Your Food GP Might Not Be What You Think

Your Food GP Might Not Be What You Think

Why checking recipe costs regularly matters more than ever in a professional kitchen.

As chefs, we’re constantly managing ingredient prices, supplier changes, portion sizes and menu expectations.

But here’s a question worth asking:

When did you last properly recost one of your best-selling dishes?

I’m a working chef in Norfolk, and I’ve seen how easily small changes in ingredient prices can affect the gross profit of a dish.

Take a simple example.

You sell a dish for £12.00 excluding VAT, with an ingredient cost of £3.60.

That’s a food GP of 70%.

Now imagine supplier increases and portion adjustments push that ingredient cost to £4.20.

Your GP drops to 65%.

It might not sound significant, but across 50 portions, that’s £30 less gross profit — without changing your selling price.

And that’s just one dish.

The problem with recipe costing

In a busy kitchen, costing can become another job that gets pushed aside.

Spreadsheets become outdated. Supplier pack prices change. Recipes evolve. Sometimes the original costing no longer reflects what actually goes onto the plate.

The solution isn’t necessarily to increase menu prices.

It’s to understand your numbers before making decisions.

A free tool for chefs

That’s one of the reasons I created Mise en Price, a recipe-costing app built from my own experience working in professional kitchens.

I’ve also made a free, standalone calculator that chefs can use without creating an account.

Enter your ingredient quantities, supplier pack sizes and prices, portion yield and selling price to calculate:

* Total ingredient cost
* Cost per portion
* Ingredient-based food GP
* Food GP percentage

Try the free calculator:

miseenprice.co.uk/one-recipe-demo

There’s no sign-up required to use the calculator.

I’m interested to hear how other chefs manage recipe costing in their kitchens.

Are you still using spreadsheets, calculating manually, or using dedicated costing software?

Chris
Working Chef & Founder of Mise en Price