One of the insistent bugaboos (what a great word) of catering software is the structured methods of handling menu items and their descriptions: the visual layout and content insertion. Most caterers do not find lists of food an effective or, even, interesting way to engage a client.

- If we rely on a catering menu and recipe database system, we are stuck with one description for many different kinds of clients - not an effective marketing tool. One menu look and description fits only the software creator - not the client in hand

- If we rely on a basic item name and provide space for you to write in a description in the menu , we are asking you to do more work than is necessary in a powerful system and we're still not tackling the visual look, the design of the catering menu.

So our goal - not realized yet, I must humbly tell you, in designing the menu possibilities is to combine the ability to pick, choose, copy and drop in menu descriptions that can be multiple for a single menu item and then have a phrase recognition system that links to a menu database . . .and / or use a menu database solution that drops in hard copy that you can then edit as part of the menu design.

In the end, I will ensure that you can work from word processor or spreadsheet files ( easy for you to compile from your current usage patterns) as well as from a sophisticated menu and recipe database environment that will allow searches according to :

- season for which the catering menu item is intended

- food taste sophistication of the catering client for whom the menu is being built

- type of food ingredient to be used in the catering menu

- style of event to be used in the catering menu

The menu database output will then link to menu item recipes for kitchen prep work - but all of this will work without recipe input ( which, as you know is a time killer for most chefs - and is always a work in progress).