How to calculate food cost in a restaurant
Food cost is what you spent on ingredients divided by what you sold, excluding VAT. Calculate it twice: once from recipes (what you should have used) and once from counts (opening stock plus purchases minus closing stock). The gap between the two is waste, over-portioning, theft or a recipe that needs updating.
Step by step
- 1. Theoretical food cost
- For each dish sold, multiply the quantity of each ingredient in the recipe by its latest purchase price. Add them up and divide by sales without VAT.
- 2. Actual food cost
- Opening stock plus purchases minus closing stock gives what you really used. Divide it by the same sales figure.
- 3. Read the gap
- Look item by item. A gap on one item points to portioning or waste; a gap everywhere often means a count or a price is wrong.
- 4. Count often
- Monthly counts hide problems for weeks. Counting key items weekly with the phone camera keeps the gap small and explainable.
Food cost from recipes compared with counted stock, OlayaLast 8 weeks
Counted 33.2%Recipes 30.1%
| Gap this week | Quantity | SAR |
|---|---|---|
| Chicken breast | 14.5 kg | 377 |
| Beef patty 150 g | 22 pcs | 90 |
| Cheddar 2.5 kg | 1 pc | 68 |
| Fries 2.5 kg | 3 bags | 63 |
| Unexplained loss | 598 |
Updated 29 October 2026.
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