How to Calculate a Dish's Food Cost in 10 Minutes: A Step-by-Step Tech Card Example

Many cafe owners in Tbilisi and Batumi know their overall food cost only roughly. But profit is built dish by dish: one plate earns a healthy margin while another quietly breaks even. The good news is that you can cost a single dish in about 10 minutes, as long as you have purchase prices and a kitchen scale.

Why guessing fails

The usual mistakes look like this:

• weighing the cooked product while buying raw, and forgetting trim and peeling waste;
• using an old price for meat or oil after the supplier has raised it;
• leaving out sauce, frying oil, a free side or takeaway packaging;
• costing the menu once at launch and never looking again.

The calculation in six steps

Let's take an illustrative example: grilled chicken fillet with potatoes and a vegetable salad. Every number below is made up to demonstrate the method; it is not market data.

1. List every ingredient in one portion. Chicken, potatoes, salad vegetables, oil, spices, sauce.
2. Define net weight, what actually lands on the plate. For example: fillet 200 g, potatoes 200 g, vegetables 120 g.
3. Convert to gross weight using loss. If the fillet loses 10% when trimmed, gross = 200 / 0.9 ≈ 222 g. If potatoes lose 20% when peeled, gross = 200 / 0.8 = 250 g.
4. Multiply gross weight by the price per kilogram from your latest invoice. Fillet at 16 GEL/kg: 0.222 × 16 ≈ 3.56 GEL. Potatoes at 2.5 GEL/kg: 0.25 × 2.5 ≈ 0.63 GEL. Vegetables at 4 GEL/kg: 0.12 × 4 ≈ 0.48 GEL.
5. Add the small items: oil, spices, sauce, say 0.60 GEL.
6. Add it up and compare with the price. 3.56 + 0.63 + 0.48 + 0.60 = 5.27 GEL. With a menu price of 24 GEL, food cost = 5.27 / 24 ≈ 22%.

Formula: food cost % = cost per portion / menu price × 100. Decide in advance (and confirm with your accountant) whether you use the price with or without tax, then stay consistent.

What to do with the result

If the percentage is above your target

You have three levers: cut waste (a different purchase format, more careful trimming), revisit the portion, or negotiate with the supplier by comparing prices across invoices. Raising the menu price is the last option, not the first.

If the percentage looks suspiciously low

Check whether you forgot an ingredient or a loss. A number that looks too good usually means an incomplete tech card.

Recalculate when prices change

Food cost is not a constant. When chicken or oil gets more expensive, every dish that uses them changes. Reviewing your ten best-selling dishes once a month pays off quickly.

A mini checklist before a dish goes on the menu

• A control portion was weighed, not just "what the cook usually plates".
• Every raw ingredient has a processing loss percentage.
• Prices come from the latest invoices, not from memory.
• Sauce, oil, sides and takeaway packaging are included.
• The result is saved in the tech card so the cook and the manager see the same numbers.

If even one item is missed, the cost figure will be more optimistic than reality, and the difference comes straight out of your profit.

How RestIQ makes this easier

You can do all of this in a spreadsheet, but then you must update prices by hand. In RestIQ, tech cards store gross and net weights, processing loss percentages, nested recipes and semi-finished products, and food cost is calculated automatically from the latest prices on RS.ge waybills or manual purchase acts. You get margin in percent and in GEL, plus a warning when a dish's cost exceeds the target level. Tech cards can be printed as PDF for the kitchen, and recipes can be dictated by voice. See the features page for details.

Summary

A dish's food cost is its gross ingredients multiplied by current prices, plus small items, divided by the menu price. Start with your five best sellers: you will quickly see where you really earn money and where you only create turnover.

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