How to work out what a dish costs to make

To work out what a dish costs to make, write the recipe for a full batch using what you buy, price each ingredient from your last purchase, correct for what you lose in trimming and cooking, add the things almost nobody writes down (oil, gas, seasoning, garnish, packaging) and divide by the plates you actually get. That is your ingredient cost per plate. Add your time and your overheads spread per plate and you have the loaded cost, the number your price has to stand on.

The method is the same for a steak, a burger or a soup. What changes from dish to dish is where the money hides: in the meat you trim, the fryer oil, the cheese or the stock that reduces in the pot.

In this guide

This is the general method. Each type of dish has its own guide with a full example:

• What a burger costs to make
• What a pizza costs to make
• What empanadas cost to make
• What a sandwich costs to make
• What a salad or grain bowl costs
• What fried chicken costs to make
• What ceviche costs to make
• What a soup or stew costs
• What a pasta dish costs

Step 1: the batch recipe, with what you buy

Write the recipe the way you really make it, for a full batch: 10 plates, 20 portions or the whole pot. List each ingredient at the quantity you buy or take from storage, not the amount that ends up on the plate. If you buy 2.5 kg of beef and 2.1 kg goes on the grill, the recipe says 2.5 kg.

Working by batch has two advantages. Small ingredients (a spoon of pepper, a knob of butter) can be measured without impossible decimals. And you can count the batch yield: how many plates actually came out, not how many should have. The guide on recipe yield covers how to measure it.

Step 2: the price of each ingredient

For each ingredient, use what you paid on your last purchase, at the wholesaler, cash and carry or supermarket, from the receipt or your notes. Convert it to the same unit as the recipe: price per kilo, per litre or per unit.

If you buy by the sack, bag or case, divide the price by the contents. A 25 kg sack of potatoes at $35 is $1.40 per kilo. A 20 litre drum of frying oil at $60 is $3.00 per litre.

Step 3: trim waste and cooking loss

This is where most costing goes wrong. What you buy is not what you serve.

• Trim waste: the fat and sinew you cut off the meat, potato peel, the outer leaves of lettuce, fish skin and bones.
• Cooking loss: the water meat gives off on the grill, what evaporates from a sauce, how much a potato shrinks in the fryer.

The only reliable way to know how much you lose is to weigh. Weigh what you buy, weigh what is left after trimming and, if you portion after cooking, weigh it cooked too. Those numbers are yours: they depend on your supplier, your cut and your kitchen. Do not borrow someone else's percentages.

With your measurement, the sum is:

cost per usable kilo = price per kilo ÷ what you keep from each kilo

If trimming 1 kg of beef leaves you 840 g, what you keep is 0.84. The yield and usable cost tool does this sum with trim and cooking loss together. For cuts with bone or a lot of fat, the guide on meat yield walks through the test step by step.

Step 4: what almost nobody writes down

These costs are small per plate, but they repeat on every plate:

• Oil. Fryer oil is spread over every batch you fry before you change it. Oil for searing or sautéing goes by what you use per batch. The guide on frying oil cost shows how to count batches.
• Gas or electricity. Estimate the share of your bill for that dish and divide by the batches.
• Seasoning: salt, pepper, garlic, herbs, butter for basting. Measure how long a tub or bottle lasts and divide by the batches.
• Garnish and sides: the side salad, the sauce, the herbs on top. They get forgotten because "it's only a little", but they go on every plate.

Step 5: packaging for takeaway

If the dish goes out for delivery or takeaway, add the box, lid, bag, cutlery, sauce pots and napkin. The guide on packaging cost per unit shows how to get the real cost of each. A dish served at the table and the same dish in a box do not cost the same.

Step 6: divide by the plates you get

ingredient cost per plate = total batch cost ÷ plates you got

Use the plates that actually came out, not the ones you planned. If the recipe says 10 plates but generous portions mean you get 9, the cost per plate goes up 11%. That is why measuring portions matters as much as measuring ingredients; the guide on portion control shows how to do it without weighing every plate.

Step 7: your time and your overheads

The ingredient cost is not the full cost. For the loaded cost, add:

• Labour: the prep time for the batch (trimming, cutting, par-cooking), times what an hour of work is worth, divided by the plates.
• Overheads per plate: rent, power, water, internet, licences. Divide the monthly total by the plates you sell a month.

