Editing Menu (section)

==History==
[[File:Festessen Kaiser Wilhelm 1898 (front page).jpg|thumb|Historical menu card of the banquet for [[:en:Wilhelm II, German Emperor|German Emperor Wilhelm II]] and [[:en:Augusta Victoria of Schleswig-Holstein|Empress Auguste Viktoria]] on September 7, 1898, at the Hotel Kaiserhof, [[:en:Porta Westfalica|Porta Westfalica]]]]
[[File:Kebab menu France.jpg|thumb|A lighted display board-style menu outside a French Kebab restaurant.]]
Menus, as lists of prepared foods, have been discovered dating back to the [[Song dynasty]] in [[China]].<ref>Gernet, Jacques (1962). ''Daily Life in China: On the Eve of the Mongol Invasion, 1250-1276''. pp. 50, 133–134, 137</ref> In the larger cities of the time, merchants found a way to cater to busy customers who had little time or energy to prepare an evening meal. The variation in [[Chinese cuisine]] from different regions led caterers to create a list or menu for their patrons.

The word "menu", like much of the terminology of [[cuisine]], is [[French language|French]] in origin. It ultimately derives from [[Latin]] "minutus", something made small; in French, it came to be applied to a detailed list or ''résumé'' of any kind. The original menus that offered consumers choices were prepared on a small [[chalkboard]], in French a ''carte''; so foods chosen from a bill of fare are described as "à la carte", "according to the board".

The earliest European menus, several of which survive from 1751 onwards, appear to have been for the relatively intimate and informal ''soupers intimes'' ("intimate [[supper]]s") given by King [[Louis XV of France]] at the [[Château de Choisy]] for between 31 and 36 guests. Several seem to have been placed on the table, listing four courses, each with several dishes, plus dessert.<ref>[[Roy Strong|Strong, Roy]], ''Feast: A History of Grand Eating'', pp. 213-214, 2002, Jonathan Cape, {{ISBN|0224061380}}</ref>

During the second half of the 18th century, and especially after the [[French Revolution]] in 1789, they spread to restaurants. Before then, eating establishments or ''[[table d'hôte|tables d'hôte]]'' served dishes chosen by the [[chef]] or proprietors. Customers ate what the house was serving that day, as in contemporary [[banquet]]s or [[buffet]]s, and meals were served from a common table. The establishment of restaurants and restaurant menus allowed customers to choose from a list of unseen dishes, which were produced to order according to the customer's selection. A ''table d'hôte'' establishment charged its customers a fixed price; the menu allowed customers to spend as much or as little money as they chose.<ref>Rebecca L. Spang, ''The Invention of the Restaurant: Paris and Modern Gastronomic Culture'' (Harvard, 2000: {{ISBN|0-674-00685-2}})</ref>

===Price-less===
Menus for private functions, pre-paid meals and the like do not have prices. In normal restaurants, there are two types of menus without prices that were mostly used until the 1970s and 1980s: the "blind menu" and the "women's menu". These menus contained all of the same items as the regular menu, except that the prices were not listed. The "blind menu" was distributed to guests at business meals where the hosts did not want the diners to see the prices, or to any type of dinner where the host felt that having the prices not listed would make the guests feel more comfortable ordering.

Until the early 1980s, some high-end restaurants had two menus divided by gender: a regular menu with the prices listed for men and a second menu for women, which did not have the prices listed (it was called the "ladies' menu"), so that the female diner would not know the prices of the items.<ref name="Frost">{{cite web |url=https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/ladies-menus-no-prices-lawsuit |title=The Court Case That Killed the 'Ladies Menu' |last=Frost |first=Natasha |date=2 February 2018 |website=www.atlasobscura.com |publisher=Atlas Obscura |access-date=23 February 2019 |archive-date=11 February 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180211052943/https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/ladies-menus-no-prices-lawsuit |url-status=live }}</ref> In 1980, Kathleen Bick took a male business partner out to dinner at L'Orangerie in West Hollywood; after Bick got a women's menu without prices and her guest got the menu with prices, Bick hired lawyer [[Gloria Allred]] to file a discrimination lawsuit, on the grounds that the women's menu went against the California Civil Rights Act.<ref name="Frost"/> Bick stated that getting a women's menu without prices left her feeling "humiliated and incensed". The owners of the restaurant defended the practice, saying it was done as a courtesy, like the way men would stand up when a woman enters the room. Even though the lawsuit was dropped, the restaurant ended its gender-based menu policy.<ref name="Frost"/> While price-less menus for women generally disappeared after the 1980s, in 2010, Tracey MacLeod reported that Le Gavroche in London (UK) still had a price-less women's menu for women who eat at tables booked by men, with tables booked by women getting a regular menu for the woman.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/food-and-drink/features/battle-of-the-sexes-do-men-or-women-make-the-better-dining-companion-2130500.html |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20220512/https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/food-and-drink/features/battle-of-the-sexes-do-men-or-women-make-the-better-dining-companion-2130500.html |archive-date=2022-05-12 |url-access=subscription |url-status=live |title=Battle of the Sexes: Do Men or Women Make the Better Dining Companion |last=MacLeod |first=Tracey |date=13 November 2010 |website=www.independent.co.uk |publisher=Independent |access-date=23 February 2019 }}</ref>