Food Cost Calculator and Recipe Costing Template (Excel)

A food cost calculator is a worksheet that turns ingredient invoice prices into the cost of one portion of a dish, then divides that cost by the menu price to give the food cost percentage. It shows how much of each sale goes on ingredients, what the dish should sell for and how much money it keeps.

A recipe costing template does the middle step: it lists every ingredient in a recipe with the quantity used, converts that quantity into the unit you buy in, allows for trim and waste, and adds the lines up. A menu costing spreadsheet repeats that for the whole menu and adds the sales numbers, so you can see which dishes carry the business and which ones only look busy.

This page explains the food cost percentage formula for a single plate and for a month, how yield changes the true cost of an ingredient, how to set a menu price from a target food cost percentage, and how menu engineering classifies dishes. Each method links to the published source it comes from. The template puts all of it in one Excel and Google Sheets workbook.

Last reviewed: 30 October 2026.

Food cost percentage is the cost of the food divided by the food sales it produced. For one dish that is cost per portion divided by menu price; for a month it is net food cost divided by food sales. Both versions are in the BCcampus open textbook Basic Kitchen and Food Service Management, written by the BC Cook Articulation Committee (menu engineering chapter, monthly food costs chapter).

The plate version is your theoretical food cost: what the food should cost if every portion is exact and nothing is wasted. The period version is your actual food cost from counts and invoices. The workbook calculates both: the Dashboard weights each dish's theoretical cost by how many you sold and sets it beside the latest actual figure. Some gap is expected; a wide one is a sign to check portioning, waste, theft, comps that were not recorded and ingredient prices that are out of date.

There is no official target food cost %. It depends on your concept, prices and labor model, so the workbook asks you to set your own on the Settings tab and lets you set a different target for any dish.

Menu engineering is the method published by Michael Kasavana and Donald Smith in 1982 that rates each dish on two measures within its menu category: popularity (its share of the category's sales) and contribution margin (menu price minus food cost). The two ratings place every dish in one of four classes.

A dish is popular when its sales mix is at least 70% of an even share. With 8 items in a category, an even share is 12.5%, so the threshold is 12.5% x 70% = 8.75%. A dish has a high contribution margin when its margin is at least the category's weighted average contribution margin: the total contribution margin of all items sold divided by the number of items sold. This is how LeBruto, Quain and Ashley describe the Kasavana and Smith model in FIU Hospitality Review (1995) (Menu Engineering: A Model Including Labor), and how the BCcampus textbook teaches it (principles of menu engineering).

Menu engineering deliberately ranks dishes by the dollars they keep, not by their food cost percentage: a steak with a 38% food cost can earn more per plate than a pasta at 22%. The authors cited above also point out its limits. It ignores labor, so a high-margin dish that takes a cook ten minutes may not be the winner it looks, and a Dog can still earn its place if it brings in a group or keeps a regular. Use the classes to ask questions, not to delete dishes automatically.

Sample data, included in the workbook so you can see every formula working. A bistro prices 24 ingredients from its October invoices and costs 8 dishes with a 30% target food cost.

• Pan-Seared Salmon: a 7 oz portion of salmon at an 85% yield, 5 oz of asparagus at a 56% yield, butter, lemon, a tablespoon of oil and salt cost $10.27 a plate. At $29.00 that is a 35.4% food cost, above the 30% target, so the dish is flagged. The price that hits 30%, rounded up to the next $0.25, is $34.25.
• Classic Cheeseburger: 6 oz ground beef, a bun, two cheddar slices, tomato, onion, 8 oz of potatoes for fries and salt cost $3.50. At $17.00 that is only 20.6%, well under target, yet it keeps less per plate than the average main.
• Chocolate Pot de Creme: a 12-ramekin batch costs $13.59, so $1.13 a ramekin and 11.3% at $10.00.
• Actual food cost: October opened with $7,920 of stock, bought $16,850, closed at $8,310, and had $610 of staff meals, $280 of comps, $180 transferred to the bar and $90 back from it. Net food cost $15,480.00 on food sales of $71,250 is 21.7%.

Menu engineering for the four mains (970 sold) puts the popularity threshold at 17.5% and the weighted average contribution margin at $14.46:

The Plowhorse sells well but keeps less per plate than the average main, so it is the first candidate for a small price rise or a cheaper side. The Puzzle earns the most per plate but sells too few: move it up the menu and brief servers before you discount it.