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Enter your ingredients, set your serves, and see your food cost percentage and ideal sell price — instantly. Includes Australian benchmarks by venue type.
I know my sell price
Enter a price above to see food cost % and margin.
Suggest a price for me
At 30% food cost with a cost of $3.69 per serve.
Australian benchmarks
There's no single answer — it depends on your venue type, labour model, and whether you're volume-driven or margin-driven. The table below shows the target ranges used by experienced Australian operators.
| Venue type | Food cost % |
|---|---|
| Fine dining | 28–35% |
| Casual dining | 25–32% |
| Café / breakfast | 24–30% |
| Pizza / fast casual | 20–28% |
| Catering / events | 25–38% |
| Pub bistro / RSL | 28–35% |
Benchmarks sourced from industry operators across Australia. Food cost % = ingredient cost ÷ sell price × 100. Gross margin = 1 − food cost %.
How to use it
List every ingredient in the recipe and enter how much it costs you to use in that dish — not the price of the full pack, but the cost of what you actually use.
Enter how many portions the recipe makes. The calculator divides your total food cost by serves to get your cost per plate.
Type what you charge (or plan to charge) per serve. The calculator shows your food cost %, gross margin, and profit per plate — colour-coded against AU benchmarks.
Food cost percentage tells you what proportion of every dollar of revenue is consumed by raw ingredients. A 30% food cost means $0.30 of every dollar you charge goes to food. The remaining 70% — your gross margin — is what you have left to pay labour, rent, utilities, and generate a net profit.
Different venues have different cost structures. A pizza shop keeps food costs low (20–28%) because dough and sauce are cheap, and volume makes up the margin. A fine dining restaurant accepts 28–35% because premium proteins cost more, but higher sell prices and fewer covers still produce a healthy margin. Caterers often run 30–38% on smaller events, improving at scale.
Food cost percentage only captures raw ingredients. On top of that, most Australian hospitality venues budget 30–35% for labour and 5–12% for occupancy (rent + utilities). A well-run venue targets total costs of 75–85%, leaving a net profit of 15–25%.
Any time a key ingredient price changes — especially proteins, dairy, and pantry staples that follow wholesale price fluctuations. Most operators do a full review quarterly, with spot-checks whenever a supplier invoice lands. Tools like Chef Pauly update food costs automatically every time you change an ingredient price.
Want this automated?
Update a supplier price once and watch your entire menu recalculate in real time. No spreadsheets. No manual entry. Just accurate food costs, always.
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