Food & Beverage: Measuring Kitchen & Food Cost Performance - By Ken Burgin

Food Cost % - measure it quickly by adding up food purchases for the week and dividing by the food sales. This is based on the assumption that perishable stock is kept to a minimum. Do a stocktake for an accurate food cost percentage, although in many small operators this is often infrequent.

Menu Items with Highest Gross Profit Margin. They may be the most expensive item on the menu, but not always. Are these 'big winners' being promoted well? Profitable Recipe Manager works out the figures quickly and easily.

Best (and worst) Selling Items - check the weekly sales from your POS or dockets. Did you know what the best sellers were? Work these out on the Menu Profitability Analyser. 

Total Food Costs - how much was your total food bill? Sometimes a useful figure to show staff who think you are made of money!

Food Costs per Head - how much does it cost each week to feed a customer? If your menu and sales methods are consistent, this should also remain much the same. If it starts to go up, you may have a problem with waste or stealing.

Kitchen Labour % - it's only fair to measure kitchen productivity by comparing kitchen labour against food sales, not total sales (alcohol and beverage sales may be influenced by other factors).

Kitchen Labour Hours - how many hours worked are in this section? Compare against sales to measure productivity.

Total Stock Value - how much is being held? It should be less than a week's use (but may be higher out if you are storing frozen seafood or cryovac meat).

Stock Turnover - work out how much food you use in a week (from invoices) and divide by 7 to get a daily figure. Now divide the total stock value by this daily figure to see how many days of stock you hold. It should be 3-5 days for a fast and casual operation, and not much more than 7 days if deliveries are less frequent.

Kitchen Linen Costs - the cost of uniforms, aprons and tea-towels can be a shock! How many tea-towels are you using per day, or per staff member??

Chemical & Cleaning Costs - these can be very high, especially if there are automatic dispensers. How much does this cost per customer?


Profitable Hospitality offers management and cost-control systems (Manuals & CD-ROMs) for restaurants, cafes, hotels, bars and clubs. The systems are based on the extensive consulting and operating experience of CEO Ken Burgin, and enable busy owners and managers to set up complete operating and cost-control systems in minutes, not months. Profitable Hospitality also runs regular management training workshops in the areas of kitchen profit & efficiency, restaurant marketing and functions management. A free monthly e-newsletter keeps you up to date on the latest industry management issues. www.profitablehospitality.com.

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