Recipe scanner

From Printed Recipe to Food Costing: A New Tool for Chefs

How much time does your kitchen spend entering recipes and working out food costs?

As a working chef, I know how much time goes into managing recipes, ingredient prices and gross profit.

Most kitchens have recipes stored somewhere. Some are printed, some are handwritten, and others are saved as PDFs. But having a recipe and knowing exactly what it costs to produce are two different things.

That’s one of the reasons I created Mise en Price, a recipe costing and menu pricing tool designed for chefs, restaurants, caterers and independent food businesses.

Introducing Recipe Scanning

We’ve recently introduced a recipe-scanning feature to help chefs get existing recipes into their costing system.

The process is straightforward:

1. Choose a photo or PDF of your recipe.
2. Review the ingredient quantities and supplier matches.
3. Import the recipe into your costing system.
4. Check the figures and save when you’re happy.

The scanner creates a starting draft. Chefs still review the ingredient matches, quantities and prices before finalising their costing.

Why Food GP Matters

Knowing your food costs helps you make better menu pricing decisions.

For example, if a dish costs £3.50 in ingredients and sells for £10 excluding VAT:

* Ingredient cost: £3.50
* Selling price excluding VAT: £10.00
* Gross profit: £6.50
* Food GP: 65%

This calculation assumes ingredient costs are also excluding VAT. It doesn’t include labour, overheads or waste.

Small changes to supplier prices, portion sizes or ingredients can affect your margins. Accurate recipe costing gives you a clearer starting point.

Try Costing One Recipe for Free

You don’t need to commit to new software to start understanding your food costs.

Mise en Price has a free one-recipe calculator, available without creating an account.

Start with one dish you already cook. Enter your ingredients, quantities and prices, then see what that recipe costs.

If you want to manage more recipes, suppliers and pricing information, the full Mise en Price app offers an optional 14-day trial with no card required.

After the trial, the subscription costs £9.99 per month if you choose to subscribe. There is no automatic charge.

Built by a Chef, for Chefs

I’m developing Mise en Price around the practical challenges chefs face in working kitchens.

The goal is straightforward: make recipe costing easier to manage and help chefs understand the numbers behind their menus.

If you’re unsure how to convert an ingredient pack size or quantity when costing your first recipe, leave a comment. I’m happy to help where I can.

Try the free recipe calculator:

miseenprice.co.uk/free-recipe-costing-calculator?utm_source=staff_canteen&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=first_dish_nov26&utm_content=first_recipe_article

Chris

Founder, Mise en Price

miseenprice.co.uk