Free Food Costing Template for Excel (Recipe Cost and GP)
Most kitchens lose margin quietly: a supplier price goes up, the trim on the salmon gets heavier, and the menu price stays the same. This free spreadsheet works out what a dish really costs and what you need to charge.
- Download the food costing template (Excel). It opens in Excel, Google Sheets and Numbers.
What the template works out
- Line cost: pack price ÷ pack size × quantity used.
- Trim loss: divide by the yield %. If only 90% of a fillet is usable, you're paying for the 10% you cut off.
- Cost per portion: total recipe cost ÷ portions.
- Net price: your menu price with VAT taken out (÷ 1.2 at 20%).
- GP%: (net price − cost per portion) ÷ net price.
- Target price: cost per portion ÷ (1 − target GP%), then add VAT.
Worked example
The example salmon dish costs £14.85 for 4 portions, so £3.71 a plate including trim loss. At £18.50 on the menu, the net price is £15.42, leaving £11.70 cash per plate and a GP of 75.9%.
Want to check one dish quickly? Use the free GP calculator or the batch recipe cost calculator.
Common mistakes
- Working GP from the VAT-inclusive price, which makes margins look better than they are.
- Costing raw weight and ignoring trim, bones and cooking loss.
- Forgetting garnish, oil and sauces. Small amounts add up across a week.
- Never updating pack prices after a supplier increase.
When a spreadsheet stops working
A spreadsheet is fine for a handful of dishes. It gets painful when one ingredient price changes and you have to update every sheet that uses it, or when stocks and sauces go into several dishes. In Chef's Helper recipe costing you update an ingredient price once, batch recipes like jus and dressings carry their cost into every dish, and each recipe shows cash per plate and what to charge. Prices are still entered by you; there's no automatic supplier feed. See the honest Chef's Helper vs spreadsheets comparison.