How to calculate your restaurant's food cost, step by step
The formula is straightforward: (opening inventory + purchases − closing inventory) ÷ sales × 100. The hard part is having accurate data.
Food cost is the percentage of your revenue that goes toward ingredients. It's the most important metric in a professional kitchen — and the one most restaurants neglect.
The basic formula
Food Cost (%) = (Opening inventory + Purchases for the period − Closing inventory) ÷ Sales × 100
Example: if you start the month with €2,000 in stock, purchase €5,000 worth of goods, end with €1,500 in stock, and record €18,000 in sales, your food cost is (2,000 + 5,000 − 1,500) ÷ 18,000 × 100 = 30.5%.
What is a healthy food cost?
In the Spanish restaurant industry, 28% to 35% is considered healthy. Bars and cafés tend to sit at the lower end (25–30%), while restaurants with more elaborate cooking can reach 35–38%. What matters isn't the exact percentage — it's knowing your own number and tracking it against your history.
The most common mistake
Not doing a closing inventory count. Without that figure, the calculation is inaccurate and useless for decision-making. The second most common mistake: mixing food cost with beverage cost, which operates on very different margins.
Theoretical vs. actual food cost
Theoretical food cost is what your dishes should cost, based on your recipes and ingredient prices. Actual food cost includes waste, portioning errors, and spoilage. The gap between the two — the variance — tells you where the problem is. If it exceeds 3–5%, something needs investigating.
How to automate it
Kitchen Stocker calculates your actual food cost automatically by cross-referencing opening inventory, period purchases, and closing inventory. It also calculates the theoretical food cost per recipe, so you can compare both figures in the same report and spot inefficiencies instantly.
Kitchen Stocker calculates this automatically
No spreadsheets. No manual calculations. Real data every day.