Restaurant food cost calculator
Cost a single recipe in a minute. Enter each ingredient, how much goes in, how many portions the recipe makes and your selling price. The sample below is an illustrative plate; replace it with your own. Nothing is saved or sent anywhere.
Ingredients
$2.10
$0.32
$0.48
$0.35
$0.25
Yield is the share of the purchased product you can actually use after trim or cooking loss. Leave it at 100 if there is none. A line costs quantity × cost per unit ÷ yield.
Recipe details
Results
Total recipe cost
$3.50
Cost per portion
$3.50
Food cost %
21.9%
Cost per portion ÷ selling price
Gross profit per portion
$12.50
Before labour and overheads
At a 30% target, this recipe would be priced at about $11.68 per portion. Round to a sensible menu price and check it against what guests will pay.
Ingredient cost and gross profit are not net profit. Labour, rent, utilities, packaging, waste and every other expense still come out of gross profit. Amounts are shown in dollars; use whatever currency your prices are in.
Costing by hand gets old fast
ChefMind AI's recipe costing pulls ingredient costs from your inventory and shows the food cost percentage for each recipe, so a price change updates every plate that uses it.
How the numbers are worked out
- Line cost = quantity × cost per unit ÷ (yield % ÷ 100).
- Total recipe cost = sum of the line costs.
- Cost per portion = total recipe cost ÷ portions.
- Food cost % = cost per portion ÷ selling price × 100.
- Gross profit per portion = selling price − cost per portion.
For the whole-restaurant version using inventory and purchases, read how to calculate food cost percentage for a restaurant. To keep supplier price changes out of your margin, see how to compare restaurant supplier prices.