Plating Descriptions & Menu Copy
A menu is sales copy. Research on US fine-dining menus has consistently shown that descriptive menu items outsell identically-priced plain-named items by up to 27%. AI is unusually good at this work — if you keep it from sliding into the same five clichés that have been infesting menu writing since 2008.
This lesson teaches you how to get menu copy out of AI that sounds like your restaurant, not like every restaurant.
What You'll Learn
- The five menu-writing clichés to ban and why
- How to define your house voice in a single paragraph
- A 3-length menu copy prompt (short, standard, evocative)
- How to write plating descriptions for servers vs guests vs press
Why AI Menu Copy Often Sounds Generic
AI is trained on the entire web. The web is full of mediocre menu writing. So unless you steer it hard, AI will default to the mediocre majority: "artisanal hand-crafted house-made roast chicken on a bed of seasonal vegetables, kissed with a whisper of truffle oil and finished with a journey of herbs."
You can fix this in one prompt instruction.
Ban the Clichés
Include a banned-word list in every menu-writing prompt. The starter list:
- artisanal
- elevated
- mouthwatering
- decadent
- kissed
- whisper
- journey
- symphony
- nestled
- bed of
- house-made (use only when meaningful — "house-cured" or "house-fermented" is fine; "house-made dressing" is filler)
- crispy (overused — use only when crispness is the headline texture)
- savory (it's food, this word is doing no work)
- to perfection (delete on sight)
Add to this list any word you personally hate. Most chefs add 3-5 of their own (common additions: "perfectly cooked," "slow-roasted," "fork-tender," "rustic," "homemade").
Define Your House Voice
Spend ten minutes writing a paragraph that defines your house voice. Save it. Paste it into every menu-writing prompt.
Example house voice:
House voice: confident, specific, and minimal. We name what's on the plate
and where it came from when the source is meaningful. We avoid adjectives
unless they earn their place. Descriptions are short -- 6 to 14 words -- and
read like a chef wrote them for another chef. No clichés. No selling.
Another, very different one:
House voice: warm, generous, and a little playful. Our menu reads like a
note from a friend who cooks. We use sense words (smoky, citric, dark) when
they help. Descriptions are 15-25 words and tell a tiny story about the
dish. We mention purveyors by name when we love them.
Both work. The point is to have one and to give it to AI.
The 3-Length Menu Copy Prompt
For each new dish, generate three versions and pick the one that fits the menu format.
Act as my menu writer.
House voice: [paste your house voice paragraph]
Banned words: [paste your banned list]
Dish:
- Grilled half quail
- Cornbread puree
- Pickled chanterelles
- Sorghum glaze
- Watercress
Write three menu description options:
1. Short: 5-7 words (for a tight menu format)
2. Standard: 10-14 words (our default)
3. Evocative: 18-25 words (for the tasting menu booklet)
Constraints:
- Use ONLY the ingredients I listed -- do not invent ones
- Do not use "with" more than once
- Each version must be different in structure, not just length
You'll typically use the standard for the main menu, the evocative for a tasting-menu insert or website, and the short for a chalkboard or counter format.
Plating Descriptions for Different Audiences
A plating description is a different document depending on who's reading it.
For your service team
This is functional. It should tell a server exactly how to describe the dish at the table, what to upsell with, and what the most common allergen questions will be.
Write a 4-line server pre-shift card for this dish:
[dish]
Lines:
1. The dish in one sentence (what the server says when asked)
2. The hero ingredient + its source/story (the tableside line)
3. The most likely upsell pairing (wine, side, or another course)
4. The 2 most likely allergen/dietary questions and how to handle each
For the guest (menu)
This is what we just covered above.
For press / website / Instagram caption
This is voice-forward. It's allowed to be a little more lyrical. But still no clichés.
Write a 60-word press description of this dish for our website
journal/blog. House voice. No clichés.
The piece should mention:
- What the dish is
- One specific thing that's unusual or thoughtful about it
- A nod to a purveyor or region when relevant
- One sensory detail (not a generic one)
A Worked Example
Dish: grilled half quail, cornbread puree, pickled chanterelles, sorghum glaze, watercress.
Short (6 words): Grilled quail. Cornbread, chanterelles, sorghum.
Standard (12 words): Grilled half quail over silky cornbread, pickled chanterelles, dark sorghum glaze.
Evocative (22 words): A half quail straight from the grill, set against soft cornbread, pickled chanterelles for the sharpness, a thin sorghum glaze for the dark.
Notice none of those use "kissed," "whisper," "bed of," or "to perfection." None of them describe how the dish makes you feel. They describe the dish.
Editing AI Output
Here's the workflow most chefs settle into:
- Generate three lengths with the prompt above.
- Pick the closest match.
- Edit by hand — usually cut 1-3 words, fix a rhythm issue, swap one descriptor for one that's truer to what's on the plate.
The combination is faster than writing from scratch and produces better copy than either AI alone or a tired chef alone at 11pm.
Key Takeaways
- Menu descriptions sell — descriptive items can outsell plain ones by up to 27%
- AI defaults to clichés unless you ban them — keep a banned-word list and paste it into every prompt
- Define your house voice in one paragraph and reuse it
- Use a 3-length prompt (short, standard, evocative) for every new dish
- Write different versions for service team, guest menu, and press/web — the audience changes everything
- AI gets you 90% of the way; hand-editing the last 10% is where the voice lives