Remember that restaurant you crossed off your list; the one with minuscule appetisers and bite-sized mains? Delicious, of course, but served in portions too tiny to make an impression, and more often than not, too light on everything but your pocket. There is something irksome about unsatisfactory portion sizes, and like its ambience, theme, cuisine and service, a restaurant’s serving sizes can certainly affect its popularity.
After all, a big part of our dining experience is shaped by how much we are served, and while, as diners, we might only wonder about portion sizes when a glorious hit or a glaring miss calls our attention to them, restaurant owners and chefs take this aspect very seriously. Combining science and instinct, they arrive at decisions that are in part universal and in part custom-designed for their own brand of service, cuisine and target customers. Every method is different, tweaked to suit the owner’s own vision and approach.
Chef Noah Barnes explains the technique he uses to determine portion sizes at the restaurants he works with – Ploof, Hungry Monkey and Tabula Beach Cafe. While the cuisine at each restaurant is starkly different, Noah says that he has a fixed thumb rule when it comes to portion sizes. “An average human being cannot eat more than 500 grams in one meal. So, according to the norm, appetisers should not go more than 120 grams and main course should not exceed 250 grams. Some do though, and go up to 280 to 300 grams. Dessert should be 100 grams. So, in total, if you have three courses, the total count is roughly 500 grams.”
These numbers come back, with slight variations, when Manu Chandra, Chef-Partner, The Fatty Bao, Monkey Bar and Toast & Tonic and Executive Chef, Olive Beach, Bangalore, explains his methods. “The portions depend upon the preparation. For example, a curry will not be the same as a Western main course. For Western preparations, the rule of thumb is, 150 grams of protein for a fish dish, 200 grams for meat. But then, in a curry, the gamut changes. There are other ingredients, the dish is heavier and it is served with rice. So there, we make it 120 grams. Similarly, when I serve sushi, I cannot serve that amount of protein. The style of preparation is different; it is in thin slivers, chopped up, and also, of course, a lot more expensive. In dimsum, the stuffing also includes other ingredients, the portions are different, and we keep it to about 110 grams protein along with everything else,” says Manu.
So, really, the portions are in part determined by a rough estimate of how much we can eat, and for many chefs and restaurant owners, also by how we eat. Of course, individual appetites vary, and so do habits. Some of us prefer individual plates, while others prefer a kind of community eating each-one-take-some approach. In the face of this fluidity, Chefs tend to generalise a little, in order to cater to the preferences of the most number of people they can. Celebrity chef and restaurateur Kunal Kapoor elaborates on this fluidity of portion sizing and how it is now tied up with the target customer base of a restaurant, adding that the idea of the fixed quantity and grams to serve for each course is now applicable for a few restaurants, while others are changing things. “It is the concept that drives the menu. If I am doing a fine-dine, themed menu, where I serve starters, mains and desserts, then I will probably use that quantity,” he says, the general assumption that people visiting these places tend to opt for individual plates, and dine in separate courses. “But if I’m working with a nice cafe, it’s a place where people usually want to come and try a range of things, maybe share. So they’ll order a bruschetta, maybe a little bit of chicken tikka, a nice grilled, this and that. So instead of making each dish large, I might just make it 70 or 80 grams, price it cheaper, make it smaller, and let them have a taste of everything.” Kapoor adds that nothing, really, is right or wrong, and instead, each decision is a part of the process that ties in with the overall concept of the restaurant.
This fluidity, a result of changing preferences and style of dining, finds echo in Chef Noah’s approach too. “One of the only things I keep in mind while designing the menu is that a lot of people, at least in Delhi and Bombay, are beginning to share food, instead of ordering individual plates, at least when it comes to starters.” So, Noah designs his portions with the same overall size, but presents them in smaller pieces, giving diners the opportunity to share. “If I am doing a crostini, I will put four smaller pieces of it, instead of just one big one.” The price points for smaller plates, he adds, are adjusted in a way that it becomes possible to order many dishes, share, and not let things feel too heavy on your pocket.
Saurabh Khanijo, Managing Director at Kylin, also talks about determining portions and serving styles as per the concept of the restaurant. As the brand turns 11 this year, Kylin has now opened several types of outlets, including Kylin Premier, Go Skylin and Kylin Express. “Kylin Premier is a fine dining family restaurant, so we do the portioning from a family point of view. In the bars and lounges, the idea is to serve pre-plated dishes. The way you design your concept is also how you design the serving portions.” Khanijo adds that ultimately, the portions have to work out as value for money for the customers. “If it is a high end dining place, we price dishes accordingly, as we do if it is a quick bites kind of place.”
The pricing, of course, is a very important part of what determines portion sizes. “While planning a menu, you need to work with what I call an inverted pyramid. You need to strike a balance between many different things – flavours, nutrition, availability, pricing – and boil down from a wider spectrum to reach the goal, which is your menu. The idea is to become smart, and for a lot of restaurant is all about revisiting menu every six months. There is also something called menu engineering, where you look at a particular dish and its cost, profitability and how much you sell. Then see what you want to keep on the menu”. Of course, pricing is equally important for guests, who are immediately wary of a tiny sliver of a dish on a plate, and a long string of numbers on the bill. Even diners not aware of price points, cost per-heads and other technical know-how can easily spot a case of over-pricing and under-serving.
And after all, it all comes back to the guests, and along with prices, successful restaurants pay close attention to guest feedback and reactions, letting it play an important role towards shaping their menu. In the case of Chef Vineet, who heads Asia Seven, the target customer base determines not just the kinds of dishes, but to a certain extent, the portions too. “For Corporate guests, we have to have a buffet, and for our a la carte choices, we usually start with smaller portions and build up to bigger mains.” Observing his health conscious guests, Chef Vineet has also started a ‘good for you’ health section in his menu, which serves light dishes and lists out the calories and nutrients each of those dishes contain.
As Chef Vineet mentions, buffets feature as a big part of dining out too. Chef Akhilesh at Fresc Co, popular especially for its buffets, tells us of how buffets are sized. “The standard practice at every buffet serving restaurant is to use a GN pan. These pans are made of acrylic and glass or ceramic. Each pan can serve 10 to 12 people. At Fresc Co, we fill them half way and keep refilling them with fresh preparations.”
With every restaurant, the story changes a little, and in some case, the menu and portion sizes are entirely tied up with the theme and vision of the restaurant, the crowd it attracts, and the kind of service it promises. “Together, each of these plays a role in shaping a restaurant. As for the food itself, every aspect of it adds to this concept— the food, the portions, the crockery, the colours of the dish,” sums up Chef Noah.
