You know the cost of your proteins. You have a rough sense of what each plate runs. But when your sous chef asks, “What’s the actual margin on the new tasting menu?” — the honest answer is usually a shrug.
Most chefs cost recipes in their head. Years of kitchen experience make it easy to ballpark. But ballparking is what turns a $4.20 plate cost into a $5.80 reality once you count the herb oil, the microgreens, and the 15% trim loss on that tenderloin.
The gap between “roughly $4” and “actually $5.80” is the difference between a 30% food cost and a 38% food cost. Across 300 covers a night, that’s $480 in margin you thought you had.
Why Chef Workflows Need a Different Approach
Generic recipe costing tools assume you’re pricing a single dish. Chef workflows are messier:
- Sub-recipes everywhere: Your demi-glace goes into three sauces. Those sauces go into six dishes. Change the price of veal bones and you need to trace the cost through three layers.
- Seasonal menu cycles: You’re swapping 30% of the menu every quarter. Each swap means re-costing every affected dish plus checking the new food cost against your targets.
- Catering vs. à la carte: The same chicken dish costs differently at scale. Buying 50 lbs of chicken thighs is a different price per pound than buying 10 lbs.
- Trim and loss: A whole fish has 40-55% yield. A beef tenderloin is 70-80% after trimming. These loss rates make a real difference at volume.
A spreadsheet handles one of these. A recipe costing app handles all of them simultaneously.
Real Example: Pan-Seared Salmon, 4 Portions
| Ingredient | Purchase price | Package size | Amount used | Loss rate | Effective cost |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Atlantic salmon fillet | $12.99 | 1 lb | 1.5 lbs | 10% | $21.65 |
| Asparagus | $3.99 | 1 bunch | 1 bunch | 20% | $4.99 |
| Lemon | $0.75 | 1 each | 2 each | 5% | $1.58 |
| Butter | $4.99 | 1 lb | 4 tbsp | 0% | $0.62 |
| Olive oil | $8.99 | 500 ml | 30 ml | 0% | $0.54 |
| Salt, pepper, herbs | — | — | — | — | ~$0.40 |
| Total | $29.78 |
Cost per portion: $29.78 ÷ 4 = $7.45
At a $32 menu price, food cost is 23%. Solid for fine dining.
But here’s the thing — if you forgot the loss rate on that salmon, you’d calculate $6.50 per plate instead of $7.45. Across a week of 200 salmon orders, that’s a $190 gap you wouldn’t notice until month-end.
Catering: Where Costing Gets Serious
A 150-guest wedding with a 3-course menu and two passed appetizers. You quoted $85 per person. Is that profitable?
The only way to know: Cost every component, multiply by guest count, add your labor and rental fees, then check the margin.
Here’s the sequence a recipe costing app handles:
- Build each dish as a recipe (appetizers, main, sides, dessert)
- Set portion count to 150
- See total ingredient cost instantly
- Add per-guest costs (rentals, packaging, transport)
- Compare total against your quoted price
What takes 3 hours in a spreadsheet (chasing formulas, checking quantities, converting units) takes 20 minutes in an app — because the ingredient prices and sub-recipes are already there from your regular menu.
What To Look For in a Chef’s Costing Tool
Not all recipe calculators are built for kitchen professionals. Before committing to one, check these:
Must-haves:
- Ingredient price auto-updates across all recipes
- Sub-recipe support (sauce → dish → menu)
- Loss rate / yield percentage per ingredient
- Per-portion and per-batch output
- Works on your phone (you’re not sitting at a desk)
Nice-to-haves:
- Batch scaling (convert a 4-portion recipe to 200)
- Price history tracking (compare last month’s costs)
- Target margin calculator (set 30% food cost, get selling price)
- Folder organization by menu section or event
What To Do This Week
- Pick your 5 highest-cost dishes and calculate exact cost per plate — including loss rates
- Check sub-recipe costs: If you make your own stocks, sauces, or bases, cost those separately first
- Compare your estimated food cost to the actual number — the gap is usually 3-8% wider than you think
- Try costing one catering quote ingredient by ingredient instead of gut-feeling it
The first time you see the real numbers, at least one dish will surprise you. That’s the point.
KitchenCost is a free recipe cost calculator for iOS and Android. Enter ingredients, build recipes with sub-recipe support, and see per-portion costs instantly — built for professional kitchens.