All of us enjoy dining out or ordering in. The beautifully plated dishes, the aromas that linger, and the overall convenience make it one of our favorite indulgences. However, behind the ambient glow of the dining room, or the glistening pictures on a food delivery app lies a complex and sophisticated multi-billion dollar industry rooted in psychology, chemistry, and profit margins.
Restaurants are a business, and like all businesses, the ultimate goal is to maximize profit. This means there are countless subtle, psychological and chemical methods designed to encourage you to choose the certain items, eat more and pay more than you ever intended.
Here are the hidden secrets of the food industry that restaurants would probably prefer you didn't know:
1. The Psychology of Menu Design (Menu Engineering)
Far from a simple list of food options, your menu has been intricately engineered to guide your eyes and your wallet.
The "Golden Triangle" - as you open the menu, your eyes will automatically be drawn to the top center, then top right and top left of the page.Restaurants make sure to feature their highest profit margin dishes in these areas.
The Decoy Effect - Have you ever seen a particularly extortionately priced dish on a menu such as an ultimate sea platter? Such high-priced items serve as decoys – the steak on the same page seems like an incredibly reasonable buy in comparison.
Elimination of Currency Symbols - Many modern menus get rid of their symbols, e.g $ and leave the numbers completely bare. Psychologically, when the brain sees money being spent, it brings forth the feeling of the pain of paying – removing the currency symbol is an effective way to hide the reality of the price.
Descriptive Blurb - The language that you read on your menu is another factor designed to increase profit margins, through the illusion that your food is somehow of a better quality than your home-cooked meal. Something that is branded as "Grandma's Homemade Recipe Traditional Lentil Soup" just looks and tastes better in the brain of a customer then "Lentil Soup", no matter that it came from the exact same industrial process and packet of industrial lentil beans.
2. Taste Over Health – The Holy Trinity of Commercial Cooking
The reason that food in restaurants often appears to have more taste than our homemade meals isn't necessarily due to superior skill. Instead, restaurants will overload it with Fat, Sugar and Salt.
To ensure that customers want to come back and eat again and that the meal is addicting, restaurants will add massive quantities of butter, cream, heavy oils and sodium, in ways which would make most people wince, if they witnessed their portion sizes being measured out. Sodium acts as an additive that enhances flavor immensely and will then lead to increased thirst, subsequently boosting beverage and alcohol sales which have the largest profit margin. Furthermore, many pre-packaged sauces, dressings and marinades will be full of hidden sugars and preservatives, which help to cut down preparation times between meals and serve as a great base that all orders of the same item can be based on.
3. The Illusion of "Fresh" and "Homemade"
The word 'fresh' is actually one of the least regulated words that you can find on food packaging.
The Frozen Reality - A lot of the food served to you in a mid-tier restaurant often arrives at the premises already chopped, prepared or pre-cooked in plastic bags, having been sent directly to restaurant from huge central food distribution centers. These meals can often be seen to be put straight into the microwave to warm up or are cooked again and again (e.g. Chips and chicken nuggets) after being brought straight from the freezer.
Soup of the day - It is industry folklore that a lot of these are a brilliant way to use up foods which are nearing their expiry date before being wasted.
Seafood Fraud - Most customers will never know as, with sauces and seasonings placed on top and within the dish it is incredibly difficult to distinguish between high quality fish such as red snapper, and similar species of lower grade, such as carp in the United States and cod or pollock, in the United Kingdom.
4. Subtle Environmental Manipulation
If you dine in a restaurant, the whole dining environment has been carefully orchestrated to influence you.
Fast Tempo vs. Slow Tempo – restaurants using high-tempo music and bright lighting have their meals prepped and served much quicker and it will increase the turnover of customers, however at upscale restaurants it tends to be low lighting and softer music which encourages diners to sit there and continue eating and ordering more.
The Free Bread Basket – the complimentary bread and chips that are put down at the start of your meal may seem like a kind gesture, however, carbohydrates cause an increase in insulin and glucose which means that the level suddenly drops and you will find that you will feel much hungrier by the time the meals have arrived for you.
