ABSTRACT
Menu analysis, of which menu engineering is a part, is arguably one of those areas of hospitality – and specifically food and beverage – management that lends the field a set of distinctive adapted techniques to aid management action. In introducing the topic to this new edition of Strategic Questions in Food and Beverage Management no assumption has been made as to readers’ prior knowledge and an effort is made to spell out the basics of the main techniques in question as well as offering a critique of the same. The conclusions reached will not provide very much comfort to those who are familiar with the area for, in essence, the argument presented is that most techniques of menu analysis take the proverbial hammer to crack a nut, and any utility they may have in offering insights is only slightly in advance of experience and intuition.
