A beach club menu, halved. And the service that opens up.

This is the story of two seasons at a beach club in southern Salento, one of those places that are full every day from June to September. When we first met them the menu had thirty-two dishes and seven different suppliers. What follows is what we changed.

The manager is a cook, not a manager. He cooks fish as well as anyone and has an instinct for portions that cannot be taught. But the first time we walked into that kitchen, at ten in the morning on a Saturday in July, I counted seven fridge openings in three minutes: a sign that the menu was built around the cook's habits rather than the flow at the counter.

A beach club menu is a pact with the customer: change the card every two days and the beach club customer thinks you are hiding something. You have to look stable, even when you are changing everything underneath.

The first thing we did was simple but counterintuitive: we cut the menu from thirty-two dishes to fourteen. Not by removing the favourites, but by removing the three most ordered dishes. Why? They were dishes the cook prepared to order, holding up the queue, while a Pizzella comes out of the dedicated oven in three minutes and a ready meal in eight, without tying up a person.

The second step was the suppliers. There were seven, four of them for cured meats and three for cheese. Three suppliers in the same category means three price lists, three minimum orders and three invoices a month to handle. We went down to two: us at Speedy Food for sandwiches, appetisers and dishes, and one for drinks. One weekly order, one monthly invoice, one page of accounts instead of seven.

In practice, here is what changed in the first few weeks:

• Menu from thirty-two dishes to fourteen: out went the three most ordered lines, in came Pizzella and ready meals
• From seven suppliers to two: us for the food, one for drinks
• Shorter morning prep: the counter opens with almost everything already done
• One daily menu instead of three separate ones