Free, in-browser. Build the plate from ingredients, factor in waste and yield loss, and get the three numbers that matter: plate cost, food cost percentage, and the menu price that hits your target. Nothing leaves your machine.
| Ingredient | Qty | Unit | Cost / Unit ($) | Line Cost | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| $0.85 | |||||
| $2.64 | |||||
| $0.38 | |||||
| $0.42 | |||||
| $0.18 | |||||
| $0.70 |
Enter ingredient quantities used per portion and purchase cost per matching unit. This simplified model applies one yield to all ingredients: adjusted cost = ingredient cost ÷ (1 − loss rate). For precise costing, calculate each ingredient's yield separately. Labor, packaging, overhead, taxes, and payment fees are excluded; this is not net profit.
Plate cost = Σ(ingredient qty × unit cost) ÷ (1 − loss fraction) Food cost % = plate cost ÷ menu price × 100 Target price = plate cost ÷ target %
Two honest caveats about what a plate calculator can and can't tell you. First, the unit costs are the whole game — a food cost percentage computed from the prices you remember is fiction; supplier prices move weekly, and a two-point drift hides comfortably inside stale numbers (see purchase price variance). Second, this computes theoretical cost — what the plate should cost if portioning is exact and nothing is wasted beyond your waste factor. The gap between theoretical and actual (from real purchases and counts) is where money disappears, and closing it requires connecting recipes to real purchase prices and inventory — see COGS and food cost management software.
Costing one plate with today's prices is this tool. Keeping every recipe's cost current as supplier prices change on living purchase orders — and seeing margin move the week it moves — is what LineNow does. Free for 90 days, $100/month per business unit after.
