Food Cost Calculator
A plate costs what was bought to make it, not what ended up on it. Trim, yield and the oil in the pan are where recipe cards go wrong, and where a food cost calculator earns its keep.
Cost per plate
- Cost per plate $12.81 of ingredients over 4 portions is $3.20, plus $0.40 of extras.
- $3.60
- Food cost at your menu price $3.60 over $11.50. Above your 30% target: at this price the plate needs to cost $3.45 or less, which is $0.15 less than it does.
- 31.3%
- Menu price for 30% food cost Plate cost divided by the target: $3.60 / 0.3. $0.51 above the current price. Most menus then round to a price point; the table below shows the spread.
- $12.01
- Gross profit per plate What is left of $11.50 after the food. Labor, rent and everything else are paid from this, which is why a low food cost on a cheap plate can still be a poor dish to sell. The dollars matter as well as the percentage.
- $7.90
- Markup and margin on the food Food cost percentage and gross margin on food always add to 100%. A 30% food cost is a 233% markup on cost: the price is 3.33x the plate. Quoting the markup when someone asked for the margin, or the reverse, is the usual mix-up; the markup calculator converts between them for any cost.
- 219% markup, 68.7% margin
- Trim and waste in the plate cost Per plate, from ingredients with a yield below 100%. Costing the trimmed weight at the purchase price would understate the plate by this much, 7.2% of its cost.
- $0.26
- Chicken breast (lb) 49.4% of the plate, costed at a 90% yield.
- $1.78
- Linguine (oz) 13% of the plate.
- $0.47
- Butter (oz) 8.7% of the plate.
- $0.31
- Parsley (bunch) 7.4% of the plate, costed at a 70% yield.
- $0.27
- Lemons (each) 6.9% of the plate.
- $0.25
- Capers (oz) 3.5% of the plate.
- $0.13
| Food cost | Menu price | Gross profit per plate | Markup on food |
|---|---|---|---|
| 20% | $18.01 | $14.41 | 400% |
| 22% | $16.37 | $12.77 | 355% |
| 25% | $14.41 | $10.81 | 300% |
| 28% | $12.86 | $9.26 | 257% |
| 30% | $12.01 | $8.40 | 233% |
| 32% | $11.26 | $7.65 | 213% |
| 35% | $10.29 | $6.69 | 186% |
| 38% | $9.48 | $5.88 | 163% |
| 40% | $9.00 | $5.40 | 150% |
- This is a theoretical food cost: what the plate costs when it is made exactly to the recipe. The food cost an inventory count produces is usually higher, because spoilage, over-portioning, staff meals and comps all land there.
- Labor is not in the plate cost. Food plus labor together is often called prime cost, and a dish that is cheap in ingredients but slow to prepare can cost more to sell than its food cost percentage suggests.
How the Food Cost Calculator works
Food cost percentage is the cost of the ingredients on a plate divided by the price it sells for. A plate that costs $3.60 to make and sells for $12 runs a 30% food cost. Turned around, the menu price for a target is the plate cost divided by that target: $3.60 / 0.30 = $12.
The division is the easy part. Almost every error is in the plate cost, and it comes from three places.
Costing what you used rather than what you bought. A recipe calls for two pounds of trimmed chicken. If the breasts lose a tenth of their weight to trimming, you bought about 2.22 pounds to get there, and the plate has to carry the cost of all of it. That is what the yield column is for: the cost of an ingredient is its purchase price per unit, times the quantity used, divided by the yield. Vegetables that are peeled, herbs whose stems are discarded, meat that is trimmed or loses weight in cooking, fish that is filleted. All of them cost more per usable pound than the invoice suggests. The yield for your kitchen is measured by weighing before and after; a figure from somebody else's kitchen is a guess.
Mixing units. The cost per unit only means something if the purchase quantity and the quantity used are in the same unit. A case priced by the pound and a recipe written in ounces will be wrong by a factor of sixteen. Convert first, then cost.
Leaving off the small things. Frying oil, salt, pepper, the garnish, the dressing on the side salad, the butter on the bread. Each is a few cents and none of them appears on a recipe card written for the dish itself, which is how a carefully costed menu ends up with a food cost several points higher than planned. The extras-per-plate field is a single allowance for all of it.
What target to use is a business decision rather than a fact about restaurants. Many operators plan somewhere around 28-35% on food, but the right figure depends on the concept: a dish with expensive ingredients and little labor can carry a higher food cost than one that is cheap to buy and slow to make, because what has to be covered is food and labor together. The table shows the price at every point from 20% to 40% so the trade-off is visible rather than assumed.
Percentage and dollars are different questions. A 25% food cost on a $6 side earns $4.50; a 35% food cost on a $30 steak earns $19.50. Which dish to promote depends on how many of each sell and what the kitchen can produce, not on which percentage is lower. Menu engineering starts from the gross profit per plate as well as the percentage.
Food cost percentage is the complement of the margin on food. A 30% food cost is a 70% gross margin on the food and a 233% markup on its cost: three ways of describing the same price. They get confused in conversation the same way markup and margin do everywhere else, and the markup calculator handles the conversion for any cost.
What this calculator does not model: labor, overhead, delivery-platform commission, card fees and sales tax. It costs the plate as written. The food cost your inventory shows at month end will sit above this figure, and the gap between the two (theoretical against actual) is the number that tells you how much is going to waste, portioning and comps.
Food Cost Calculator FAQ
How do I calculate food cost percentage?
Divide the cost of the ingredients in one plate by its menu price and multiply by 100. A plate that costs $3.60 to make and sells for $12 has a 30% food cost. To find a price for a target, divide the plate cost by the target as a decimal: $3.60 / 0.30 = $12.
What is a good food cost percentage?
There is no single correct figure. Many operators plan around 28-35% on food, but a dish that is expensive to buy and quick to make can carry a higher food cost than one that is cheap to buy and labor-heavy, because food and labor are paid from the same price. Pick a target per concept, and look at the gross profit in dollars as well.
What is yield percentage and why does it matter?
Yield is the share of what you bought that ends up usable after trimming, peeling, boning or cooking loss. If ten pounds of an ingredient gives nine usable pounds, the yield is 90%, and each usable pound costs a ninth more than the invoice price per pound. Ignoring yield understates the plate cost on exactly the ingredients that cost the most.
Is food cost percentage the same as markup?
No. Food cost is the plate cost as a share of the price. Markup is the profit as a share of the cost. A 30% food cost means the price is 3.33 times the plate cost, which is a 233% markup and a 70% margin on the food.
Why is my actual food cost higher than my recipe costing?
Recipe costing gives the theoretical food cost: the plate made exactly to spec. The actual figure from inventory also includes spoilage, over-portioning, staff meals, comps and anything that walks out the door. The gap between the two is worth tracking because it is controllable in a way ingredient prices often are not.