Culinary Consulting
I have stood on the line.
That is why the menu works.
Menu creation, pricing and food cost, and cooking classes, in person or virtual. A consultant who has never plated on a Saturday night will hand you a menu the kitchen cannot execute. I do not.
In person in St. Augustine and the First Coast. Virtual anywhere, in English or Spanish.
What is included
Three things, and they are usually bought together.
A menu without pricing is a wish. Pricing without a team that can cook it is a spreadsheet. They work as one job.
Menu creation
I build the menu around what your kitchen can actually execute on your busiest night, not around what looks good in a photo. Cross use of ingredients, prep that fits your hours, and dishes that hold under pressure.
- Concept
- Cross use
- Prep and stations
- Seasonal rotation
Pricing and food cost
Recipe by recipe costing, plate cost, and the price that leaves you a margin you can live on. Most menus I open have two or three dishes that lose money on every ticket, and nobody knew.
- Plate cost
- Target margin
- Menu engineering
- Waste
Cooking classes
For your staff, so a new hire is useful in days instead of weeks. Or for a private group, in your kitchen or over video. Technique first, recipes second, because technique is what transfers.
- Staff training
- Private groups
- In person
- Virtual
Why me and not a marketing agency
The kitchen and the software are the same conversation.
A restaurant loses money in two places at once: on the plate and on the phone. A food consultant fixes the plate and leaves the phone ringing. An agency fixes the phone and prices the plate wrong.
I do both, and that is not a slogan. The menu I cost is the menu that goes into the ordering system I wire up. The dish you decided to push is the dish the WhatsApp assistant recommends. Nothing gets lost in a handoff, because there is no handoff.
I work with restaurants and caterings in St. Augustine, and the same work runs over video for kitchens anywhere.
What you get back
- A menu your team can execute on the worst night of the week
- Every plate costed, with the margin written next to it
- The dishes that were quietly losing money, named
- Staff that can cook the menu without you standing there
- The option to wire it into ordering and WhatsApp when you are ready
How it goes
Four steps, and you can stop after any of them.
-
We talk, and it is free
Twenty minutes. You tell me what hurts: the margin, the menu, the team, or all three. I tell you if I am the right person. Sometimes I am not, and I say so.
-
I look at the real numbers
Your current menu, your invoices, your ticket average. Not opinions. I need to see what a plate actually costs you before I have anything useful to say.
-
You get the quote
Scope, timeline and price, written down. It depends on the size of the menu and whether you want the classes, so I do not publish a fixed number that would be wrong for you.
-
I do the work, and I train the team
A menu nobody was taught to cook is a document. I stay until the people who cook it can cook it without me.
Culinary consulting is quoted, not priced
A 40 dish menu and a 12 dish menu are not the same job, and neither are a staff training and a private class. Tell me the size of the kitchen and you get a real number, not a range.
Bring me the menu that is not working.
Send it over before we talk if you want. I will have read it by the time we speak, and I will already know which dishes I want to ask about.