Nice People 13: Nice Save

michaels

Generali wrote: »

Not feeling very clever this morning and it's a really humid day too, horrid hangover weather. At least it's only 26C so not too hot. I also managed to drink a litre of water before bed and another litre in the night so no dehydration. :beer: (groan).

Think I might work on 15 dishes for the new business today. Get a menu going. So far I've thought of:

- Thai chicken curry
- Boeuf Bourgignon
- Chicken Cacciatore
- Coq au vin
- Lamb tagine
- Beef daube
- Chicken arrabiata
- Lavender ratatouille
- Vegetable curry
- Aubergine stew with almonds
- Summer pasta (pasta with lemon, herb, peas, a few tomatoes and prawns or bacon)
- Ginger scallops with veg and bacon (not sure if that can be done in budget)
- Prawns in bouillabaisse sauce
- Couple of Indian curries

Thoughts?

The idea would be you can pick 10 for $90 or perhaps 5 for $50. Comes with rice, cous cous and spuds.

These sound nice and normal to me but most UK suppliers would probably be more 'themed' French or whatever and would probably have poncier sounding names for the same stuff - perhaps that sort of pretentiousness is not needed in Aus?

PasturesNew

Generali wrote: »

Think I might work on 15 dishes for the new business today. Get a menu going. So far I've thought of:

- Thai chicken curry
- Boeuf Bourgignon
- Chicken Cacciatore
- Coq au vin
- Lamb tagine
- Beef daube
- Chicken arrabiata
- Lavender ratatouille
- Vegetable curry
- Aubergine stew with almonds
- Summer pasta (pasta with lemon, herb, peas, a few tomatoes and prawns or bacon)
- Ginger scallops with veg and bacon (not sure if that can be done in budget)
- Prawns in bouillabaisse sauce
- Couple of Indian curries

Thoughts?

The idea would be you can pick 10 for $90 or perhaps 5 for $50. Comes with rice, cous cous and spuds.

When I've seen the Hotel Inspector and Gordon Ramsay, looking at failing hotels and failing restaurants, they've usually picked up on menus being too extensive.

Best to, say, work on a set of "similar things" that gives you the least number of core ingredients yet the widest range. Issue hotels/restaurants have is low volumes = waste.

I don't know what half your stuff is
But then I'm not of the "right class of person with the right disposable income" to be in your target market.

lostinrates

Generali wrote: »

Not feeling very clever this morning and it's a really humid day too, horrid hangover weather. At least it's only 26C so not too hot. I also managed to drink a litre of water before bed and another litre in the night so no dehydration. :beer: (groan).

Think I might work on 15 dishes for the new business today. Get a menu going. So far I've thought of:

- Thai chicken curry
- Boeuf Bourgignon
- Chicken Cacciatore
- Coq au vin
- Lamb tagine
- Beef daube
- Chicken arrabiata
- Lavender ratatouille
- Vegetable curry
- Aubergine stew with almonds
- Summer pasta (pasta with lemon, herb, peas, a few tomatoes and prawns or bacon)
- Ginger scallops with veg and bacon (not sure if that can be done in budget)
- Prawns in bouillabaisse sauce
- Couple of Indian curries

Thoughts?

The idea would be you can pick 10 for $90 or perhaps 5 for $50. Comes with rice, cous cous and spuds.

What is already on offer, Have you den your market research looking in shops and markets providing this sort of thing? Seeing what is already on offer ( and popular) and frankly tasting it is a good starting point.

I worked for a while in an abattoir ( relevant to my degree at least) that produced food including for the ready meals market . Not relevant to my degree I once got roped in to this part of the job.....we were market researching for steak sandwiches. ( which meant first of all driving around and looking in every food shops freezers and fridge section, then going to every market in a twenty five mile radius.

I can tell you, no one at that time produced ( or locally stocked ) a frozen steak sandwich.

PasturesNew

michaels wrote: »

If I had the choice of living at 14 degrees or moving in with someone to split the bills I would choose the latter even if I couldn't stand the person....

Really? How bizarre. Other people are annoying - especially if you don't even like them!

lostinrates

PasturesNew wrote: »

When I tried moving it in the boot, it's lying on its back, I couldn't even get a grip/lift it more than a couple of inches at one end

To get it indoors it needs: Lift the whole thing up, almost arm's length, pull it out of the boot, walk it 20' to the gate, through the gate, down the 30' garden of wet/overgrown grass and weeds, in through the patio doors. Once inside I could get it on a rug and drag it to the bottom of the stairs. Then the stairs are narrow and have two turns.

I thought I might cheekily ask next door if her bloke could pop round after work to get it sorted. He's young and big and beefy enough to just lift it up alone. Skinny/tall/young bloke I bought it from lifted it himself from his hallway into my car on his own.

Just needs a fit/strong/tall person. I'm none of those.

