How do I choose a food cost target for my restaurant?
A proper food cost percentage keeps your dishes profitable and your restaurant in business. Most owners wing it with random percentages, bleeding money they don...
What's the difference between an expensive menu and a profitable menu?
Your €45 steak might be losing you money while your €18 pasta makes you rich. Most restaurant owners obsess over raising prices but ignore the math that actuall...
What's the difference between menu engineering and food cost?
Your Monday morning starts with a chef arguing that his €35 wagyu steak deserves menu priority, while your accountant insists the €18 pasta with 28% food cost i...
What's the difference between food cost on paper and food cost in practice?
Most restaurant owners believe their food cost calculations until they see their monthly P&L. You've done the math perfectly - exact portions, zero waste, every...
What's the difference between margin in euros and margin in percentage?
A pasta dish with 85% margin might actually lose you money compared to a steak with 60% margin. Euro margins show absolute profit per plate, while percentage ma...
What's the difference between food cost and selling price?
Ever wonder why some dishes seem profitable until you actually crunch the numbers? Food cost is what you pay for ingredients, while selling price is what guests...
What's the difference between purchase price and cost price?
Purchase price and cost price aren't the same thing – and this confusion kills restaurant profits. Most operators calculate food costs using invoice prices, not...
What's the difference between gross margin and net margin?
Your restaurant could be bleeding money even with perfect ingredient costs. Gross margin shows profit after direct costs like ingredients, while net margin reve...
What's the difference between food cost and prime cost?
Most restaurant owners obsess over food cost percentages while completely ignoring the number that actually determines their profit. Food cost tracks ingredient...
What's the difference between revenue and margin in hospitality?
A packed Friday night brings in €3,200, but your bank account barely budges by Monday morning. Revenue shows how busy you were, margin reveals how much you actu...
What's the difference between gross profit and net profit in a restaurant?
Every restaurant owner who's ever stared at their P&L at 2 AM knows this feeling - great food costs, terrible bottom line. You're hitting 70% gross margins on p...
How do I account for staff meals in my food cost?
Staff meals inflate food costs by an average of 1.8% across restaurant operations. Most owners track these expenses incorrectly, creating distorted profit margi...
How do I account for free tasting portions in my food cost?
Every free taste you hand out chips away at your profit margins without generating a single euro in revenue. Most restaurant owners track every sold dish religi...
How do I determine a realistic waste percentage per product?
Most restaurants lose €3,000-5,000 annually by ignoring food waste in their cost calculations. Setting a realistic waste percentage helps you calculate your cos...
How do I calculate food cost including waste percentage?
It's Monday morning and you're staring at last month's P&L wondering where your profits went. You calculated everything perfectly, yet your food costs are 8% hi...
How do I include waste in my food cost?
How much money are you throwing in the bin each week without even realizing it? Most restaurant owners track their food purchases religiously but completely ign...
How do I handle tiered discounts in my food cost?
Most restaurants use the wrong price for tiered discount ingredients, while successful operations adjust their recipe costs based on actual volume purchases. Yo...
How do I calculate an average purchase price when prices fluctuate?
Ingredient costs bounce around more than a pinball these days. Your beef supplier charges €8/kg one week, then €9.50 the next. You need one solid average price...
How do I manage fluctuating purchase prices in my food cost?
It's Tuesday morning and your supplier just raised pancetta prices by 18%. Your carbonara recipe still shows January costs while reality shifted weeks ago. Mean...
How do I get the correct ingredient prices from my invoices?
Most restaurants guess at their ingredient costs while successful operators extract exact prices from every invoice. The difference between estimating and track...
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