Step #3: Applying Menu Planning Ideas (Page 2)

Lunch

The following factors are important to consider when planning lunch menus.

1) Speed. Like breakfast, the family is usually in a hurry. They must be prepared quickly and be easy to serve and eat. Sandwiches, soups, and salads are important items on many lunch menus.

2) Simplicity. Menu selections are fewer, and we serve fewer courses. In many cases, it is only one course such as soup and a sandwich or omelet and salad. This satisfies the need for simplicity and speed.

3) Variety. In spite of the simplicity of the menu, we must have variety.

Dinner

Dinner is usually the main meal and we eat in a more leisurely fashion than either breakfast or lunch. Of course, some families are in the hurry too, but in general people come home to relax over a substantial meal.

Building the Menu

A course is a food or group of foods served at one time or you intend to eat at the same time. Most of the time, you put the courses on the table at once – appetizer, salad, main dish and side dishes, and desserts, for example – but will eat them in a particular order.

Modern menus: courses and arrangement

The main dish is the centerpiece of the modern meal. If the meal consists of only one dish, it is considered the main course, even if it a salad or a bowl of soup. You may serve one or more dishes before the main dish. These are usually light in character, so that you are not full before the main course.

You may serve the salads either before or after the main course (but not both). In more traditional meals, they are served after the main course to refresh the appetite before dessert. Servings the salad before the main course is a comparatively recent development.

Variety and balance

Balancing a menu means providing enough variety and contrast so that the meal holds interest from the first course to the last. To balance a menu, you must develop a feeling for which foods complement each other or provide pleasing contrast. And you must avoid repeating flavors and textures as much as possible.

1) Flavors: Don’t repeat flavors with the same or similar tastes. This applies to any predominate flavors, whether of the main ingredients, of the spices, of the sauce, and so on. For example:

• a) Don’t serve broiled tomato halves with the main dish if the appetizer has a tomato sauce.
• b) Don’t serve a spicy, garlicky appetizer and a spicy, garlicky main dish. On the other hand, don’t make everything too bland.

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