Food & beverage · 7 min read
Recipe costing for hotel kitchens, a practical guide
Short answer: To cost a recipe, list every ingredient with the quantity used per portion, multiply by its current purchase cost, and add them up. Divide the cost per portion by your target food cost percentage to get a menu price. Then keep ingredient costs current, because the recipe is only as good as its prices.
By the Biodux teamUpdated
Ask most hotel chefs what a plate of jollof rice costs to make and you’ll get a confident answer. Ask when they last checked it and the answer is usually “when we set the menu”. Meanwhile rice, oil and chicken have all gone up.
Recipe costing fixes that. It’s not complicated, but it has to be kept up.
Step 1: write the recipe for one portion
List every ingredient and how much goes into one portion, in the unit you buy it in or a fraction of it. Be honest about the oil, the seasoning cubes and the garnish. They add up.
Step 2: price each ingredient at today’s cost
Use the price you actually paid on your last purchase invoice, not the price from when the menu was written. Convert to the unit you used in the recipe.
Step 3: add it up
Here’s an illustrative example. The prices are made up for the example, so use your own.
| Ingredient | Per portion | Unit cost | Cost |
|---|---|---|---|
| Rice | 0.15 kg | ₦1,600 per kg | ₦240 |
| Chicken (quarter) | 1 piece | ₦1,500 per piece | ₦1,500 |
| Tomato and pepper base | 0.12 kg | ₦1,200 per kg | ₦144 |
| Vegetable oil | 0.03 litre | ₦2,800 per litre | ₦84 |
| Seasoning and spices | ₦60 | ||
| Plantain (side) | 0.5 finger | ₦300 each | ₦150 |
| Cost per portion | ₦2,178 |
Step 4: set the price from your target food cost
Menu price = cost per portion ÷ target food cost %
If you want food cost at 30%: ₦2,178 ÷ 0.30 = ₦7,260. You might round to ₦7,500.
Check that against what your competitors charge and what your guests will pay. If the price you need is higher than the market will bear, change the recipe, the portion or the garnish, not just the price.
Step 5: let the till take the stock out
This is where most kitchens fall down. The recipe exists on paper, but sales don’t take ingredients out of stock, so the kitchen’s stock count never matches.
In Biodux, each dish sold through Biodux POS takes its ingredients out of the kitchen’s stock at recipe quantities. At the end of the week, compare what the recipes say you used with what actually left the store. The difference is waste, over-portioning or theft, and now you can see it.
Step 6: keep it current
- Re-check recipe costs whenever a major ingredient changes price.
- Review the whole menu at least once a quarter.
- Watch your best sellers first. A ₦300 rise on the dish you sell 400 times a month matters more than a rise on something you sell twice.
In Biodux the recipe cost is worked out from current ingredient costs, so the cost per portion moves when prices do.
Don’t forget the bar
Cocktails and mixed drinks are recipes too: spirit, mixer, syrup, fruit and ice. And spirits sold by the shot should come out of stock as a fraction of a bottle. Our guide to revenue leakage in hotel bars covers that side.
What good looks like
- Every dish and cocktail has a recipe with a cost per portion.
- Costs come from recent purchase invoices, not memory.
- Sales take ingredients out of stock automatically.
- Weekly variance between recipe usage and actual usage is reviewed.
If you’d like to see recipe costing and stock deduction working together, book a demo and bring two or three of your recipes.