Simply put, recipe costing is exactly what it sounds like: figuring out all of the costs involved in creating an individual recipe or dish from start to finish.
For chefs and restaurant owners, knowing how to cost (and thereby price) recipes is absolutely critical, as the cost of food and ingredients is typically one of a restaurant’s top expenses.
A successful restaurateur knows, to the cent, the cost to purchase, prepare, and serve every item on their menu, as well as how to adjust that pricing for seasonal price fluctuations.
Just a quick note, as these two terms can overlap and are often confusing.
In comparison to “recipe costing”, “food cost” is a more general concept related to the overall cost vs. profit margins for your entire menu and is one category in your restaurant's overall operating costs.
If you have a number of dishes that use a specific ingredient, say black truffles, and your ROI on those dishes is not meeting your goals, then it may be time to take a look at either finding a lower-cost provider of black truffles (thereby lowering your food cost) or adjusting your menu or recipes accordingly to use less of them, or increasing the price on your truffle dishes.
But wait…it’s not quite that easy.
The recipe cost, or “food cost” percentage is an industry-standard for showing your food cost in relation to how much money you’re making. However, to understand what you’re really spending requires two numbers:
“Ideal Recipe Cost” & “Actual Recipe Cost”
Ideal recipe cost is what everything costs on paper, to make a dish, where there’s no waste or loss factored in.
Think of ideal vs. actual like this… let’s say you’re going to bake 10 apple pies. A 10kg case of apples costs you $40, with an additional $20 for the remaining ingredients.
Ideally, you’ve spent $60 to make 10 apple pies, making your food cost $6 per pie.
However, once you’ve peeled and cored the apples, and removed some bad spots, etc., you only have 9kg of apple slices, which means you can only make 9 apple pies.
Now you’ve spent $60 to make 9 apple pies, so your actual food cost is $6.66 per pie, a 10% increase over your ideal cost.
Typically, you want food cost to be around 25% of what you charge for the dish (remember, you still have rent, utilities, and staff to pay!)
So, if you cut that pie into 8 slices, your cost per slice is roughly $0.83, so you need to be charging at least 4 times that ($3.33 per slice or $26.64 per pie) to make a profit on each sale.
Costing recipes is a critical component in the financial success of operating a restaurant. Knowing both your ideal and real recipes costs will help you:
Once you’ve calculated your food costs and investigated any anomalies or issues, you’re on the path to better controlling them. There are hundreds – if not thousands – of ways you can go about reducing your costs and boosting your profits. Here are some tips:
To meet your profit goals, you have to first meet your spending goals. Recipe costing is a big part of that.
It’s also a big pain in the neck, requiring a lot of time, effort, and tracking.
To help you take some of the hassles out of the process we’ve designed this free recipe food cost calculator.
Keep units consistent (ie. 500g purchased, 125g used not 1 cup used). Also avoid using fractions (ie. 0.25 not 1/4)
Change the sell price to meet your gross profit goals
Total Batch Cost:
Total Cost Per Serving:
Food Gross Profit:
Food Markup:
Total profit:
At Chef Works, we are driven by those who are inspired by all things culinary. Fueled by the belief that every culinary professional deserves the right apparel and tools to enhance the work they do. We understand that the recipe for excellence goes far beyond simple ingredients.
Post Comment
Comments have to be approved before showing up
The preview will apear here
*For the full list of font available please visit Personalised garments page.
Please note:You'll be prompted to upload your logo after you complete the checkout process.
Please make sure to upload a High Resolution PDF, JPG, PNG file or EPS, AI, CDR vector file. This will ensure there are no delays in production. Should you require graphic design assistance our graphics team is available to assist at $65 per hr.