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Adding a Dish to Your Menu
Adding a Dish to Your Menu
Updated over a week ago

There are two ways to add new dishes to your menu

  • Build a dish from scratch: You provide a picture you have taken of your dish that follows our food photography guidelines as well as all of the details of your dish (ingredients, description, allergens, etc.)

  • Build a dish from a template: Search our dish database for menu items that already include a picture and an example of the dish details that you edit to match your dish. If you do not have a photo ready for your dish, we highly recommend using templates to build your menu and provide your own pictures later on.

How to add a dish to your menu from scratch

  1. Go to the "My Menu" page on your Shef Dashboard.

  2. Click the "Add New Dish" button.

  3. Click "Build a dish from scratch".

  4. The dish builder will step you through the creation process. Include as much information as you can about your dish. This is your chance to grab your customer's attention and provide dietary details so your customers know what ingredients and potential allergens are in the dish.

  5. The last step is to upload a photo of your dish. When you're done, click "Finish" and your new dish will be sent to our menu team for review.

After submitting your new dish, our menu team will edit your food photo, placing your dish of food onto one of our menu item backgrounds and will review all of the details of your dish. Make sure you follow our food photography guidelines and include as many details about your dish as possible to speed up the review process.

We review most new dish submissions within 3-5 days, but this time can vary depending on our volume of menu submissions. Our team will reach out to you by email if we have any questions about the dish. You can also view any questions our menu team has left for you by clicking the "Edit dish" text next to the dish on your menu, and then clicking the "Comment" button in the top right corner of the dish builder. You can edit the dish to address our questions, or respond to us in the comment window and we'll take care of it for you.


How to add a dish to your menu from a template

  1. Go to the "My Menu" page on your Shef Dashboard.

  2. Click the "Add New Dish" button.

  3. Click "Build a dish from a template".

  4. A search box will appear, type in the name of the dish you would like to add to your menu and the template options will appear below. Once you find the picture that matches how your dish actually looks the best, click "Select" to the right of that dish. Try different spellings if you're having trouble finding a good match.

  5. The dish builder will step you through the creation process with example text filled out in most places. Make sure to change all of the prefilled out information to best represent your dish and include as much information about your dish as possible. This is your chance to grab your customer's attention and provide dietary details so your customers know what ingredients and potential allergens are in the dish.

  6. Once you reach the final "Photo" section, click "Finish" and your new dish will be sent to our menu team for review.

After submitting your new dish, our menu team will review all of the details of your dish to make sure information about the ingredients of the dish and allergens look correct. Make sure to include as many details about your dish as possible to speed up the review process.

We review most new dish submissions within 3-5 days, but this time can vary depending on our volume of menu submissions. Our team will reach out to you by email if we have any questions about the dish. You can also view any questions our menu team has left for you by clicking the "Edit dish" text next to the dish on your menu, and then clicking the "Comment" button in the top right corner of the dish builder. You can edit the dish to address our questions, or respond to us in the comment window and we'll take care of it for you.


Each of the dish details in the dish builder explained

Title of your dish

Use clear descriptors when creating the title, or name, of your dish. The name should be clear for customers, but can also reflect your story and cooking style! Think about how to grab a customer's attention and entice them to order this dish from your menu. For example:

  • Family-Sized Vegetarian Lasagna

  • 6 Handmade Roti

  • Spicy Green Curry with Chicken

  • Grandma Jo's Green Bean Casserole

  • Molotes (Traditional Oaxacan Beef Empanadas)

  • Large Roasted Butternut Squash Soup

Description of your dish

Your description should inform your customer of what they will expect to receive when ordering your dish, and make them excited to try it. What you can include in your description:

  • What main flavors will you taste? (tangy, sweet, spicy, aromatic)

  • What consistency is the food? (juicy, crunchy, smooth, creamy)

  • What main ingredients are used to create it?

  • How did you learn or develop the recipe?

  • What is the story (personal or historical) behind the dish?

  • What other items on your menu would pair well with this dish?

