À la carte

The term à la carte (French "after the card") referred to in catering the free choice of dishes from the menu without predefined menu sequence and the compilation can thus be individualized.

For the kitchen of an à la carte restaurants, the respective means more work and greater uncertainties in the planning, as à la carte dishes in small quantities à la minute, so have time to serve, to be cooked and served at the same time and much more ingredients must be present as it is the case for example, if they are offered only three unchanging menus.

In a figurative sense means à la carte that a client is not bound, for example, in the planning of a house by an architect or when creating a software by computer scientists to specifications, but is free to choose according to their own wishes and ideas.