How the math works
Recipe costing is four steps, and the calculator does each one per ingredient:
- Unit cost. Price paid ÷ amount bought. A 50 lb bag of flour at $22 is $0.44 per pound, or 2.75¢ per ounce.
- Yield adjustment. Divide the amount the recipe needs by the yield percentage. If a recipe needs 1 lb of usable onion and onions yield 63% after peeling, you must buy 1.59 lb. The usable pound costs 1 ÷ 0.63 = 1.59× the invoice price.
- Extended cost. Unit cost × as-purchased amount needed. Add every line for the recipe total.
- Per serving. Recipe total ÷ servings. That's your plate cost (or portion cost), the number every other calculator on this site starts from.
The suggested price is plate cost ÷ target food cost percentage: a $3.60 plate at a 30% target is $12.00, which the price style then nudges to $11.95 or $12.99. Restaurant textbooks write the same thing as a markup: 1 ÷ 0.30 = 3.33× the plate cost.
Yield percentages to use
Yield is where most home-made spreadsheets go wrong: they price the invoice weight, not the usable weight. Published yields from distributor and culinary references (as-purchased to edible-portion, raw):
| Item | Yield | Buy this much for 1 lb usable |
| Whole chicken (without neck and giblets) | ~89% | 1.12 lb |
| Beef tenderloin, peeled from whole | ~52–70% | 1.4–1.9 lb |
| Salmon, boneless meat from fillet | ~88% | 1.14 lb |
| Onions, peeled and trimmed | ~63–89% | 1.1–1.6 lb |
| Carrots, peeled | ~68–82% | 1.2–1.5 lb |
| Potatoes, hand-peeled | ~63–81% | 1.2–1.6 lb |
| Romaine lettuce | ~67–86% | 1.2–1.5 lb |
| Iceberg lettuce | ~62% | 1.6 lb |
| Broccoli, florets only | ~47–61% | 1.6–2.1 lb |
| Bell peppers | ~59–65% | 1.5–1.7 lb |
| Tomatoes | ~91% | 1.1 lb |
| Mushrooms, button | ~97% | 1.03 lb |
Ranges reflect different cut specs (hand vs machine peel, dice vs whole) between the US Foods and Chefs Resources tables. The right number is your own: weigh a case before and after prep once a quarter and use that. Cooking shrink is separate; USDA puts roasted whole chicken at about 78% of raw weight and a grilled sirloin at about 80%. If you portion after cooking, apply both.
What to do with the number
Cost per serving on its own tells you little. Divided by the menu price it becomes food cost percentage, and the National Restaurant Association's 2024 operator survey puts the median at 32.0% for full-service and 32.4% for limited-service restaurants, with higher-volume operations lower (31.0% at $2M+ in sales). A plate that costs more than 35–40% of its price is either underpriced, over-portioned, or a loss leader you're carrying on purpose. Run the food cost percentage calculator across your whole period to see whether the recipe cards match what actually left the walk-in, and the menu engineering calculator to see which items earn their space.
Common mistakes
- Costing the invoice weight. Skip yield and every vegetable-heavy dish looks 20–40% cheaper than it is.
- Forgetting the "free" stuff. Oil, salt, garnish, bread, sauce on the side. Two cents here and five there adds up; price the small stuff as a flat "Q factor" of 2–5% if you won't itemize it.
- Using last year's prices. USDA expects food-away-from-home prices up 3.6% in 2026 after 3.8% in 2025, and individual items swing far more. Re-cost your top 20 items every quarter.
- Mixing recipe yield with portion yield. A batch of sauce that makes 40 portions, of which you ladle 3 oz onto a plate, is a sub-recipe: cost the batch, divide by portions, and enter it as one line in the plate.
- Putting labor in food cost. Labor belongs in prime cost. Include it in pricing, not in the food cost percentage.
Price this plate at any food cost target →
Frequently asked questions
How do I cost a recipe?
Unit cost × amount used, adjusted for yield, summed across ingredients, divided by servings.
What's a good cost per serving?
Whatever lands at 28–35% of the menu price. The NRA 2024 median is 32%.
Why does yield matter?
You pay for the whole item but serve the usable part. Onions at 63% yield cost 1.6× the invoice price per usable pound.
Should labor be in the recipe cost?
Not in food cost percentage. Add it for pricing to-go and catering items.
Can I cost a sub-recipe (sauce, dough)?
Yes: cost the batch with the servings it makes, then enter the per-portion cost as a single "each" line in the finished plate.
Does it handle metric?
Yes: g, kg, ml and L alongside lb, oz, cups, quarts and gallons.
Sources
- National Restaurant Association: Restaurant operators kept food cost ratios in check in 2024 (median 32.0% full service, 32.4% limited service).
- US Foods: Common product yields and conversions (PDF).
- Chefs Resources: Produce yields.
- USDA ARS: Table of cooking yields for meat and poultry (PDF).
- BCcampus, Basic Kitchen and Food Service Management: Yield testing.
- Egan, Introduction to Food Production and Service (Penn State): Menu and recipe pricing.
- USDA ERS: Food Price Outlook, summary findings.