Project Overview:

Duration: January 2019 - March 2019

Goals:

• Achieve a profit margin over 12%

• Attract at least 130 guests to attend the meal

• Attain 4.5 out of 5 overall experience from guest's’ comment cards

• Create a sense of Rome for the guests to enjoy through Italian gastronomy

Target Demographics:

• 40-60 year old male and female

• Faculty staff and retired couples

  • Primarily regulars that have been supporting the Spice Box for many years

• Seek creativity from the meal but nothing too out of the ordinary

Results:

• Attracted 150+ guests to join the event by understanding my target demographics and providing excellent perception value

• Achieved a profit margin of 20% for the meal, well above the average of 12%

• Attained an average of 4.86 out of 5 overall dining experience

Define the Theme: Why Rome?

“Just like defining the right problem is crucial in the design thinking process; choosing the appropriate theme for my meal is equally important.”

Picking the right theme will allow my meal to attract customers without the need to invest heavily in marketing.

I decided to favor the Roman theme because I studied abroad in Rome with a focus on Italian gastronomy. I had the opportunity to talk to professionals that are directly involved in the food system. From farmers, local merchants to chefs, I learned that food means more than food to Italians.

They value traditions. They use food as the main medium to socialize. They treat food with respect. They care about using seasonal ingredients to cook. Therefore, I wanted to translate my experience in Rome to the Spice Box, hoping the guests would feel inspired and fascinated about Italian gastronomy as I did.

What’s on the Menu?

“Deciding the suitable dishes for the menu is like selecting the appropriate features for an app. It is necessary to evaluate the impact and effort of each recipe with the given constraints.”

 Recipe Justifications:

• Traditional Italian dishes that I loved during my time in Rome

  • My guests would have some familiarity to them

  • Cannot be overly generic like pizza, pasta and gelato

  • Include recipes guests mostly likely had never tasted before

• Use of inexpensive ingredients

  • Kept my food cost low

  • Allowed myself to spend money elsewhere like decorations

  Recipe Testings

  “Similar to the prototyping phase, iterating my recipes until they reached an ideal state was essential. It ensured the guests could taste the best product within the constraints.“

Recipe testing was the most time-consuming process for the whole project. From reaching the desired flavors, costing, standardizing each recipe, to plating, each step required iterations. Just like the design process, it was not a linear process but rather messy. I spent about two weeks on each dish with a total of 2 months before I was satisfied with my final products.