Tools
Food Cost Calculator
Food cost percentage and gross margin for a single item, from its cost and selling price.
Your numbers
What the item costs you to produce.
Results
- Food cost %
- 30.0%
- Gross profit per item
- 28.00
- Gross margin %
- 70.0%
Results update as you type. Nothing you enter is sent to us.
To move a menu conversation from a percentage to a contribution in money, per item.
Food cost percentage is the ratio most often quoted and most often misread. This calculator returns it alongside the two numbers that actually matter for a decision: the gross profit the item produces in money, and the margin that profit represents.
Use it per item rather than across the menu. A menu-wide average tells you very little, because it is a blend of items with completely different roles.
How to read this
Food cost percentage is a ratio, not a verdict. A high-cost item that sells well can contribute more money than a low-cost item nobody orders — which is why the menu study looks at contribution alongside popularity.
Related
SolutionMenu Strategy, Engineering & PricingA structured study of what your menu sells, what each item earns, and what to change — item performance, food cost, pricing, product mix and menu structure.- ResourceMenu Engineering TemplateAn editable restaurant workbook for menu engineering, with structured inputs, working calculations and an action-ready summary.
- ResourceRecipe CostingAn editable restaurant workbook for recipe costing, with structured inputs, working calculations and an action-ready summary.
- ToolMenu Pricing CalculatorThe price an item needs to hit a target food cost percentage, before and after VAT.
ArticleReading a menu as a commercial documentA menu is the only document every guest reads and the only one that sets revenue and cost at the same time. Here is how to read yours as a commercial instrument rather than a list.- SolutionMenu EngineeringRearranging the menu so the profitable dishes are the ones guests actually choose.
