Cost Controls: Restaurant Manager's Pocket Handbook Series

My cherished copy was ruined by a zealous employee who went wild with a highlighter. But there are a lot of good points that deserve to be highlighted and remembered. I really like this book as an introduction to menu design. Having dealt with the owners and managers of several thousand independent restaurants, I know most of them don't know or practice everything that is explained in this book. I want all the designers, sales people and customer service people at Menu Works to read this and be thoroughly familiar with all the concepts. (Menu Works is the menu design company I own in South Carolina.) It is a quick read, with review questions after each chapter. It was written by a college professor with food service management experience and possibly intended for use as a textbook. Menu design is a very visual process, however. The major drawback is the lack of illustrations. For this drawback I deducted one star.

This book is a quick and easy guide to cutting food costs in the restaurant business. More than anything else it makes you think of ideas to make your own business more profitable. This is a book that you will want to assign to your entire kitchen staff.