Sample result
Dish Cost & Profitability Analyzer for Restaurants
The owner asked this:«My food cost reads 34% and I have not touched prices in six months. Tell me what each dish costs me today and below which price I am working for free.»
① Today's costing, dated, and each price's floor
Six of the 34 items: the ones carrying the most weight in the check. Net price, before consumption tax. In brackets, the date of the invoice it was costed with.
| Dish | Recipe cost today | Net price | Margin in money | Food cost | Price floor | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bandeja de la casa | 22,400 (07-08) | 60,500 | 38,100 | 37.0% | 70,000 | 🔴 9,500 below floor |
| Sancocho de tres carnes | 19,100 (05-08) | 50,400 | 31,300 | 37.9% | 59,700 | 🔴 9,300 below floor |
| Trucha al ajillo | 24,900 (12-08) | 55,500 | 30,600 | 44.9% | 77,800 | ⛔ floor above the menu ceiling |
| Ajiaco santafereño | 13,900 (05-08) | 42,000 | 28,100 | 33.1% | 43,400 | 🟡 1,400 below floor |
| Arroz de la casa | 15,500 (30-07) | 38,700 | 23,200 | 40.1% | 48,400 | 🔴 9,700 below floor |
| Postre de la abuela | 9,600 (05-08) | 23,500 | 13,900 | 40.9% | 30,000 | 🔴 6,500 below floor |
The Trucha's floor —77,800— sits above the menu's 72,000 ceiling. That is no longer a pricing problem: at today's purchase prices this dish does not fit on this menu without changing portion, supplier or recipe. And nine of the 34 items, all drinks and desserts, still have no costing: until they do, the menu's weighted food cost carries ±6 points of error, and that is stated rather than hidden.
SUPUESTO: the 32% food cost ceiling used to calculate every floor is NOT an industry benchmark: it is the costing rule this assistant carries. Source: the assistant's own body (MASTERESTAURANT® Methodology). Sazón de Origen declares 34% overall —an average dragged down by drinks, which run at 18%— and the food dishes run between 33% and 45%. If the ceiling the house chose to defend were 35%, the Ajiaco would move from yellow to green and the gap measured on the cost side would fall from 6.1 M to 3.0 M a month. The ceiling is not a detail of the table: it is half the diagnosis.
② Two readings of the same gap, and why the goal forces you to pick one
The same difference can be read through price or through cost, and they are not worth the same.
| Dish | Units/month | Gap to floor (per unit) | Gap per month |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bandeja de la casa | 620 | 9,500 | 5,890,000 |
| Trucha al ajillo | 210 | 22,300 | 4,683,000 |
| Sancocho de tres carnes | 480 | 9,300 | 4,464,000 |
| Arroz de la casa | 190 | 9,700 | 1,843,000 |
| Postre de la abuela | 240 | 6,500 | 1,560,000 |
| Ajiaco santafereño | 355 | 1,400 | 497,000 |
| Total, 6 items | 2,095 | — | 18,937,000 |
Read through price: 18.9 M a month. That is what would have to be CHARGED for these six items to reach the 32% ceiling. It amounts to raising those six prices by 18.7% on average. The house's declared goal says, in so many words, lift operating margin from 8% to 14% without raising menu prices. There is no way out on that side.
Read through cost, with today's prices frozen: 6.1 M a month. That is the other road, and it is the one that fits inside the goal: the recipe cost of these six items is worth 38.5 M a month today and would have to be worth 32.4 M. That is 6.1 M —2.8 points of operating margin on the house's 214.0 M, almost half of the 6 points the goal asks for— and it is found in gram weight, supplier and reformulation, not on the printed menu.
Both figures come out of the same table and both are equally true. The one that is useful is the second, and only because this house's goal decides it.
The full example has 1 more part(s): you see them inside the library, with your account.