Gregg Rapp

Gregg Rapp (born September 5, 1958) was a professional restaurant menu engineer.https://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/23/dining/23menus.html His use of science-based empiricism helped make restaurant menu design evolve from an art to more of a data-based science.https://medium.com/@singleplatform/what-is-menu-engineering-who-is-gregg-rapp-1aaf6531d269 He is credited with reimagining menus for some of the most well-known restaurants across the globe.https://medium.com/@singleplatform/what-is-menu-engineering-who-is-gregg-rapp-1aaf6531d269
==Professional Impact==
Rapp's approach to menu design was empirically driven by analyzing the purchase frequency of individual food items, their ingredient costs, and their price and profit margins.https://www.culinarydepotinc.com/blog/creating-a-lucrative-layout-setting-up-a-profitable-menu-for-your-restaurant/ A key goal was to make menus more attractive to consumers and thereby more profitable to restaurant owners.
Over the years, Rapp's analysis of various menus led him to make a number of behaviorally-based generalizations, which were a mix of psychology, marketing, and intuition. These included suggestions to organize your menu like a magazine, design so that less is more, and eliminate leader dots and dollar signs.>https://upservelounge.com/restaurant-insider/on-tap-with-gregg-rapp-3-quick-menu-tips/. They also included more subjective aesthetic suggestions about colors, design, and layout. A number of books have discussed his insights and how they dovetail with published research in psychology and behavioral economics. For instance, his insights about using elaborately descriptive menu names was discussed in Mindless Eating and Slim by Design, and his observations about how overpriced decoy menu items cause a person to pay more for the other items they order was discussed in Predictably Irrational.
Rapp spoke regularly to graduate students at Cornell University, Duke University, and Culinary Institute of America. His approach and his discoveries have been widely reported in Timehttp://content.time.com/time/subscriber/article/0,33009,1200775,00.html The New York Timeshttps://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/23/dining/23menus.html , the trade press, and on the Today Showhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aZ_G2gQr8Uwhttps://vimeo.com/269764126 and BBChttps://www.bbc.com/future/article/20171120-the-secret-tricks-hidden-inside-restaurant-menus He often said his mission was to "improve the world, one menu at a time."https://www.greggrappscholarship.com
==Personal==
Rapp was raised in Dayton, Ohio, and graduated from Washington State University. He spent the majority of his adult life in Palm Springs, Californina].
In 2019, Rapp was asked to appear as himself on the gameshow To Tell the Truth. All the three celebrities wrongly selected one of other two female decoy contestants as the "real menu engineer.https://www.imdb.com/title/tt5817158/characters/nm11823676
==Honors==
In 2019, Rapp's alma mater, Washington State University announced the Gregg Rapp Menu Engineering Scholarship.https://www.greggrappscholarship.comhttps://www.great-taste.net/tidbits-kudos/industry-news/gregg-rapp-menu-engineering-scholarship-at-wsu/ In 2022, Gregg was honored again by being inducted into the Hospitality Hall of Fame.https://bellhop.business.wsu.edu/shbm-hall-of-fame/
==References==
==Further reading==
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Category:1958 births
Category:American people
Category:Restaurant menus
Category:2020 deaths