Menu Knowledge Sheet for Your Floor
One question up front: which courses are on your card? Then, per dish, you type one sentence, what you sell alongside and what is in it. The tool turns that around into the question actually asked at the table — “I can't have gluten, what can I eat?” — and names the dishes your floor cannot explain yet.
How it works
- 1
Switch on your courses
Starter, main, dessert, side, drink. What you switch on decides how the sheet breaks into blocks — the same order as your card.
- 2
Fill in four things per dish
One sentence you say when a guest asks what it is, what you sell alongside, which of the fourteen allergens are in it and which can be left out. Click a box once for “in it”, twice for “can be left out”.
- 3
Print the sheet — and the test
The sheet hangs by the pass. The blank version you hand a new starter on Monday and mark together on Friday. All free, no account.
The four things your floor must be able to say about every dish
A guest asks only four questions about a dish, and always the same four. A server who can answer three of them walks to the kitchen for the fourth — which is exactly the moment the order stalls.
What is it?
One sentence, in your own house's words. Not the menu text read back: the guest has just read that, which is why they are asking. Method, hero ingredient, what it goes with — in that order.
What's in it?
Which of the fourteen EU allergens are in the dish. Not “I don't think so”, but ticked off: a dish nobody has checked must never sound safe.
Can it be left out?
The difference between a garnish you drop and a sauce the dish actually is. This is the answer your kitchen does not want to give twice during service, and it decides whether a guest orders at all.
What do you sell with it?
The glass, the side, the cheese after. One suggestion per dish, agreed in advance — that is the difference between a floor that takes orders and a floor that sells.
The four answers to one allergy
For each of the fourteen allergens, every dish on your card falls into exactly one of these four. The fourth is the honest one: a dish nobody has checked stands apart, never among the safe ones.
- The guest can eat it
- Checked, and this allergen is not in it. The only answer your floor may give without asking anyone.
- Can be served without
- The allergen is in the dish, but in a part the kitchen can leave out or swap. Always say what comes off.
- The guest cannot eat it
- The allergen is in the dish itself and cannot be taken out. Offer something from the first column straight away rather than saying no.
- Not checked yet
- Nobody has gone through the fourteen for this dish. Treat it as unknown and ask the kitchen — an empty box is not proof that nothing is in it.
Frequently asked questions
Is this menu knowledge sheet free?
Yes, completely free, no account and nothing to install. You fill it in and print straight from your browser.
Is this the same as an allergen chart?
No. An allergen chart is for your guest and reads dish to allergen. This sheet is for your floor and reads the other way: a guest says what they cannot have, and your server reads off what they can — with whether it can be left out.
Why do I have to tick a dish off separately?
Because an unticked dish otherwise looks safe while nobody has actually looked at it. Until you set that tick, the dish sits under “not checked yet” — on screen and on the printed sheet.
What is the blank test?
The same sheet with the answers taken out and lines in their place. You hand it to a new server at a menu change and go through it together a few shifts later. Same content, so you never write two documents.
How often do I remake this?
At every menu change — four to twelve times a year in most places. It stays in your browser, so you edit the dishes that changed instead of starting over.
Does my menu stay private?
Yes. Everything lives in your own browser and is never uploaded. Close the tab and your sheet is still there next time.
This is a house document, not a labelling declaration. What you must declare and record about allergens differs per country and per inspectorate; this sheet exists so your floor can answer, not to replace your legal duty to inform. Keep your own recipes and supplier sheets as the source.