Serve Grandma’s recipes and increase restaurant sales

One of the formulas that many restaurants use to increase sales is having a varied selection that attracts different types of clients. Among the recipes that we find on their menus, there are some that are capable of stealing the hearts and appetites of many diners, regardless of their age, lifestyle or food preferences.

We are referring to recipes created by our ancestors, cooked in the warmth of the home and loaded with flavor and memories. Is there anything more exciting than grandma’s soup? Accordingly, it is no wonder that many restaurants have made it a trend to cook traditional recipes and sell them as signature dishes, since they make anybody’s mouth water.

Do you serve these types of dishes in your restaurant? Here are some ideas for adding dishes that originate from grandma’s recipes and increasing restaurant sales, even if the restaurant in question is thematic or experimental. You will see that it works!

Slow-cooked nostalgia

The best way to apply this strategy is by giving these recipes a real backstory. A recipe with storytelling that is gradually told when the clients reads the name of the dish on the menu, listens to the waiter's explanation, and ultimately tastes it. The goal is to create instant empathy so that the diner can enjoy the dish more and remember it with greater certainty.

So, the first step would be to… check if there is a profitable recipe that originates from any of the staff’s families and has an interesting story to tell about its origin, the context in which it was prepared, or what it represents. Is there an ancestral recipe with a great story in your restaurant?

Let’s say that it’s a delicious beef stew with potatoes and spices, a recipe from the chef’s mother, who cooked it to celebrate the annual visit of her grandparents, who lived far away.

When selling the dish, you call it “Lucy’s happy stew", which is a more attractive name to clients than merely calling it “beef stew with potatoes”.

Add to that… an exciting explanation of its history and what it means to the chef, both in the dish’s description and in the waiter’s service...and it will have worked its magic. You will achieve a marketing move that will have a great impact on the restaurant.

If you were to read these names on the menu, which one would you order? “Creamy vegetable soup” or “Grandma’s creamy and tender vegetable soup.”

Dishes such as “la nonna’s” lasagna, traditional quiches in all its varieties, classic oven-roasted lamb or chicken or meatballs can become recipes that are very attractive for your menu and are associated with memories of home.

And it also works , since we are mixing two psychologically emotional elements: sweetness (also associated with love) and grandma’s recipe.

Accordingly, the countless varieties of pastries and cakes can also be a good option. If, for instance, you serve a rich cheese or apple pastry recipe in your restaurant from a team member’s family with an exciting name and a story behind it, you can attract clients that will come to the restaurant for this dessert. It would also need to be delicious, of course!

Technology and tradition

As a form of post-millennial, entertainment, there is countless online content related to stories of great grandmas and the food that they prepared for their families. There are even popular YouTube channels that are solely dedicated to them.

Like the Pasta Grannies channel, with more than 300,000 subscribers and thousands of views per video, where Italian grandmas cook their recipes with the grace and warmth that characterizes them.

So, if you serve grandma’s delicious recipes at your restaurant, you can also mix technology with tradition via digital marketing by doing the following:

Articles or videos that explain the history behind the dishes and the recipes step-by-step and publish them with images on the restaurant’s social media.

Live videos on Facebook or Instagram. Imagine how your clients/followers would react if the recipe’s star grandma or family member prepares it live alongside your chef?

Collaborations with influencers that produce this type of content related to traditional and homemade recipes and invite them to try the restaurant’s dishes so that they can talk about it on their channels. It is also a good idea to offer discounts to their followers so that they can come and try your “grandma’s recipes”.

The kitchen is undoubtedly a universal archetype of love that is passed on from generation to generation through food. Why not use this universally shared belief to make your clients happy and increase sales? Fire up your stoves, spice up your stories, and let the customers pour in!

Note: To consistently promote this offering, be sure to publish it on your restaurant’s profile on TheFork, since this will definitely make it easier for more clients to reserve a table at your restaurant. And if you are still not a member of our community, you are only a click away.