Editorial: Menu Dichotomy

The same menu can offer healthful fare and high-fat food, if that’s what customers want.

By Mary Boltz Chapman, Editor-in-Chief -- Chain Leader, 4/1/2007

This week I attended a National Pork Board event where I cooked carnitas tacos with Chef Frank Scibelli, who owns Mama Ricotta’s, an Italian restaurant, and Cantina 1511, a Mexican restaurant, in Charlotte, N.C. He enthusiastically explained to me how he cooked the pork butt for almost two hours in plenty of lard and savory ingredients. After we chopped some produce (including radishes!) for pico de gallo and pureed others for a smooth avocado-tomatillo sauce, he cooked tortillas with some of the cooking oil on a hot skillet and we assembled the tacos. Makes my mouth water just thinking about it.

After lunch, we asked the five chefs in attendance about the dishes they prepared and their menus back at work. Scibelli said his customers at both restaurants are looking for lighter, healthier items.

Going Both Ways

Scibelli is not alone in wanting to give customers what they say they want, i.e. healthier food, at the same time he indulges their desire for decadence with dishes like that artery-clogging but tasty carnitas taco. Since the days of the hamburger patty served with a scoop of cottage cheese in a canned peach half, restaurant operators have been trying to offer "diet" fare, even if they don’t sell a lot of it.

Today the buzz is about trans fats, of course, and not a week goes by that I don’t get at least one press release from a chain that’s made the big switch. Fast-food chains in Australia met in March to join forces in lowering trans fats on their menus. They were spurred on by the government, as were many of American chains’ efforts.

On the other hand, you can pile on the patties at Burger King or swirl a tremendous portion of fettuccine Alfredo at Olive Garden. An entrepreneur in Tempe, Ariz., is selling 8,000 calorie hamburgers at his Heart Attack Grill, which touts a "taste worth dying for."

To Tell the Truth

It’s not the government’s place to ban trans fats or foie gras. I wish our industry had more control over that, and that more representatives of our industry would lobby local, state and national politicians.

But you must be honest with customers and give them what they want, including information about what they’re eating. Go to the menu page of Hardee’s Web site. Right after the giant hamburger lands at the bottom of your screen, look to the right. There, you’ll find a link to the chain’s nutrition information.

Will the same customer who buys the Jalapeno Thickburger look up its calorie count (840) or its level of sodium (1690 mg)? Probably not. But the person ordering the Charbroiled Chicken Sandwich might.

Proudly serve large portions of meat dripping with its own juices and sugary desserts with enough calories for half a day. Or offer crisp, fresh vegetables tossed with vinaigrette. Or both. Just make sure your menu matches your brand, its mission and what your customers want.