Restaurant & Hospitality

Food Cost &
Recipe System

Calculate the true cost of every dish to the ingredient level. Know your food cost % before service, not after your P&L comes back. Includes menu engineering matrix, waste tracker, and period variance analysis.

Recipe CostingFood Cost % Menu EngineeringWaste Tracking Portion Control8 Sheets

Food_Cost_Calculator.xlsx

Recipe Costing

Menu Engineering

Waste Tracker

Dish / Recipe	Ingredient	Unit	Qty Used	Unit Cost	Ingredient Cost	Portion Cost	Menu Price	Food Cost %	Target %	Variance
STARTERS
Chicken Caesar Salad	Romaine lettuce	oz	6	$0.08	$0.48	$3.84	$14.00	27.4%	28%	-0.6%
	Grilled chicken breast	oz	5	$0.42	$2.10
	Caesar dressing	oz	2	$0.31	$0.62
	Croutons, parmesan	oz	1.5	$0.43	$0.64
MAINS
8oz Ribeye Steak	Ribeye (8oz)	oz	8	$1.42	$11.36	$14.22	$38.00	37.4%	32%	+5.4%
	Butter, garlic	oz	1	$0.28	$0.28
	Seasonal vegetables	portion	1	$1.20	$1.20
	Mashed potato	portion	1	$0.88	$0.88
	Garnish, sauce	portion	1	$0.50	$0.50
Mushroom Risotto	All ingredients	—	—	—	$5.20	$5.20	$22.00	23.6%	28%	-4.4%
MENU AVERAGE						$7.75	$24.67	31.4%	28%	+3.4%

Menu Item	Category	Food Cost %	Covers/Month	Revenue	Gross Profit	Popularity	Profitability	Matrix Position	Action
Chicken Caesar	Starter	27.4%	284	$3,976	$2,884	High	High	⭐ Star	Promote
Ribeye Steak	Main	37.4%	312	$11,856	$7,421	High	Low	Plow Horse	Reduce portion or raise price
Mushroom Risotto	Main	23.6%	98	$2,156	$1,649	Low	High	Puzzle	Reposition, rename, promote
Burger & Fries	Main	41.2%	76	$1,444	$849	Low	Low	Dog	Remove or overhaul
Chocolate Lava Cake	Dessert	18.4%	201	$1,809	$1,476	High	High	⭐ Star	Keep, feature prominently

Date	Ingredient / Item	Reason	Qty Wasted	Unit	Unit Cost	Waste Value	Responsible	Preventable?
Jun 1	Ribeye (prepped)	Over-ordered	3	lbs	$18.00	$54.00	Prep Kitchen	Yes
Jun 1	Mixed greens	Past use-by	2	lbs	$4.50	$9.00	Stores	Yes
Jun 2	Lobster bisque	Incorrect prep	1	batch	$32.00	$32.00	AM Shift	Yes
Jun 3	Salmon fillet	Spoilage	1.5	lbs	$14.00	$21.00	Stores	Yes
Jun 4	Bread rolls	Customer returns	12	units	$0.60	$7.20	FOH	No
WEEK TOTAL						$123.20	—	82% preventable

^$29

One-time · Instant download

★★★★★4.9 / 5.0

8-tab Excel workbook, fully unlocked
Recipe cost calculator — ingredient level
Live food cost % per dish
Menu engineering matrix (Stars, Plows, Puzzles, Dogs)
Waste log with preventability tagging
Ideal vs actual variance by period
Supplier price update tool (one cell = all recipes update)
Works in Excel 2016+ and Google Sheets

️

30-Day Money-Back GuaranteeNot satisfied? Full refund, no questions asked.

Contents

All 8 sheets,
explained.

Sheet 01

Ingredient Library

Enter every ingredient once with unit, pack size, and supplier price. Every recipe pulls from here — update one price and every dish recalculates.

Sheet 02

Recipe Calculator

Build any recipe with quantities per portion. Food cost %, gross profit per cover, and recommended menu price auto-calculate.

Sheet 03

Menu Engineering

4-quadrant Star/Plow Horse/Puzzle/Dog matrix plots every dish by popularity and profitability. Know which items to promote, reprice, or cut.

Sheet 04

Waste Tracker

Log daily waste by item, reason, and responsible team. Weekly cost of waste and preventability analysis.

Sheet 05

Period Variance

Ideal food cost vs actual food cost by period. Quantifies shrinkage, waste, theft, and portioning errors in dollar terms.

Sheet 06

Labour Cost Dashboard

Labour as % of revenue by shift type. Scheduled vs actual hours, overtime flags, and prime cost (food + labour) combined view.

Sheet 07

Weekly P&L Summary

Sales, food cost, labour, and contribution margin by day and week. Spot the day your costs run high before it becomes a trend.

Sheet 08

Supplier Tracker

Track all suppliers, delivery schedules, credit terms, and price change history. Compare bids across suppliers per ingredient.

Reviews

Restaurant operators who use it daily.

★★★★★

Our food cost was sitting at 38% and we had no idea where it was going. This calculator showed us exactly which items were killing our margin. We cut four dishes and got to 29% in six weeks. That's real money.

Rosa M.

Restaurant Owner · Texas

★★★★★

The menu engineering matrix alone is worth ten times the price. We had three "Dog" items we were proud of but losing money on. Replaced them and watched contribution margin jump within a month.

Tom K.

Head Chef & Co-owner · California

FAQ

Common questions.

How many recipes can it handle? +

The workbook is pre-built for 60 recipes across 5 menu categories. All sections are fully expandable — add rows and the formulas extend automatically. There's no functional limit.

If a supplier changes their price, do I have to update every recipe? +

No — that's the key feature. Every ingredient is entered once in the Ingredient Library. Every recipe references that library. Change one supplier price and every recipe that uses that ingredient recalculates automatically.

Does it work for bars and cafés, not just full-service restaurants? +

Yes. The ingredient and recipe structure works for any food or beverage operation. The category labels are fully editable. It's been used by coffee shops, food trucks, hotel F&B departments, and catering operations.

What's the menu engineering matrix based on? +

The classic Kasavana & Smith model (Stars, Plow Horses, Puzzles, Dogs) — the industry standard for menu analysis since the 1980s and still the most widely used framework in restaurant management. The matrix plots each dish by its popularity (covers sold) vs profitability (gross profit per cover).

Food Cost &
Recipe System

Most restaurants don't know
their real food cost.

All 8 sheets,
explained.

Restaurant operators who use it daily.

Common questions.

Complete your restaurant toolkit.

Know your food cost
before service starts.

Food Cost &Recipe System

Most restaurants don't knowtheir real food cost.

All 8 sheets,explained.

Restaurant operators who use it daily.

Common questions.

Complete your restaurant toolkit.

Know your food costbefore service starts.

Food Cost &
Recipe System

Most restaurants don't know
their real food cost.

All 8 sheets,
explained.

Know your food cost
before service starts.