Example dish description:

A classic Mangalorean delicacy of juicy chicken, slow-roasted in an authentic blend of traditional Udupi spices. This dish relies on a fiery combination of spice and tang for the perfect culinary kick! I learned it from my grandmother who served it every Friday night over a bed of fluffy jeera rice.

Food type

Specify what type of food dish the item is, like breakfast or dinner. For larger meal-sized items, we recommend using the Dinner option.

  • Breakfast

  • Lunch

  • Dinner

  • Side

  • Appetizer

  • Dessert

Spice options

Choose if your customers will be able to select how spicy their dish will come by clicking "Yes" or "No" from the drop down menu here.

Then select the spice level you recommend for this dish, this will be the default of how you prepare this dish. You can choose the following spice levels:

  • Not spicy: white rice, pastries, kid-friendly dishes, etc.

  • Mild: red chili flakes, buffalo sauce, chipotle peppers, etc.

  • Medium: jalapeños, sriracha, cayenne pepper, etc.

  • Hot: ghost chilies, habanero peppers, birds eye chilies, etc.

If you do offer your customer the ability to customize their spice level, you can then click on each spice level they will be able to choose from in the next row of spice icons.

Pairs well with

For this option, you can scroll through any dishes that are on your menu and select up to 7 of your other dishes that pair well with this dish. When your customers are ordering this dish, we will encourage them to order the other dishes you recommend here.

Dish cuisine tags

Select up to 7 tags that best describe your dish. We use these tags to help customers find the food they are looking for when using the search bar on shef.com or even to recommend dishes based on what they tend to enjoy. You can add two types of tags:

  • Geographical tags: Locations throughout the world where your dish may originate from, or where people eat this dish often. These tags can get pretty specific, so try to add some broad locations as well as precise ones. For example, you can add "Indian", "North Indian", and "Punjabi" all as tags.

  • Specialty tags: The type of food this is, or certain food groups or themes it might be a part of. For example, you can choose "Baked Goods", "Desserts", and "Comfort" here.

Base portion size

Set the standard portion size your customer will receive. We recommend your base size being a portion that feeds one person, you will be able to add larger sized options to offer your customers after setting your base portion and price.

You can use these three measurement options for setting your base portion size:

  • Container” - Try to use this whenever possible. This lists the size in ounces (oz) of the container the food is packaged in. Note: This is NOT the actual weight of your food item, but the ounces of your filled delivery container.

  • Pieces” - Fill in the number of pieces that come in an order. Use this for things like rotis, dumplings, or chicken nuggets.

  • "Other" - Use this for everything else that ounces or pieces may not work well for. For example: "One 9 inch cake", or "Whole roasted chicken". You can also use this for combo items like: "2 chicken breasts + 4oz of cilantro sauce", or "16oz chole + 8oz rice".

If the item is bundled with a side, make sure that both of the components have their portions listed. For example: “12 oz of salad + 2 oz of ranch dressing”.

For our recommendations on what portion sizes to offer and what containers to package your food in, head to our Recommended Food Containers article.

Item Availability Settings

We have 2 settings you can use to control which items are available on your menu on a given day. You do not need to modify these settings as a new shef.

Later on, you might use these settings to offer specialty holiday items (only available for a limited time period), or to offer different menus on different days of the week.

Item Order Limit

Choose the maximum number of orders (servings) for this item that you can offer on a single delivery day. When you have reached the maximum, the item will appear as "sold out." Remember that one customer might order multiple servings of the same item, especially for smaller side items. (We recommend choosing a number between 7-100).

Price

Please choose a price for your dish. We recommend a price ending in either .49 or .99 (for example, $5.49 or $5.99).

Your menu prices are entirely up to you, and may be adjusted any time as you learn more about your business. Be sure to include the cost of ingredients, packaging, and other costs in your pricing considerations. Once you set a price for a dish, you may still choose to adjust the price later based on your sales and initial customer feedback.

