Many restaurants price their menu by looking at what others charge. It is a reasonable place to start and a risky place to stop, because it says nothing about what each dish costs you to make.
Start from the recipe
Write down every ingredient in a dish and the quantity used, including the oil, the garnish and the packaging for delivery. Price each one from what you paid most recently, not from what you paid when the menu was printed.
Account for what is lost
Vegetables are trimmed, meat loses weight when cooked, some portions come out larger than the recipe. A recipe cost that ignores this is lower than the truth on every plate.
- Cost each dish from its recipe and current purchase prices.
- Include waste, trimming and packaging.
- Review the costing whenever a main ingredient changes price.
- Compare the cost of what you sold with what you actually used.
A dish can be your best seller and still lose money on every plate. Only the recipe cost will tell you.