‘Lots of people work in restaurants and it is an important job.
We have just set up a new cafe. It's the
It's a cafe for families who want to eat healthily but with a twist.
• Customers can choose the part of the world they want their menu to come from, and;
• Customers can choose the period in history they want the food prepared in.
Wow, what a challenge.
Your job is to creae a 'Specials menu'. You can choose any place in the world for food style, and any time period. Here are some suggestions: The 50 US states; Ancient Egyptians; Romans; Hebrews; Maya and Aztec (rainforest peoples); Pueblo and Mexicans; Pilgrims; Modern Italian; Modern Greek; Victorian; Cowboy or Gold Rush; World War II at home; Traditional Chinese or other SE Asian country; India: Modern Middle East and North Africa; Sub-saharan Africa; Modern German; Modern British; Modern French, Modern Spanish/Portuguese; (or something else - but you must label it clearly).
So at least one of our specials has to be a signature dish from one of the places listed above, or one of the 50 states.
We aim to change our specials weekly.
You have a well-stocked pantry, refrigerators (but NO freezers), and a good team of chefs. But they are relying on you to make an attractive menu that will bring in the customers, who will have a good time, sometimes be surprised, and who will tell others about it.
You must make a menu that servers will be proud to show to their customers when they are seated. It's a simple rule of business: happy customers mean a full restaurant and good profits. So everyone wins.
You may wish to do a menu for adults and a separate one for kids. Or just one for kids, or just one for all. It's up to you.
But now it is up to you to think up a new menu each week. It will be a juggling act. The rules are:
Nutrition
for adults (2000 kcalories a day)
Breakfast - no more than 400 kcalories
Lunch - no more than 600 kcalories
Dinner - no more than 1000 kcalories
Meaning that if someone ate their whole day's meal in your restaurant they would be within the daily recommended nutrition levels, and this would help them to be healthy and enjoy their food.
You must also NOT exceed the recommended calorie, salt, fat, and cholesterol levels for a person per day, and you should get as close as possible to, or above, the required vitamin levels.
So get to it. Print or download the menu templates from the teacher resources area (there are several designs to give you ideas. You can use one of them, or choose your own) and start making choices.
You must put the nutrition value against each food. Find that from the cards on the main page. To reduce the calories etc., serve smaller portions.
Hints: You could be very boring and give your customers nothing but a burger for each meal. But your servers would hate you for it. Furthermore, a regular burger 3 times a day would exceed the nutrition limits for the day, so that would be a failed menu. See: it's not that easy...
Oh yes, and one other thing. The left hand side of the specials menu (or a part of the place-setting menu if you choose that) is for you to describe some aspect of the place your food comes from, or something about its history that explains why the dish is a signature dish, or something about the town where they might be eating. Interesting facts like these (perhaps turned into a crossword or other game) keep a customer reading while they wait for their food. And it becomes a talking point. Or perhaps tell a story, or some historical event or what the place was like in the past. Just be creative and interesting. You can find some of the signature dishes from the books here, and also by searching for a country or US state using our safe, internal search. There is a ton of stuff as background without the need to go anywhere else.
Good luck.
PS We will be adding more foods (cards) weekly, and more backgrounds to menus, so your menu can be more inventive as time goes by.