Recipe Cost Calculator
Calculate recipe cost per serving and the margin at a given selling price.
About Recipe Cost Calculator
Food cost percentage compares ingredient cost against selling price and excludes labour, which is why it is not the same as margin. Waste is applied to ingredients because that is where it occurs. Pricing from food cost percentage alone ignores labour intensity, which is why a cheap-ingredient dish requiring hours of preparation can be the least profitable item on a menu.
Formula
Recipe Cost
Food cost percentage = ingredient cost per serving ÷ selling price
- food cost percentage
- Typically targeted at 28 to 35 per cent in food service
- waste
- Trim, spoilage and portioning loss, added to the ingredient cost
Worked example
With the default values below, Recipe Cost Calculator returns Cost per Serving of $3.250. Change any input above and every figure here is recalculated in your browser.
Inputs used
- Total ingredient costminimum 0
- 12.5
- Servings producedminimum 1
- 6
- Trim and waste allowanceaccepts 0–50 %
- 8 %
- Labour costminimum 0
- 6
- Selling price per servingminimum 0
- 9.5
Results
- Cost per Serving
- $3.250
- Total Recipe Cost
- $19.50
- Food Cost Percentage
- 23.68%
- Gross Margin per Serving
- $6.250
- Price for a 30 Per Cent Food Cost
- $7.50
Step by step
- 1Values used
- 2Recipe Cost
- 3Cost per Serving= 3.250
- 4Total Recipe Cost= 19.50
- 5Food Cost Percentage= 23.68
- 6Gross Margin per Serving= 6.250
- 7Price for a 30 Per Cent Food Cost= 7.50
Assumptions and limits
- The result is derived only from the 5 inputs listed above. Anything not among them is not part of the calculation.
- In particular, this calculator does not take inflation, tax or compounding frequency into account.
- Figures are rounded for display to 3 decimal places, so totals built from several rounded parts can differ slightly from the unrounded arithmetic.
How these calculators are built and tested is described on the Methodology page. If a figure looks wrong, please report it.
Frequently Asked Questions
How is Recipe Cost calculated?
Food cost percentage = ingredient cost per serving ÷ selling price Food cost percentage compares ingredient cost against selling price and excludes labour, which is why it is not the same as margin. Waste is applied to ingredients because that is where it occurs.
Why does Recipe Cost matter?
Pricing from food cost percentage alone ignores labour intensity, which is why a cheap-ingredient dish requiring hours of preparation can be the least profitable item on a menu.
What values do I need to enter?
This calculator takes 5 inputs: Total ingredient cost, Servings produced, Trim and waste allowance, Labour cost, Selling price per serving. The pre-filled defaults are a realistic starting point — replace them with figures from your own environment for a result you can act on.