Price Your Menu For Profit - COGS Playbook version 2.0
Price Your Menu for Profit
From yield test to recipe cost to the price on your menu. With ready-to-use spreadsheets.
67 pages. 9 live spreadsheets with built-in formulas. One dish costed from the raw shopping bag all the way to the price on your menu.
This is Version 2.0. Rebuilt from the ground up based on real operator feedback. One dish throughout instead of scattered examples. One term per concept. Labor in its own category. And nine spreadsheets that do the math for you the moment you fill in your numbers.
Ingredient cost and menu item cost are two different numbers. The difference between them is where profit quietly disappears. Your COGS is wrong. Your prices are built on the wrong foundation. You think you are earning a 30% margin when the real number is 18%. Or 12%. Sales look fine. The bank balance at month end tells a different story.
This playbook closes that gap.
One dish, Grilled Chicken Pasta with Mushroom Cream Sauce, costed through every method in the book from start to finish. Yield test, meat test, WIP costing, recipe calculation, menu costing, pricing. Every formula applied to the same plate so you never lose the thread. Then you take the same method and apply it to your own menu.
Works for every F&B format. Fine dining, casual dining, fast casual, quick-service, coffee shops, bars, food trucks, buffets, and catering. The formulas are universal.
Inside, you get four parts across 67 pages.
Part 1: Understanding Your Cost Structure. Revenue, cost, and profit defined properly. The four cost categories in F&B and why mixing them up is where most pricing mistakes start. The P&L layer by layer, from selling price down to what you actually keep.
Part 2: The Menu Engineering Sequence. The five-step process from raw ingredient to menu price. Basic food cost calculation, yield testing, meat and butcher testing, recipe calculation, and menu costing. All applied to one dish, step by step, with worked examples and downloadable spreadsheets at every stage.
Part 3: Pricing and Margin. Food cost percentage, profit versus margin versus markup, setting your selling price, a la carte versus set menu costing, menu pricing in practice, and break-even analysis.
Part 4: Control and Analysis. Why food cost percentage alone can mislead you. Common causes of uncontrolled food costs. Waste categories and how to track them. Monthly food cost analysis and the daily flash cost report that catches problems before month-end.
Plus a full Glossary, a Measurement Conversion Reference, a Templates Index, and the complete Cost Card showing exactly what one finished plate costs and what it leaves you.
The 9 spreadsheets are live and ready to use. Open the link, make your own copy, fill in your numbers. No accounting degree required.
Built by Tara Mangan. 15 years inside F&B operations. Certified Excellence in Restaurant Service Management. Perfect scores in P&L Management, Strategic Operational, Staffing and Scheduling, and Complaint Handling.
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