Menu costing
How to build a useful menu-costing baseline
Connect recipe quantities, purchase units and serving yield before using a cost figure to guide decisions.
By OX Labs team · A practical guide for restaurant operators. Adapt the steps to your policies, units and approval process.
- 01Define a serving
- 02Convert buying units
- 03Check usable yield
- 04Review the cost
Define the serving
Start with one menu item and a consistent serving size. List each ingredient in the quantity actually used, including garnishes, sauces and preparation components. A recipe that exists only in someone's memory is hard to cost or repeat.
Translate purchasing units
Check how each ingredient is bought, stored and used. Convert pack prices into the recipe's working units, and document yield where trimming, cooking or preparation changes usable quantity. Confirm that the price and unit refer to the same item and supplier pack.
Review the result
Add ingredient costs, then examine the assumptions: latest price, yield, portions and substitutions. Treat the result as a baseline to review with the kitchen and finance teams. Menu decisions may also depend on labor, overhead, demand and positioning; ingredient cost alone does not set a selling price.
Example: check the unit before the price
| Bought | 5 kg pack |
|---|---|
| Usable after preparation | 4 kg |
| Recipe use | 200 g per serving |
| Servings from usable pack | 20 |
The pack price applies to 20 usable servings in this example, not 25 raw-weight servings. Check the actual yield before using the number commercially.
Use this guide as a discussion aid. Confirm the actual ITS V.Pro workflows available for your setup before relying on a product-specific process.
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