Food Business Growth: menus, costing and kitchen systems

01

Standard recipes and true costing

In simple words

When you buy a whole chicken, you do not eat the bones. So the chicken you pay for is more than the chicken on the plate. A grown-up kitchen measures this exactly, writes the recipe on a card, and makes it the same way every time.

Before this course: Food Business: food cart, carinderia, restaurant & catering (course 2.21) and Start a Food Business in Ontario (course 12.4). You already know the basic plate cost, food cost % and the Ontario permit steps. Here we go deeper.

Key facts

AP (as purchased) is the product the way you buy it. EP (edible portion) is what is left after peeling, trimming, boning and cooking.
Yield % = EP weight ÷ AP weight × 100. Do a yield test: weigh it before, do the prep, weigh it after.
EP cost per kg = AP cost per kg ÷ yield % (as a decimal).
Sub-recipes (sauces, marinades, doughs, stocks) get their own cost per portion or per litre. Then use that cost in every dish that uses them.
A standard recipe card lists: dish name, yield (portions), portion size, every ingredient with its EP amount and cost, method, cooking temperature and time, allergens, plating photo and the date it was last costed.
Re-cost the whole menu on a schedule (for example monthly) and whenever a key ingredient price jumps.

Example (practice numbers, not real prices)

Item	Value
Chicken bought (AP)	1.0 kg at 12.00 per kg
Weight after trimming and cooking (EP)	0.65 kg
Yield %	0.65 ÷ 1.0 = 65%
EP cost per kg	12.00 ÷ 0.65 = about 18.46
150 g portion (0.15 kg)	0.15 × 18.46 = about 2.77

Using the AP price would give 0.15 × 12.00 = 1.80 per portion, which understates the cost by about one third.

Step by step

Pick your best-selling protein or main ingredient.
Weigh it as purchased (AP) and write the price.
Do the prep and cooking exactly as on the menu, then weigh what is left (EP).
Divide EP by AP and multiply by 100 to get the yield %.
Divide the AP price per kg by the yield (as a decimal) to get the EP cost per kg.
Multiply by the portion weight to get the true portion cost.
Write a standard recipe card for the dish with all the fields above.
Check: your portion cost uses EP cost, and the card has a "last costed" date.

Watch on YouTube

Food cost formula: how to calculate food cost percentageThe Restaurant Boss · YouTube · youtube.com

Videos by other creators on YouTube, for reference. They are not made by or affiliated with The Future Market.

LESSON 01Standard recipes and true costing

LESSON 01 / ANIMATED LESSON / AI VOICE00:00 / 01:00

Voice

Read the video script

[Host weighing a chicken on a scale] "A kilo of chicken does not give you a kilo of food. Let's find the real cost."
[Text on screen: Yield % = EP ÷ AP × 100] "Weigh it before, prep it, weigh it after. Divide the second number by the first."
[Text on screen: 12.00 ÷ 0.65 = 18.46 per kg] "With a 65 percent yield, a 12 dollar kilo really costs about 18 dollars and 46 cents for the part you serve."
[Host holding a recipe card] "Write it on a standard recipe card, and re-cost it on a schedule."

Try it now

Run a yield test on your most-used ingredient. Compute the EP cost per kg and the true portion cost. Then write one standard recipe card with all the fields.

ClaudeStuck? Copy a ready-made prompt for Claude

Copy this, open Claude, paste it, and Claude will walk you through the lesson step by step.

For a grown-up: Claude is for adults (18+). Copy this, paste it into Claude, and use the answer to explain the lesson to your child.

I'm learning "Food Business Growth: menus, costing and kitchen systems" on The Future Market. Lesson 1: "Standard recipes and true costing".

What the lesson teaches:
- AP (as purchased) is the product the way you buy it. EP (edible portion) is what is left after peeling, trimming, boning and cooking.
- Yield % = EP weight ÷ AP weight × 100. Do a yield test: weigh it before, do the prep, weigh it after.
- EP cost per kg = AP cost per kg ÷ yield % (as a decimal).
- Sub-recipes (sauces, marinades, doughs, stocks) get their own cost per portion or per litre. Then use that cost in every dish that uses them.
- A standard recipe card lists: dish name, yield (portions), portion size, every ingredient with its EP amount and cost, method, cooking temperature and time, allergens, plating photo and the date it was last costed.
- Re-cost the whole menu on a schedule (for example monthly) and whenever a key ingredient price jumps.

The exercise I'm working on:
Run a yield test on your most-used ingredient. Compute the EP cost per kg and the true portion cost. Then write one standard recipe card with all the fields. ---

I'm stuck. Please:
1. Explain the main idea in plain, simple words with one everyday example.
2. Walk me through the exercise one small step at a time. Ask me what I've done so far before giving the next step.
3. Don't just give me the final answer. Help me do it myself, and check my work when I share it.

I'm a parent helping my child (about 8 years old) with a lesson called "Standard recipes and true costing" from the course "Food Business Growth: menus, costing and kitchen systems".

Here's what the lesson says:
When you buy a whole chicken, you do not eat the bones. So the chicken you pay for is more than the chicken on the plate. A grown-up kitchen measures this exactly, writes the recipe on a card, and makes it the same way every time.

The activity:
Run a yield test on your most-used ingredient. Compute the EP cost per kg and the true portion cost. Then write one standard recipe card with all the fields. ---

Please explain this so an 8-year-old understands: short sentences, a fun everyday example, and no hard words.
Then give me 3 simple questions I can ask my child to check they understood, and a way to do the activity together, one tiny step at a time.

Open Claude

My notes

I learned this

02