Free restaurant food cost calculator

Start with one ingredient per row. Enter the total price paid for the purchase and the total quantity included in that purchase. For a case containing four five-pound bags, enter twenty pounds as the purchase quantity and the price for the entire case. Then enter the quantity used in the whole recipe, not the amount per serving unless the recipe makes one serving.

Choose compatible units. Pounds can convert to ounces, kilograms to grams, and liters to milliliters. Fluid ounces measure volume; ounces measure weight. The calculator rejects incompatible units instead of quietly inventing a conversion. For a product sold by the piece, use each for both purchase and recipe quantities, or establish an actual measured weight before calculating.

Set the number of portions the whole recipe produces and the menu price for one portion. Ingredient rows are summed before dividing by portions. The prefilled Caesar salad is an illustrative one-portion recipe costing $1.62; at a $7.25 selling price its food cost rounds to 22.3%. These are sample prices, not current supplier quotes. Replace them with your own costs.

Food cost percentage equals ingredient cost per serving divided by selling price per serving, multiplied by 100. A $4.50 portion sold for $18 has a 25% food cost. The remaining $13.50 is contribution before other expenses, not net profit. Make sure the selling price and cost refer to the same portion and handle sales tax consistently in your own reporting.

To estimate a selling price from a target, divide the portion cost by the target percentage as a decimal. A $4.50 portion at a 30% target produces a $15 suggested price. This is a starting point for review, not a market-tested price. Consider guest expectations, competitors' comparable offers, preparation effort, and your full operating costs before deciding.

This calculator estimates a standard recipe from its ingredient quantities. A period's actual food cost uses inventory and purchasing records: beginning inventory plus purchases minus ending inventory, with any needed adjustments for transfers or credits. Divide the resulting cost by the matching food sales for the same dates to calculate a period food cost percentage.

For example, $8,000 beginning inventory plus $12,000 purchases minus $7,000 ending inventory produces $13,000 cost of goods sold before other adjustments. Against $40,000 food sales, that is 32.5%. Consistent count timing, units, categories, and valuation matter. Comparing a recipe percentage directly with a restaurant-wide period percentage without those differences in mind can lead to the wrong conclusion.

You may encounter planning ranges such as 25% to 35%, but there is no universal food cost target that makes every restaurant healthy. A steakhouse, coffee shop, and cocktail bar have different sales mixes, labor requirements, and selling prices. Treat any broad range as a discussion starter and build targets from the economics of your own menu.

A dish with a higher ingredient percentage can still contribute more dollars than a low-priced item with a lower percentage. Review both measures. The calculator makes the ingredient ratio visible, but it does not include wages, rent, utilities, delivery commissions, or other expenses. Use your broader operating records when deciding whether a target supports the business.

If you pay for ten pounds of untrimmed product and use only eight pounds, cost the purchase over the usable amount when preparing the ingredient input. This tool does not estimate trimming or cooking loss for you. Measure the yield or cost the prep batch separately, then enter its cost and usable output as one ingredient row.

Include the dressing, garnish, cooking fat, side, and disposable packaging where relevant to the item you are analyzing. Small omissions repeated across many orders can matter. Use actual portion standards rather than a verbal description such as a handful or splash. Recheck the recipe when equipment, supplier specifications, or preparation methods change.

A calculator provides a useful snapshot. It cannot know that your next invoice contains a new price, a different pack size, or a substitution. Date your cost checks and return to the ingredients that move frequently. Save the information you need before closing this calculator; it is a browser worksheet and does not create a saved account recipe.

Tired of doing this by hand? BOH Brain connects approved invoices to ingredient costs and affected recipes. Start free, review the extracted products, and use the same catalog across dishes. The approval step gives you a chance to correct the source data before a new cost flows into the recipes you use for pricing decisions.