You are ready to introduce your plant-based menu and would you like to test it, in order to validate its appeal with your current and prospective customers? The Institut de la Gastronomie Végétale can assist you during this launch phase, facilitating discussions with your teams and providing you with areas for improvement.
Enhancing your Food and Beverage (F&B) Strategy
Seeking guidance in developing your plant-based offering provides an external perspective that encourages taking a step back first of all.
It’s then an opportunity to receive personalized advice and recommendations on the strategy to pursue. The introduction of a new offering always highlights the existing options and provides fresh dynamics into all F&B services.
Above all, this exercise confirms that the culinary teams have a solid understanding of the theme and are heading in the right direction. It boosts their confidence, unveiling new creative ideas while saving valuable time.
Benefit from a personalized and progressive approach
The support for the launch of a plant-based menu is carried out in several stages, which can be tailored to fit the project.
Discussion with the Chef and the culinary teams
The first phase involves a discussion with the Chef to understand the goals of the new menu, the target customers, creative desires, organizational possibilities, and more. This phase also involves getting to know the culinary team and anyone else within the company involved in the project to gain a comprehensive understanding of the working environment.
Analysis of the existing culinary offering
If there are already vegetarian and/or plant-based offerings in place, it’s important to identify and assess them to have an overall view of what is being proposed. These offerings can likely be improved upon, and initial trials help define areas for development.
Plant-Based menu tasting
The next phase involves tasting the menu in a real setting, simulating the experience of a future customer. During this step, the objective is to confirm the menu’s coherence and provide recommendations to the Chef to refine the details.
This pilot tasting also provides an opportunity to take photos of the experience and gradually share them on social media to gauge customer interest. This way, the establishment can leverage our network to start promoting its offering.
Photo Credit : Karine Castro (Conrad Algarve)
Exploring new brands
Through conversations with the Chef and his team, we delve into their challenges, needs and ideas. This exchange is crucial to provide them with resources tailored to their culinary project. During this phase, we can curate a selection of product brands, enabling the Chef to explore innovative ingredients.
Communicating the plant-based menu
From the initial trials, we assist the client in sharing the information through social media. This step is important for gauging customer interest. However, it’s important to ensure that the offering is ready for deployment to be able to respond to the initial demand.
An in-depth understanding of the menu and the Chef’s intentions will help craft the story to be told and determine the messages to convey.
At Institut de la Gastronomie Végétale, we collaborate with the Marketing teams to develop and support the communication plan related to the plant-based offering.
Photo Credit : Karine Castro (Conrad Algarve)
Highlighting the company’s values
Beyond the Chef’s and culinary teams’ creative interest, the plant-based menu must align with the company’s engagements and values.
For hotel or restaurant Groups, this involves ensuring the project’s coherence with the Management teams and confirming its alignment with the company’s decisions.
The plant-based offering can thus be part of the Corporate Social Responsibility strategy and contribute to sustainability goals.
Launching a new plant-based offering requires careful consideration and time to define the necessary development steps and integrate your proposal into an overarching and coherent approach.
We are here to guide you through this creative process!
