Page 285 - One Thousand Ways to Make $1000

own menus,” stated Miss Ewing. “I also found that they needed variety in
their menus—something fresh and different daily which would revive interest
in their dinners. At the same time it occurred to me that the secret of keeping
flavor and appeal in food was to cook it in smaller quantities. This is the only
way that chefs can get that ‘home-cooking’ flavor. So I made up what I call a
series of little dinners and submitted them to several restaurant proprietors.
They considered them and then agreed to use them. That’s how I got started
on my present career.”

Miss Ewing opened an office in a Chicago “Loop” office building and began
selling little luncheon menus to Chicago restaurant proprietors. She called
this unusual business a “Planning Service,” and charged a flat rate of $5.00 a
month for it. In less than a year, she secured subscriptions to this service from
nearly two hundred restaurants, and her profits began to add up to a tidy sum.
She did what thousands of women have the ability and qualifications to do:
planned simple, inexpensive meals. A similar service might be profitably
started in other cities, inasmuch as there are thousands of small restaurant
proprietors who lack the imagination to plan a wellbalanced and varied menu
themselves. In making up the menu for a small luncheon which retails say,
for 25 or 30 cents, it is well to bear in mind that the restaurant must secure a
minimum of twice the retail cost of each food item served, in order to make a
profit. Thus a 25-cent meal should cost the restaurant not more than 12½
cents. Recipes showing the proper amount of each food offered should be
submitted daily with this service, the same recipes being sent to each chef
using them. It is not necessary to invest much money in a service of this
nature. Simply prepare the first menu, have it mimeographed, and mail copies
to each subscriber. In preparing these menus always keep in mind the
seasonal changes in foods.

A “Fix-lt” Shop on Wheels

F

OR fifty years, George Burley, of Des Moines, Iowa, who is now seventy-
seven years old, has made a good living fixing things that others can’t. His