To cost a recipe, add up the cost of every ingredient at its purchase rate, divide by the number of portions the recipe yields to get the cost per plate, then divide that plate cost by your target food-cost percentage (as a decimal) to get the selling price. Example: a ₹119 plate at a 30% food cost should sell for about ₹398.
Why most Indian menus are priced on a guess
Walk into most independent restaurants in India and ask how a dish was priced, and the honest answer is some version of "we saw what the place down the road charges and added a bit." That works right up until it doesn't — until rent goes up, gas doubles, or chicken jumps ₹40 a kilo and nobody notices the dish is now losing money on every order.
Recipe costing replaces the guess with a number. It tells you what a plate actually costs to make, so the price becomes a decision instead of a hope. It is the single most useful piece of maths a kitchen can do, and it takes about ten minutes per dish the first time.
Step 1 — Cost every ingredient at its real rate
Start with the recipe as it is actually cooked, not the idealised version. For every ingredient, you need two numbers: the quantity used and the cost per unit at the rate you buy it.
The trap here is unit mismatch. You buy cream by the litre but use it by the millilitre; you buy spices by the kilo but use grams. Convert everything to the same base so the maths holds. If cream costs ₹120 a litre and the dish uses 150 ml, that is ₹18 of cream — not ₹120.
- Buy price, not MRP. Use the rate you actually pay your supplier, including any bulk discount.
- Post-trim weight. If you pay for a whole chicken but only 70% ends up on the plate, your effective cost per usable kilo is higher. Run it through a portion & yield calculator if the trim loss is significant.
- Skip the tiny stuff at your peril. Salt and a pinch of this-or-that feels negligible per plate, but across 200 covers a day it adds up. Add a small "seasoning & oil" line rather than ignoring it.
Step 2 — Divide by portions to get the plate cost
Most recipes are written as a batch — they yield 4, 5, 8 portions. Add up the total ingredient cost of the batch and divide by the number of portions it genuinely serves (not the number you wish it served).
This is where honesty matters. If a biryani "serves 4" on paper but your kitchen plates it as 3 generous portions, cost it at 3. The plate cost is the batch cost divided by actual portions out the pass.
Step 3 — Turn plate cost into a selling price
Now the pricing decision. Pick a target food-cost percentage — the share of the menu price you want ingredients to represent — and divide the plate cost by it.
The formula: Selling price = plate cost ÷ (target food-cost % ÷ 100).
A plate that costs ₹119 at a 30% target food cost should sell for ₹119 ÷ 0.30 = about ₹398. At 25% it would be ₹476; at 35%, ₹340. The percentage you pick is a strategic lever, not a fixed rule — which is the next section.
What food-cost percentage should you actually target?
There is no universal number, but there are well-worn bands for the Indian market:
| Format | Typical food-cost target | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Fine dining | 35–40% | High price point absorbs richer ingredients |
| Full-service casual | 28–35% | The broad middle; most restaurants live here |
| QSR / cloud kitchen | 22–28% | Rent and delivery commissions eat margin elsewhere |
| Bar / pub (food) | 25–30% | Drinks carry the room; food supports it |
Cloud kitchens push their food cost lower on purpose because aggregator commissions of 25–30% take a bite the moment the order lands. If that is you, cost the dish, then sanity-check the delivered economics with a delivery commission calculator before you commit to a price.
What plate cost deliberately leaves out
Recipe costing is the raw ingredient cost of one dish — and it should stay that way. Gas, electricity, packaging, labour and rent are real, but they are whole-kitchen costs, not per-dish costs, and folding them into every plate makes re-costing a nightmare every time a price changes.
Handle them as a separate layer: track your overall food cost percentage across the kitchen, and add packaging and fuel as a small percentage on top when you set the final menu price. Keep the plate cost clean and it stays easy to update when supplier rates move.
Recipe & Plate Costing Calculator
Cost any recipe ingredient-by-ingredient and get an exact price per plate. Free tool for restaurant, cloud kitchen and catering menus.
Step by step
Cost any recipe and set a price in four steps.
- List every ingredient with quantity and buy rate. Write out the recipe as cooked, converting all units to a common base (grams, millilitres).
- Total the batch cost. Multiply each ingredient quantity by its cost per unit and add them up.
- Divide by actual portions. Divide the batch cost by the number of portions the recipe genuinely yields to get cost per plate.
- Apply your target food-cost %. Divide plate cost by your target food-cost percentage (as a decimal) to get the suggested selling price.
Frequently asked questions
What is the formula to cost a recipe?
Cost per portion = total ingredient cost ÷ number of portions. Suggested selling price = cost per portion ÷ (target food-cost % ÷ 100). A ₹119 plate at 30% food cost sells for about ₹398.
Should labour and rent be included in plate cost?
No. Keep plate cost to raw ingredients only, because that is what changes each time you re-cost. Cover labour, rent, gas and packaging through your overall food-cost tracking and by adding a margin on top when setting the final price.
How often should I re-cost my recipes?
Re-cost whenever a key ingredient moves more than about 10%, and do a full menu re-cost at least once a quarter. In India, seasonal produce and volatile items like oil, chicken and vegetables can shift your plate cost meaningfully within weeks.
How do I account for wastage and trim loss?
Enter your ingredient cost as the usable, post-trim rate. If you pay for a whole item but only part reaches the plate, calculate the edible-weight cost first using a portion and yield calculator, then use that higher figure in your recipe cost.
Keep reading
Restaurant Menu Pricing in India: Food Cost, Psychology and the Formula
How to price restaurant menu items in India — the food-cost formula, contribution margin, price psychology, and the mistakes that quietly kill margin.
Food Cost Percentage: The Number That Quietly Decides Your Month
What food cost percentage is, how to calculate it with a stock-take, the benchmark bands for Indian restaurants and cloud kitchens, and why weekly beats monthly.