A recipe costing sheet (escandallo in Spanish) is the technical document that breaks down every ingredient in a dish with its exact quantity, unit cost and total cost per portion. It is the foundation of cost control in a restaurant.
The recipe costing sheet (escandallo in Spanish, also called a costed recipe or dish cost card) is a technical and financial document that breaks down precisely every ingredient in a dish, showing the exact quantity needed per portion, the unit price of each ingredient, the wastage or yield that applies and the final cost per portion. It is the cornerstone of cost control in any professional restaurant and the basis on which menu prices are built. A complete recipe costing sheet includes: the name of the dish, the number of portions, the list of ingredients with their unit of measure, the gross quantity (before wastage), the wastage percentage, the net quantity (what is actually used), the price per purchase unit, the cost of the quantity used and the total cost of the dish. As well as direct food cost, some advanced recipe costings include the cost of intermediate preparations (stocks, base sauces, doughs) used as ingredients in several dishes, which makes the calculation more accurate.
The recipe costing sheet must be updated whenever a supplier's price changes, a recipe is altered or an ingredient is replaced. Without up-to-date recipe costings, theoretical food cost is a fiction and pricing relies on hunches instead of data.
Recipe costing sheet for a wild mushroom risotto, 1 portion: Carnaroli rice: gross quantity 100 g, wastage 0%, net quantity 100 g, purchase price €3.20/kg, portion cost €0.32. Mixed mushrooms: gross quantity 120 g, wastage 15% (soil, damaged parts), net quantity 102 g, purchase price €12/kg, portion cost €1.44. Vegetable stock (sub-recipe): 250 ml, costed on its own sheet at €0.80/litre, portion cost €0.20. Parmigiano Reggiano: 25 g, wastage 5% (rind), net 23.75 g, price €22/kg, cost €0.55.
Butter: 15 g, wastage 0%, price €8/kg, cost €0.12. Onion: 30 g, wastage 10%, net 27 g, price €1.20/kg, cost €0.04. Olive oil: 10 ml, price €7/litre, cost €0.07. Total cost per portion: €2.74.
Sold at €14 (excluding VAT), the dish's food cost is 19.6%.
The recipe costing sheet is the cornerstone of a restaurant's financial management. Without it, you cannot know what a dish really costs you, you cannot set prices sensibly and you cannot calculate your theoretical food cost. It is the difference between running a restaurant on data and running it blind. Recipe costings let you: calculate the real food cost of every dish, set profitable selling prices, standardise recipes so any cook can reproduce a dish at the same cost, compare suppliers using real data on how they affect the cost of your dishes, model the effect of price changes before they happen, and teach staff why sticking to the quantities matters.
A restaurant without recipe costings is like a company without accounts: it works until it stops working.
Zindra lets you build digital recipe costings that update automatically when ingredient prices change. You can include sub-recipes, account for wastage and see the impact on food cost in real time.
Tools and content to go deeper into this concept.
Food cost is the percentage of a dish's selling price that goes on the cost of its ingredients. It is the single most important indicator of how profitable your menu is.
Wastage is the product lost between buying a raw ingredient and the customer finally eating it. It covers natural losses, processing losses and service losses.
Mise en place (French for 'put in place') is the principle of organising and preparing all the ingredients, tools and equipment in advance, before service or a recipe begins.
Prime cost (coste primo in Spanish) is food cost plus staff cost. It is the most complete measure of a restaurant's direct operating cost and should stay between 55% and 65% of turnover.
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