Why your food cost percentage is always wrong
The blended number is an average that lies. It hides the one dish quietly bleeding you.
Read → How-toHow to actually cost a dish
The four-step method: cost per gram, yield, sub-recipes, and the gap between 21% and the real 31%.
Read → Food costWhat food cost % should a restaurant actually run?
The 28 to 35% rule is useless on its own. The real target is the spread between your dishes.
Read → PricingPrice for margin, not food cost percentage
Three pastas at the same $9 margin. Why the dollars matter more than the ratio.
Read → PricingHow to price a menu item: the floor and the ceiling
Your cost sets the floor, the market sets the ceiling. You price between them on purpose.
Read → PricingInflation is the best time to raise your prices
Add the dollars, not a percentage. Done right, a price increase is almost pure profit.
Read → PricingWhen lowering a price makes you more money
Margin times volume beats a fat margin nobody buys. The move, and the one rule that keeps it safe.
Read → MenuYour best-selling dish might be your worst-margin dish
Popular does not mean profitable. Rank by the dollars a plate makes, not by how often it sells.
Read → DiagnosisHow to know if a dish is bleeding you
Four signs a plate is quietly costing you money, and the one number that confirms it.
Read → Sub-recipesThe hidden cost in your sauces
The 40-cent jus that was really $1.80. Why uncosted sub-recipes drain thousands a year.
Read → Food costYield: the food cost mistake hiding in every protein
You cost what you buy, but you plate what is left. A 20% trim loss makes $20 cost $25.
Read → Food costPortion control: why eyeballing costs you points
A 10% over-portion on one popular dish is roughly $9,000 a year out the door.
Read → Margin leaks"My staff don't steal" (why your margin says otherwise)
Most loss is not theft, it is small favors nobody calls stealing. How to stop it without playing cop.
Read → The numbersWhy your POS food cost report is lying to you
It shows theory. Your invoices show reality. The gap between them is where your money goes.
Read → The numbersFood cost vs prime cost: the number that really matters
A great food cost can still hide a failing business. Prime cost tells you if the doors stay open.
Read → Getting startedThe first 5 dishes to cost (and why those 5)
Do not boil the ocean. Cost your top sellers first and get a real win in one afternoon.
Read → ProcessHow to run a monthly food cost review in under an hour
A repeatable four-check routine that catches what moved before it costs you a quarter.
Read → PricingWhen a supplier raises prices, do this
One staple moves and a dozen dishes change. Trace it before you eat it.
Read → CateringCatering margins: why event pricing is a different game
A $22 per head can be $4 of real margin once labor, travel, and waste are in the quote.
Read → MindsetEvery other business knows its costs. Why don't restaurants?
A car dealer knows the margin on the car. Costing your menu is step one, not admin.
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