The guide to costing your products covers these two steps in more detail, and how to cost a plate for your menu shows how to go from this number to a menu price.

Worked example: steak frites for 10

You make steak frites in batches of 10. This is your recipe with your purchases and your measurements:

• Sirloin: you buy a 2.5 kg piece at $22.00 per kilo. After trimming fat and sinew you keep 2.1 kg (840 g from each kilo). You cut 10 steaks of 210 g.
• Potatoes for the fries: 3 kg at $1.40. Peeled and cut, you keep 2.4 kg, 240 g per plate.
• Fryer oil: the fryer takes 4 litres at $3.00 and you change it every 6 batches, so each batch carries 12 ÷ 6 = $2.00.
• Gas and electricity: from your bills, you estimate $2.50 per batch of this dish.

The ingredient cost is $7.61 per plate. Now the loaded cost:

• Labour: prep for the batch (trimming, cutting steaks, peeling and cutting potatoes, making the sauce) takes 1.5 hours. At $16 an hour: 1.5 × 16 = $24, or $2.40 per plate.
• Overheads: $3,000 a month over 1,200 plates a month = $2.50 per plate.
• Loaded cost: 7.61 + 2.40 + 2.50 = $12.51 per plate.
• Takeaway: box $0.55, sauce pot $0.15, bag $0.20 and cutlery $0.10 add $1.00. Loaded cost for takeaway: $13.51.

What the table tells you

The steak is $5.50 of $7.61, 72% of the ingredient cost. Any change in the price of sirloin moves your cost more than all the other ingredients put together. That is where it pays to negotiate, compare suppliers or try another cut.

Now see what happens if you skip the trim correction. Costing the steak at purchase price gives 0.21 kg × $22.00 = $4.62 per plate. The real cost is 22 ÷ 0.84 = $26.19 per usable kilo, and 0.21 × 26.19 = $5.50. That is $0.88 per plate. At 30 plates a day over 26 days, 780 plates, it is 780 × 0.88 = $686.40 a month missing from your costing.

From cost to price

Price is a separate decision, but it starts here. If you decide ingredients should be 35% of your price before tax (you choose the percentage based on your own overheads; this is only an example), the price is 7.61 ÷ 0.35 = about $21.74. The plate price tool does that sum with whatever percentage you choose. Sales tax, if it applies to you, goes on top; check your local tax rules or ask an accountant.

What changes from dish to dish

The method does not change, but each type of dish has its own trap:

• Burgers: ground beef loses weight on the grill. If you advertise a patty weight, measure it raw and cooked. And the meal deal adds fries, oil and a drink.
• Pizza: cost is built per dough ball, plus sauce and cheese per size. Cheese is usually the most expensive topping and the easiest to over-portion.
• Empanadas: dough and filling per piece, plus the oven or the fryer oil. Weigh the filling of a few to know how much you really put in.
• Sandwiches: bread per unit and every filling in grams. Cooked fillings (roast pork, chicken, turkey) have their own cooking loss.
• Bowls and salads: lots of small ingredients, each with its own trim waste. "A few grams" of ten things adds up to a surprise.
• Fried chicken: bone-in chicken, coating, oil and a frying loss you need to measure.
• Ceviche: the fish yield after skin and bones come off, and limes, whose price swings a lot.
• Soups and stews: yield is measured in litres or portions at the end, after the pot has reduced.
• Pasta: dry pasta gains weight when cooked, so you portion it cooked but buy it dry. The sauce often costs more than the pasta.

Each guide in the list above has a full example with that trap worked out. If you are making more or fewer plates than your usual batch, the recipe scaler recalculates the quantities.

How often to recalculate

Recalculate a dish whenever the price of an ingredient that carries a big share of it goes up: the beef in a steak, the fish and limes in a ceviche, the oil in everything fried. For the rest, a monthly check is enough. Keep your receipts with dates and prices; without them, recalculating is guessing.

Do it with the calculator

In the food cost calculator, enter the batch recipe with what you buy, your trim percentage for each ingredient, the oil and gas per batch and how many plates come out; it gives you the cost per plate and the price you need for the margin you choose.