Chapter 10 — Quiz

Twenty-four self-check questions. Answer from memory first; the key is collapsed at the bottom.

Multiple choice

1. A menu performs five jobs at once. Which two of them together set prime cost? - (a) sales and brand - (b) purchasing and labor - (c) production and brand - (d) sales and production

2. Cross-utilization is best described as: - (a) using cheaper ingredients to lower food cost - (b) designing the menu so each purchased ingredient reaches several items, including its trim - (c) running the same dish on lunch and dinner menus - (d) buying from a single prime vendor

3. Bellwether's dinner menu carries how many food items? - (a) 14 - (b) 22 - (c) 31 - (d) 40

4. The Hearth Chicken is priced at: - (a) \$26 - (b) \$29 - (c) \$32 - (d) \$36

5. The chapter estimates the identifiable non-ingredient annual cost of one added item selling nine a week at approximately: - (a) \$480 - (b) \$1,240 - (c) \$3,020 - (d) \$9,600

6. That figure works out to roughly how much per plate? - (a) \$0.65 - (b) \$2.10 - (c) \$6.45 - (d) \$14.20

7. Bellwether's burger and hand-cut pasta were deliberately built to fire off the hearth. This is primarily a decision about: - (a) flavor - (b) food cost - (c) throughput capacity at peak - (d) brand positioning

8. Peak fire utilization at 95 covers is estimated at about: - (a) 41% - (b) 68% - (c) 88% - (d) 103%

9. Which item does the chapter name as the single biggest throughput risk on the menu? - (a) the dry-aged ribeye - (b) the hearth flatbread - (c) the hand-cut pasta - (d) the chicken liver mousse

10. A standardized recipe card, as the chapter defines it, contains all of the following EXCEPT: - (a) portions stated in weights - (b) a hold and reheat instruction - (c) the plate cost and food cost percentage - (d) a description of what correct looks like

11. The "golden triangle" is best characterized as: - (a) a well-replicated finding from eye-tracking research - (b) a widely repeated claim that cannot be traced to accessible evidence - (c) a legal requirement in most jurisdictions - (d) a technique for pricing entrées

12. Bellwether's dinner check is \$46.00. Its food component is: - (a) \$28.40 - (b) \$33.12 - (c) \$36.80 - (d) \$41.00

13. The weighted average entrée price on Bellwether's menu is: - (a) \$26.50 - (b) \$28.50 - (c) \$29.00 - (d) \$31.25

14. The chapter's stated reason for placing the signature dish first in its panel is: - (a) research shows the position lifts sales by a measurable percentage - (b) it costs nothing, does no harm, the item deserves it, and if the effect is real you capture it - (c) menus must be sorted by popularity - (d) point-of-sale systems require it

15. Bellwether changes its printed menu substantially: - (a) every week - (b) monthly - (c) four times a year - (d) once a year

16. The brunch menu introduces how many genuinely new ingredient families? - (a) none - (b) three — eggs, bacon, yogurt - (c) nine - (d) fourteen

17. Under the FDA Food Code framework referenced in the chapter, the par-roasted Hearth Chicken must reach what internal temperature at the finish? - (a) 135°F - (b) 145°F - (c) 155°F - (d) 165°F

18. The chapter says the largest cost of an additional menu item is missing from its own calculation. What is it? - (a) the ingredient cost - (b) what the item does to ticket times at peak - (c) the menu reprint - (d) the health permit

Short answer

19. Bellwether's poultry program turns one delivery into five menu items. Name them.

20. A restaurant's entrée attachment is 0.90, its starter attachment 0.45 at a \$12.00 average, and its dessert attachment 0.15 at a \$10.80 average, producing \$33.12 of food per cover. Work backward: what must the weighted average entrée price be?

21. State the three filters an item must pass to reach a menu, in order, and explain why the order matters.

22. Explain, in two sentences, why a menu that is expensive to reprint raises food cost even though the printing itself is a marketing expense.

23. Give two operational reasons — not psychological ones — to keep item count low.

24. Bellwether's ribeye is \$46, ten dollars clear of the next entrée. Give the anchoring explanation for why it is there, and then give the explanation that does not require anchoring to be true.

Answer key **1.** (b) — purchasing sets cost of goods sold; the labor model sets labor. Together they are prime cost, and the menu sets both before anyone is hired. **2.** (b) **3.** (b) — 22: eight to start, eight mains, three sides, three desserts. **4.** (b) — \$29. **5.** (c) — \$3,020: \$2,058 prep labor + \$728 spoilage + \$82 ordering and counting + \$152 training. **6.** (c) — \$3,020 ÷ 468 units a year = \$6.45. **7.** (c) — the two items are 24% of entrée orders and moving them off the fire is worth about twenty fire actions a night. **8.** (b) — about 30.7 fire actions an hour against a practical ceiling of roughly 45. **9.** (b) — the flatbread: it is a starter competing with entrée fire at peak, and it has real upside variance because it is cheap and shareable. **10.** (c) — the recipe carries no money. The cost card, which is Chapter 11's document, does. **11.** (b) **12.** (b) — \$33.12 food and \$12.88 beverage, the frozen 72/28 mix. **13.** (c) — \$29.00. The *median* is \$28.50; the two nearly agreeing is a sign of a healthy ladder. **14.** (b) **15.** (c) — four seasonal rebuilds, plus a weekly reprint that changes the date and allows a price to move. **16.** (b) **17.** (d) — 165°F for poultry. The par-roast is deliberately taken only to 145°F so the finish does real work. Local adoption of the Food Code varies; verify your own jurisdiction. **18.** (b) **19.** Hearth chicken (the halves) · chicken liver mousse (the livers) · stock, which bases the pasta sugo and the brunch sausage gravy · hearth potatoes, flatbread, and brunch hash (the rendered fat) · Sunday's chicken hash (Saturday's unsold halves). **20.** Starters contribute $0.45 \times \$12.00 = \$5.40$ and desserts $0.15 \times \$10.80 = \$1.62$, totaling \$7.02. So entrées must contribute $\$33.12 - \$7.02 = \$26.10$, and $\$26.10 \div 0.90 = \mathbf{\$29.00}$. **21.** Concept fit, then skill fit, then equipment fit. The order matters because an item that does not belong to this restaurant should never consume a minute of argument about whether the equipment could produce it — you would be optimizing a decision you have already lost. **22.** A menu that is expensive to reprint is one you postpone reprinting, so prices stay where they were set while ingredient costs move underneath them. That delay is Chapter 1's cost drift arriving through a design decision — the menu did not raise your food cost, it made it inconvenient to lower. **23.** Any two of: slower inventory turnover and therefore more spoilage; more prep tasks competing for the same morning; more fire or station actions at peak, lengthening ticket times; more items for staff to learn and describe; more lines on the order guide and the count sheet; and a noisier sales signal that makes menu analysis take longer to say anything. **24.** *Anchoring:* an extreme price shapes judgment of every subsequent price, so a \$46 item makes \$29 read as moderate. *Without anchoring:* the celebration occasion is 30% of covers at a \$57 per-person average and the destination guest another 10% at \$50; both want a large steak to exist, and the item sells five or six a night to people who came for it. Design so you win either way.