon's and three of the red onions, but the plate was looking too crowded in the pictures.

saying that though, i think it is a very rich dish, between the lentils, goats cheese, bacon and pigeon there is a lot of protien for a starter.

 

[xr2racer]

Looks delicious but it's fuckin tiny!

I'd take 3 of them

 

[drhowser]

haha, now that's the kind of customer we need .

 

[Rasclart]

Looks good and fair play to Chefs you in the main seem to work your b****cks off!

 

[drhowser]

cheers mate.

and, yes. i'm averaging 90 hours a week at the moment, of which i'm paid for about 60!