03 / Service
Menu engineering & costing
Every dish on a menu occupies space that could be earning more. Menu engineering decides what each one costs, what it sells for, and whether it has earned its place.
02 / What it covers
- 01
Recipe costing
True per-dish cost at current prices, waste included.
- 02
Food-cost control
Systems that hold the number after you leave.
- 03
Pricing
What each dish should sell for, and why.
- 04
Product optimisation
Fewer, better-chosen ingredients across the menu.
What menu engineering covers
Menu engineering is the practice of costing and structuring a menu so that it sells profitably. It starts with recipe costing — knowing what every dish actually costs to produce, at current prices, including the waste — and moves through pricing, product optimisation and food-cost control.
Done badly it is a cost-cutting exercise that guests notice immediately. Done well it is invisible: the menu reads the same, the kitchen works less hard, and the margin moves.
In practice
Pablo has managed the food-cost side of multi-outlet luxury resort operations, where the same discipline has to hold across restaurants with very different menus, volumes and guest expectations.
The approach treats cost control and culinary quality as one problem rather than two competing ones — which is the only version that survives contact with a kitchen.
04 / Questions
Frequently asked questions
- 01
What is menu engineering?
Menu engineering is the practice of costing and structuring a menu so that it sells profitably. It covers recipe costing, food-cost control, pricing and product optimisation — deciding not only what a kitchen serves, but what each dish costs, what it is priced at, and how it earns its place.
- 02
What kinds of operations does Pablo Arias work with?
Luxury hospitality: resort and hotel restaurants, fine dining, banqueting and multi-outlet properties. His work spans concept relaunches for existing operations as well as new-build openings, including St. Regis Punta Mita and the 2026 opening of St. Regis Costa Mujeres.
05 / Contact
Have a project in mind?
Whether you're opening a new property, developing a restaurant concept, relaunching an existing operation or looking to improve culinary performance, let's talk.