Your cheekily asking sounds like best plan. Remember to buy them a box of chocs at Christmas


When I have to move stuff that's to big for me to get my arms round I some times find the technique of putting it on a stout cloth or tarp and dragging the tarp /cloth the most useful technique. You do often have to shuffle the thing on to the cloth in transit, but its easy. Its a sort of a prewheel method, with an honest, basic grunt about it.

vivatifosi

Gen, veggie meals that I get bored of because everyone does them... mushroom risotto (why not a nice primavera instead) and bog standard veg curry (why not a nice veggie Thai curry, with lashings of coconut milk but not fish sauce). I wouldn't go out of my way for a standard veg curry.

Could you also do more with the fab fish that you have available there?

ETA... you need some different side options for the pasta, or too carb heavy.

lostinrates

Generali wrote: »

Not feeling very clever this morning and it's a really humid day too, horrid hangover weather. At least it's only 26C so not too hot. I also managed to drink a litre of water before bed and another litre in the night so no dehydration. :beer: (groan).

Think I might work on 15 dishes for the new business today. Get a menu going. So far I've thought of:

- Thai chicken curry.yum, is the market not saturated there as here? How will you sell it? Tempting Thai chicken curry
- Boeuf Bourgignoni think one of the great things about this is every one knows it but not every one ( thinks) they have time to cook it
- Chicken Cacciatorei'm biased as I dislike this but I always think of it as something that comes in a jar nowadays
- Coq au vinsee beef comment
- Lamb taginesee beef comment
- Beef daubesee previous beef comment
- Chicken arrabiatayep, good useful food.
- Lavender ratatouillegood useful
- Vegetable curry I'd call it come thing other than curry. Identify what sort of curry it could be, or where from. It might be a range you want to expand, and it certainly 'reads' better if sold as something less generic IMO
- Aubergine stew with almondsi love the sound of this, never had it. But want too. Where is the recipe from?
- Summer pasta (pasta with lemon, herb, peas, a few tomatoes and prawns or bacon)yum, and good potential for profit on this item
- Ginger scallops with veg and bacon (not sure if that can be done in budget)and a challenge to reheat/ heat without over cooking scallops?
- Prawns in bouillabaisse sauce
- Couple of Indian currieswhat about mixed plates of curries? A couple of curries and a little dosa or chapati or something? Or geographically themed plates....south Indian meal,

Thoughts?

The idea would be you can pick 10 for $90 or perhaps 5 for $50. Comes with rice, cous cous and spuds.

You food is very international. I'm wondering if that's something to consider as you expand in the future and think about branding to match that: 'tastes of France range' ' tastes of India range'



What are you providing that is missing from the market ATM?

Or What are you doing better / differently than market there ATM?

Some of those sort of choices are available already....bb, pasta, curries. The aubergine, beef daube, I don't think so. Are you trying to be different or better? Or both?

From how you have described obesity epidemic out there I think to cater for your market you might do worse than add a more stodgy comfort food option. A ......pie?

Generali

lostinrates wrote: »

What is already on offer, Have you den your market research looking in shops and markets providing this sort of thing? Seeing what is already on offer ( and popular) and frankly tasting it is a good starting point.

I worked for a while in an abattoir ( relevant to my degree at least) that produced food including for the ready meals market . Not relevant to my degree I once got roped in to this part of the job.....we were market researching for steak sandwiches. ( which meant first of all driving around and looking in every food shops freezers and fridge section, then going to every market in a twenty five mile radius.

I can tell you, no one at that time produced ( or locally stocked ) a frozen steak sandwich.

Frozen ready meals are generally diet food sold through supermarkets or directly delivered by a firm called Lite 'n' Easy.

Prices are similar to what I'm proposing charging and quality and variety is low. That range above is not far short of what a supermarket would stock in its entirety.

PasturesNew

One of the nicest veggie biryanis I ever had was a Potato & Chickpea Biryani. Only ever seen it once, had it once, it was superb.

Aloo Chana Biryani

Generali

lostinrates wrote: »

You food is very international. I'm wondering if that's something to consider as you expand in the future and think about branding to match that: 'tastes of France range' ' tastes of India range'



What are you providing that is missing from the market ATM?

Or What are you doing better / differently than market there ATM?

Some of those sort of choices are available already....bb, pasta, curries. The aubergine, beef daube, I don't think so. Are you trying to be different or better? Or both?

From how you have described obesity epidemic out there I think to cater for your market you might do worse than add a more stodgy comfort food option. A ......pie?

Aussie food tends to be international as a result of us being a nation of immigrants.

What I am providing is greater choice at a higher quality than is currently available.

Curry is widely available although poor quality, pasta is quite available and sometimes the quality is ok. Things like the stews and tagines aren't very available.

I want the brand to be healthy food. Obesity is very much a class issue in Australia. If you lined up the ~150 people on the floor I work on and the one below you'd find 1-2 obese people (think it's 1 but there is an overweight woman who might just scrape in). I don't think any of them smoke.

If you go to Plumpton (I kid ye not) shopping centre about 20-30% smoke and easily 50% are obese.

I'm aiming at a middle class market which means healthy.