One dish can teach your entire team more about food cost than any spreadsheet or lecture. Pick your most popular item, break down the numbers together, and watch everyone finally understand why precision matters. Every gram counts - and your profit depends on it.
Choose the right example dish
Go with your bestseller. Everyone makes it daily, so the lesson sticks immediately. Skip dishes with endless ingredient lists - you want something with 5-8 components that your crew handles every shift.
💡 Example:
Steak with fries - selling price €28.00 incl. VAT (€25.69 excl.)
- Steak 200g: €4.80
- Fries 150g: €0.45
- Butter: €0.15
- Sauce: €0.30
- Garnish: €0.60
Total cost price: €6.30
Calculate the cost price together
Bring your team to the prep station. Build the dish step by step. Weigh everything and pull up your invoice prices. Let them do the math - they'll own the numbers that way.
Work through the food cost percentage as a group:
Food cost % = (Cost of ingredients / Selling price excl. VAT) × 100
💡 Calculation:
€6.30 / €25.69 × 100 = 24.5% food cost
Solid number - stays under that 30% meat threshold.
Show the impact of deviations
Here's where it gets real: demonstrate what 'just a little extra' actually costs. This moment changes everything for your team.
⚠️ Watch out:
250g steak instead of 200g costs €1.20 extra per plate. At 100 portions per week = €6,240 less profit per year.
Make it visual with portions
Set the correct portion next to a heavy-handed one. Let your staff see and handle both. From years of working in professional kitchens, I've learned that 50g looks tiny but destroys margins fast.
- Weigh the proper portion and set it aside
- Ask someone to portion 'by eye'
- Weigh the gap and crunch those numbers
- Run this exercise with 2-3 different cooks
Give everyone a role in cost control
Turn food cost into everyone's job. Hand out specific tasks that mesh with their daily workflow.
💡 Task distribution:
- Chef: spot-checks portions during rush
- Sous chef: weighs random plates after plating
- Commis: flags waste during prep work
- Owner: reviews weekly numbers with the team
Repeat with other dishes
Once your crew gets food cost through this first dish, move to your 2nd and 3rd top sellers. You'll control 80% of revenue that way. Don't rush it - one dish weekly keeps things manageable.
Tools like a food cost calculator can automate these calculations and put results right on your team's phones.
How do you teach your team about food cost? (step by step)
Choose your best-selling dish
Pick the dish that everyone knows and makes daily. Avoid complicated dishes - choose something with 5-8 ingredients your team knows well.
Calculate the cost price together
Gather your team, weigh all ingredients and look up the purchase prices. Calculate the food cost percentage together using the formula: cost price / selling price excl. VAT × 100.
Show the impact of deviations
Show what 50 grams of extra meat costs per year. Make the difference between correct and oversized portions visual by laying both next to each other.
Give everyone a controlling role
Divide tasks: chef checks portions, sous chef randomly weighs plates, commis watches for waste. Make cost control part of everyone's daily routine.
✨ Pro tip
Pick your signature pasta dish for the first training session - portion a 120g serving versus the typical 150g 'generous' portion your team probably makes. That 30g difference costs €2,400 annually on just 200 portions monthly.
Calculate this yourself?
In the KitchenNmbrs app you can do this in just a few clicks. 7 days free, no credit card.
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Frequently asked questions
What if my team finds the numbers boring?
Make it personal - show how much tip money vanishes from oversized portions. €1 extra cost per plate equals €5 less tip across 5 tables. That hits home fast.
Should I include every single ingredient in the calculation?
Absolutely everything that touches the plate counts. Butter, oil, garnish, sauce - the works. Skip anything and your cost price becomes fiction.
How do I keep my team focused on food cost after the initial training?
Build it into daily service routine. Have your chef randomly weigh plates during rush and address any issues immediately with the cook who plated it.
📚 Sources consulted
- EU Verordening 852/2004 — Levensmiddelenhygiëne (2004) — Official source
- EU Verordening 853/2004 — Hygiënevoorschriften voor levensmiddelen van dierlijke oorsprong (2004) — Official source
- EU Verordening 1169/2011 — Voedselinformatie aan consumenten (2011) — Official source
- NVWA — Hygiënecode voor de horeca (2024) — Official source
- NVWA — Allergenen in voedsel (2024) — Official source
- Codex Alimentarius — International Food Standards (2024) — Official source
- FSA — Safer food, better business (HACCP) (2024) — Official source
- BVL — Lebensmittelhygiene (HACCP) (2024) — Official source
- Warenwetbesluit Bereiding en behandeling van levensmiddelen (2024) — Official source
- WHO — Foodborne diseases estimates (2024) — Official source
Food Standards Agency (FSA) — https://www.food.gov.uk
The HACCP standards shown in this application are for informational purposes only. KitchenNmbrs does not guarantee that displayed values are current or complete. Always consult the FSA or your local authority for the latest regulations.
Written by
Jeffrey Smit
Founder & CEO of KitchenNmbrs
Jeffrey Smit built KitchenNmbrs from 8 years of hands-on experience as kitchen manager at 1NUL8 Group in Rotterdam. His mission: give every restaurant owner control over food cost.
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