Feature · Food cost

The real food cost
of every dish

Plathea calculates the cost of each dish starting from your inventory ingredients, in real time. You know exactly how much you make on every plate — and you set prices with numbers, not by feel.

Try it free for 14 daysSee pricing
Why it matters

Most restaurateurs don't know the real margin of their own dishes

Your best-selling dish might be the one that earns you the least. Without food cost calculated on real ingredients, the price is a guess. Plathea turns that guess into a precise, always up-to-date figure.

How it works in Plathea

From inventory to margin, automatically

Ingredients from your inventory
Each dish is built from ingredients already in your inventory, with their real price and unit of measure. No separate spreadsheets: food cost always starts from real data.
Quantities and units, automatic conversions
Enter the portion dose in grams, millilitres or pieces: Plathea converts and calculates on its own (e.g. a per-kg cost on a dose in grams). It handles kg, g, litres, ml and pieces.
Sub-recipes and prep with yield
You create a prep — a sauce, a dough, a stock — as a recipe with its own yield, and reuse it as an ingredient across dishes. The cost propagates everywhere, with no manual recalculation.
Food cost %, margin and suggested price
You see the total ingredient cost, the food cost percentage (calculated on the price net of VAT, as it should be), the margin in euros and percent, and a suggested selling price.
Cost breakdown chart
A pie chart shows which ingredients weigh most on the dish. You immediately see where to act: cut a dose, change supplier or adjust the price.
Update a price once, everything updates
When you change an ingredient's price in the inventory, the food cost of every dish using it recalculates automatically, in real time. One update, not a hundred.
Full Excel export
Download an Excel file with three sheets: all your menus, all your dishes, and the detailed food cost of each dish with ingredients, quantities, costs and margins. The data is yours.
The truth about food cost

There's no single right food cost for everyone

The typical benchmark is between 25% and 30%, but it depends on your venue: a pizzeria works on lower food costs, a fish or fine-dining restaurant naturally starts higher. Chasing one universal number makes no sense.

That's why Plathea doesn't impose a threshold: it gives you your real food cost, dish by dish, so you set prices based on your concept and your margins — not on a generic rule.

Transparency

What it measures, and what it doesn't

Food cost measures the cost of ingredients against the selling price: it's the most direct lever on each dish's margin. It doesn't include fixed costs like rent and staff — you analyse those in Plathea's financial report, for the full picture.

Food cost is included in every Plathea plan, from Essential at €50/month. You can calculate the food cost of all your dishes and download the analysis to Excel even during the 14-day free trial, with no credit card.

FAQ

Food cost questions

Can I add an ingredient to food cost without going through the inventory?

No. Ingredients must be in the inventory with price and unit of measure before using them in a dish. That's what guarantees food cost is always based on real, up-to-date prices.

If I change an ingredient's price, do the dishes update too?

Yes, automatically and in real time. You update the price once in the inventory and the food cost of every dish using that ingredient recalculates on its own.

Does food cost account for rent and staff?

No. Food cost measures only the cost of ingredients against the selling price. For fixed and variable costs, use Plathea's financial report.

What does the Excel export contain?

Three sheets: all the restaurant's menus, all dishes with their menu association, and the detailed food cost of each dish with ingredients, quantities, costs and margins.

Discover the real margin of your dishes

Calculate the food cost of your whole menu during the 14-day free trial. No credit card.

Start the free trialSee pricing
Learn more: what food cost is and how to calculate itDocumentation: how to set it up in Plathea