Food Cost Consulting
Food Cost Consultant for Restaurants
Your food cost is too high—but you're not sure why. We audit your recipes, portions, and vendors to find the waste you can't see.
Learn About Our Prime Audit →
Food Cost Consulting
Your food cost is too high—but you're not sure why. We audit your recipes, portions, and vendors to find the waste you can't see.
Learn About Our Prime Audit →Industry Benchmarks
Industry standard food cost is 28-35% of revenue. Fast casual typically runs 32-38%, fine dining 25-30%, and pizza/Italian 28-32%. Your ideal percentage depends on your concept, pricing strategy, and labor model.
| Restaurant Type | Target Food Cost | Typical Range |
|---|---|---|
| Fine Dining | 28% | 25-30% |
| Full Service Casual | 32% | 30-35% |
| Fast Casual | 34% | 32-38% |
| Pizza / Italian | 30% | 28-32% |
| Steakhouse | 35% | 33-40% |
The number that matters most: Your theoretical food cost vs. actual. If your recipes say 30% but your P&L shows 35%, that 5-point gap is pure waste—and it's fixable.
Common Causes
Your cooks are "eyeballing" portions. Over time, that 6oz protein becomes 7oz. On 100 covers, that's $200+ in daily loss.
Your distributor raises prices 2-3% quarterly. Without tracking, you're paying 10-15% more than last year for the same products.
No standardized recipe cards means every cook makes the dish differently—with different costs and different margins.
Prep waste, spoilage, mistakes, and employee meals add up. Without a waste log, you're blind to where product disappears.
Monthly counts catch theft and waste too late. Weekly counts with variance tracking catch problems before they compound.
Items priced before ingredient costs rose. Or "value" items that customers love but cost more to make than you charge.
Solutions
Lower food cost by implementing recipe costing cards, tracking theoretical vs. actual variance, conducting weekly inventory counts, negotiating vendor contracts, reducing portion drift, cross-utilizing ingredients, and eliminating menu items with poor margins.
The approaches fall into two categories: do it yourself or hire a food cost consultant.
DIY approach: Download our free food cost calculators, build your recipe cards, and implement weekly tracking. It works—if you have 10+ hours weekly to dedicate to the process.
Consultant approach: We audit your operation, identify the specific causes of your food cost variance, and install the systems to fix it. Most engagements recover 3-5 points within 60 days.
Our Process
We cost every item on your menu using current vendor prices and actual yields—not the costs from when you opened.
Compare what your POS says you sold against what inventory says you used. The gap reveals where the waste lives.
On-site observation of prep and line cooking to identify portion drift, over-production, and waste patterns.
Compare your invoices against market rates. We often find 5-15% savings through competitive bidding or renegotiation.
Identify which items make money, which items lose money, and which items should be repriced, repositioned, or removed.
Implement the tracking tools, checklists, and accountability systems that keep food cost under control permanently.
Common Questions
Industry standard food cost is 28-35% of revenue. Fast casual typically runs 32-38%, fine dining 25-30%, and pizza/Italian 28-32%. Your ideal percentage depends on your concept, pricing strategy, and labor model.
Lower food cost by implementing recipe costing cards, tracking theoretical vs. actual variance, conducting weekly inventory counts, negotiating vendor contracts, reducing portion drift, cross-utilizing ingredients, and eliminating menu items with poor margins.
A food cost audit includes recipe costing verification, portion size analysis, waste tracking, inventory accuracy review, vendor price benchmarking, theoretical vs. actual variance calculation, and menu profitability analysis.
High food cost typically stems from portion drift, untracked waste, vendor price creep, recipe inconsistency, poor inventory practices, theft, or menu items priced below profitability. A food cost audit identifies the specific causes.
Start with our free calculators, or skip straight to a professional audit. Either way, we'll help you find the savings.