You might sometimes choose to set a higher price for a dish that uses more expensive ingredients, or a dish that is more time-consuming or labor-intensive to cook. In this case, we recommend using the Name, Description, and Ingredients sections to highlight the reasons why this is a premium or specialty dish on your menu - think about ways to highlight these premium aspects and make the dish sound irresistible to customers!

Regardless of how you price your menu, we have found that main dishes priced under $15 and side dishes priced under $10 tend to sell more quickly, as long as the portion size is still generous.

Not sure how to start with pricing? You can type in a zip code in the top left corner of Shef.com to explore the menu prices of other shefs in your area.

Expiration Date

Select how long your food will be safe to eat once it reaches your customer. This will be printed on the label of your food for customers to reference. The default is set to 3 days.

Ingredients

Please list every single ingredient so that customers can make informed choices about allergies and dietary restrictions. Please be sure to include all spices, oils, and/or fats used in the cooking process (e.g. butter, olive oil, vegetable oil, rapeseed oil, ghee).

Tips for adding your ingredients:

  • If you list an ingredient in a language other than English, please also include the English translation in parentheses: "methi (fenugreek)"

  • If you use a pre-made ingredient such as a sauce or spice blend, please include the full brand name of the item so that customers can look up the ingredients if needed: "Huy Fong Sriracha Hot Sauce" or "McCormick Original Taco Seasoning Mix"

  • If you use meat in your dish, please specify whether it contains bones: "bone-in chicken thighs"

  • Be very specific when listing common allergens, such as types of nuts and oils.

Things to avoid on your menu:

  • No raw seafood or shellfish. Due to food safety considerations, we do not allow shefs to offer dishes containing raw seafood items on our platform. We do allow cooked seafood items.

  • No uncooked food, such as raw dough or batter, where the cooking process must be finished by the customer.

  • No ice cream or other frozen foods. We cannot support frozen food delivery at this time.

  • No alcoholic, hemp, or cannabis food items.

Reheating Instructions

We offer several helpful templates for reheating instructions that you can use for your dish. Please use the drop down options to choose the template that best matches your dish, and then edit the text instructions directly if needed. If you feel your dish needs different heating instructions, you can also write your own.

Dietary Tags

Select all of the tags that apply to your dish:

  • Vegan - dish does not contain any animal products (milk, eggs, ghee, butter, etc.)

  • Vegetarian - dish does not contain any meat products

  • Gluten-Free - dish does not contain any gluten products (bread, wheat, barley, rye, etc).

  • Dairy-Free - dish does not contain any milk or milk products

  • Contains Nuts - dish contains nuts

  • Halal - all the meat in the dish was made following halal procedures

  • Organic - all of the ingredients used in the dish are organic

  • Paleo - dish only includes lean meats, fish, fruits, vegetables, nuts, and seeds; excludes grains, legumes, dairy, sugar, and fruit juices

  • Whole30 - similar to paleo, but excludes processed meats and allows for ghee/clarified butter

  • Low FODMAP - avoids foods with certain types of carbohydrates, such as cauliflower and asparagus

Photo

Please upload a photo from your device, or drag and drop your photo into the box. If you do not have a photo ready yet, you can skip this step and come back to add a photo later. Before taking any photos of your menu items, please first read our menu photo guidelines.


Editing an existing dish

You can edit any details of your menu items at any time. You might need to do this when you want to change the ingredients or allergens included in one of your dishes, if you want to change the description or name of a dish, when you want to provide a new picture for your dish, or even if you need to change the price.

To edit any dish on your menu, follow these steps:

  1. Head to the "My Menu" section of your Shef Dashboard.

  2. Find the dish you'd like to make changes to, and click "Edit Dish" next to the picture of your dish.

  3. You will be taken to the dish builder, where you are able to change any information about that dish.

  4. Click the "Next" button in the bottom right corner to scroll through each different section of dish details, from the title of your dish, to the price, and dietary details.

  5. When you reach the "Photo" section, make sure to click "Finish" in the bottom right corner to submit your changes.

Keep in mind that our menu team may need to review some changes that are made before you will see the change reflected on your menu. Most changes are reviewed and approved within a few days.

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