Summer menu engineering: the art of making customers sweat

Beyond flavour: turning every menu item into a strategic success driver

Il Team Giubilesi & Associati per la Rivista APCI 

We are on the threshold of summer! That wonderful season when customers arrive at the restaurant already exhausted by the heat, with the sole desire to spend as little as possible on a plain, undressed salad. But chefs, bold strategists of flavour, know that with the right menu engineering techniques they can transform even the most frugal summer diner into an enthusiastic taster of gastronomic experiences. And, incidentally, make the numbers work.

The Psychology of the Heat-Stressed Customer

Let us start from an undeniable fact: the summer customer is a peculiar creature. They enter your restaurant with a forehead beaded with sweat and only one thought in mind—drinking something cool. This is your moment of glory. A dehydrated customer is extraordinarily vulnerable to the power of suggestion.

First tip: strategically place a signature cocktail in the upper-right section of the menu (the area of first visual impact) with an evocative name such as “Sea Breeze” or “Oasis of Freshness”. The price? Certainly not the €4 it costs you to prepare it, but a more respectable €12. After all, you are not selling just a drink, but a refreshing experience. Add a poetic description including words such as “thirst-quenching”, “revitalising” and “artisanal”—the latter, in particular, justifies almost any price increase.

The Exotic Ingredient Strategy (But Not Too Exotic)

Another cornerstone of summer menu engineering is the use of the “wow” ingredient. I am not referring to truffles or caviar—let us leave those to winter menus, when customers are more inclined to spend in order to comfort themselves from the cold. In summer, the ideal “wow” ingredient is something that sounds exotic but is, in reality, incredibly inexpensive.

Take sea fennel, for example. It costs very little and grows almost everywhere along the coast, yet when listed on the menu as “Wild Coastal Herb” it works wonders. Or consider the oxheart tomato: rename it “Ancestral Tomato Grown According to Tradition” and the trick is done. Your tomato pasta dish, with its minimal food cost, suddenly becomes a “Tribute to Mediterranean Tradition” with a completely different perceived value—and price. As an old Sicilian chef once told me: “Never sell the fish alone to the customer—sell them the sea it comes from as well.”

The Pavesic Matrix Revisited for Summer

We are all familiar with David Pavesic’s classic matrix for classifying dishes: stars (high popularity, high margin), cash cows (high popularity, low margin), puzzles (low popularity, high margin) and dogs (low popularity, low margin). But in summer, the rules change.

Dishes you would normally consider “dogs” can become surprisingly popular. An example? Cucumber salad—yes, that salad no one would order in winter even under torture. In summer, with the right positioning and an appealing description (“Crisp Cucumbers in Aromatic Emulsion”), it can become a true star, with a ridiculously low food cost and a price that will make you smile.

Digital menus are an exceptional tool for optimising summer menu engineering strategies, and their potential goes far beyond simply saving on printing costs:

• The ability to rapidly update availability and prices based on sales performance;
• Real-time analysis of customer preferences;
• The possibility of A/B testing different menu configurations.

Data collected from a recent study on purchasing behaviour show that customers tend to order the first 2–3 items displayed in each category. A well-designed digital menu can help you strategically position high-margin dishes in these privileged spots.

In one documented case study, a simple change in the order of dish presentation led to a 14% increase in average margin per table. As I often say: “In the summer digital menu, whoever comes first rarely cries!”

The Language That Sells: The Psychology of Descriptions

Dish descriptions are fundamental in menu engineering, but in summer certain words have an almost magnetic power. Neurolinguistic research applied to food service has identified particularly effective terms:

Refreshing: increases perceived appeal by up to 23%;
Light: especially effective for main courses (+18% conversion rate);
Seasonal: enhances the perception of quality and freshness;
Local / Km 0: amplifies perceived value, particularly for tourists;
Crispy: evokes positive tactile sensations associated with freshness.

At the same time, some terms can be counterproductive during the hot season. An experiment conducted across 40 randomly selected restaurants in Italy showed that removing words such as “hot”, “comforting” or “rich” from summer descriptions increased sales of those dishes by 12%. In short, even words “sweat” in summer!

Seasonal Upselling Strategies

One particularly effective summer technique is what I call the “extended menu”: a relatively concise main menu, complemented by daily specials presented verbally by the service staff.

Front-of-house staff should be trained to present these offerings not as simple dishes, but as time-limited experiences: “Only this week, the chef has personally selected figs from farmer Bianchi to create…”. The FOMO effect (Fear Of Missing Out) is a powerful purchasing motivator, especially effective with holidaymakers. As an old saying in hospitality goes: “A good dish sells itself, an excellent dish is sold by the waiter!”

Effective menu engineering is not merely about maximising margins, but about creating a win-win equation between restaurateur and customer. The ultimate goal remains the same: ensuring that the customer leaves the restaurant satisfied (and talks about it to many others), with the feeling of having enjoyed an experience whose value matches the price paid.

A satisfied customer will not only return, but will become an ambassador for your establishment—and we all know the value of positive word of mouth in the age of social media and online reviews. After all, the best menu engineering is the one that brings customers back.

Remember: in summer you are not just selling food, but an experience of freshness, lightness and seasonality that will become part of your guests’ holiday memories. And memories, as we know, have no price… or rather, they have exactly the price you have strategically set in your menu!

Have a great summer and good work to everyone—with just the right amount of “sweat” in your words!