Menu R&D / Dish Testing
Menu R&D / Dish Testing is the chef's development-kitchen notebook for new dishes still in progress — separate from live Recipes, which is for dishes already on the menu. Each dish moves through a Concept → Trial → Panel Review → Approved/Rejected pipeline, with an iteration history, tasting-panel scores, and a live food-cost % calculated from estimated cost vs target selling price.
Overview
This is distinct from Recipes (live dishes already on the menu), Menu Management (managing the current menu, not the R&D pipeline), Prep Sheet (daily prep for existing dishes) and Supplier Visit Log (what suppliers showed, not what the chef is developing).
Each dish carries a Stage (Concept, Trial, Panel Review, Approved, Rejected); a pipeline strip at the top shows a live count per stage and doubles as a filter — clicking a stage count filters the list to it.
An Iteration History lets you log each version tried (version number, date, what changed, notes) as the recipe is refined across trials.
A Tasting Panel section records individual panellist scores (Taste, Presentation, Innovation, Value for Money, each out of 10), a Recommend Launch yes/no, and free-text comments; the card view shows an average score and how many panellists would launch.
Food Cost % is calculated live from Estimated Food Cost ÷ Target Selling Price, colour-coded green (≤28%), amber (29–35%) or red (over 35%).
A dish can be printed as a single R&D summary sheet including its metadata, description, allergens, full iteration history and tasting panel table.
Before You Start
- You must have the Billing feature enabled on your plan.
Step-by-Step Guide
1 Start developing a new dish
- Open Kitchen Operations → Menu R&D / Dish Testing and click "New Dish".
- Fill in Dish Name and Lead Chef (both required), Course, Cuisine Inspiration, Target Launch date and Description.
- Set the Stage (usually Concept to start), Est. Food Cost and Target Selling Price (the Food Cost % updates live), and toggle any Allergens.
- Save — the dish appears in the pipeline under its chosen stage.
2 Log trial iterations
- Edit the dish and switch to the "Iterations" tab.
- Click "Add Version" for each trial — record what changed from the previous version and any notes/observations.
- Advance the Stage as trials progress (e.g. Concept → Trial).
3 Record tasting panel feedback
- Edit the dish and switch to the "Tasting Panel" tab.
- Click "Add Panellist" for each taster; enter their scores (Taste/Presentation/Innovation/Value, each /10), whether they would recommend launching, and comments.
- Move the Stage to Panel Review while feedback is being collected, then to Approved or Rejected once a decision is made.
4 Filter, print and manage the pipeline
- Click a stage count in the pipeline strip to filter the list to that stage; click again to clear the filter.
- Use the course filter chips to narrow further by course type.
- Click the printer icon on a dish card to print its full R&D summary sheet, or the trash icon to remove it from the log entirely.
Every Field & Button, Explained
| Field / Button | What it does |
|---|---|
Stage | Concept, Trial, Panel Review, Approved, or Rejected — set manually; also usable as a filter via the pipeline strip. |
Course | One of 10 course types (Amuse-Bouche, Starter, Soup, Fish Course, Main, Cheese, Dessert, Petit Four, Bread, Beverage). |
Est. Food Cost / Target Sell Price | Used to calculate Food Cost % = (Food Cost ÷ Sell Price) × 100 live in the form; both optional but needed for the % to display. |
Allergens | Multi-select from a fixed 14-item list (Gluten, Dairy, Eggs, Nuts, Peanuts, Shellfish, Fish, Soy, Sesame, Sulphites, Celery, Mustard, Lupin, Molluscs). |
Iterations (version, date, changes, notes) | A running log of trial versions for this dish; version numbers auto-increment as you add entries. |
Tasting Panel (panellist, scores, recommend, comments) | One entry per panellist per review round; the average of their four scores is shown per panellist and rolled up as an overall average on the dish card. |
Tips & Best Practices
- Log an iteration every time you change the recipe meaningfully — the printed R&D sheet is much more useful with a clear version history than a single final entry.
- Use the "Recommend Launch" checkbox consistently across panellists so the "X/Y would launch" summary on the card is a meaningful signal, not just an average score.
- Keep Food Cost % in view when deciding whether to approve a dish — a great-tasting dish with a food cost above ~35% may need a recipe or pricing adjustment before launch.