Catering / menu pricing workflow
Turn batch yields, guest portions, and crew time into an event quote
A local-first catering worksheet that rounds production batches, exposes leftover portions, prices labor, adds overhead, and calculates a target-margin quote.
Your plan
01 / INPUTSMenu Cost Desk
Calculated from user-entered inputs. Review assumptions and limitations.
Plan summary
02 / RESULTSEvent cost and quote
Shared scale: 0 to 1,670.4 USD. Values may overlap; bars are comparisons, not parts of a total. Review the details below.
| Dish | Required portions | Batches | Leftover portions | Ingredients | Labor hours | Labor | Dish total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Roasted chicken | 60 | 3 | 12 | $288.00 | 12.00 h | $288.00 | $576.00 |
| Seasonal salad | 60 | 3 | 0 | $108.00 | 3.50 h | $84.00 | $192.00 |
| Lemon tart | 60 | 4 | 4 | $192.00 | 3.50 h | $84.00 | $276.00 |
- Illustrative menu cost for Illustrative garden luncheon serving 60 guests. Portions are rounded up to whole production batches.
- Batch yield is an operator-entered usable yield after trimming, cooking, and service loss. It is not inferred from a recipe database.
- Overhead is applied at 12.0% of direct ingredient and labor cost. Quote pricing divides total cost by one minus the target margin.
- Labor is modeled as (prep hours + service hours) multiplied by staff count and the entered hourly rate.
Know the boundaries
- Ingredient costs and usable yields are manual assumptions; no recipe catalog, food-cost feed, or live commodity data is used.
- This is a planning worksheet, not food-safety, allergen, nutrition, tax, payroll, or regulatory advice.
- Pricing excludes delivery, rentals, venue fees, taxes, gratuity, payment fees, and other costs unless you include them in overhead or a batch cost.
Examples are illustrative. Results depend on the assumptions and measurements you enter.
Method, not guesswork
Catering cost is often distorted by yields and labor rather than a single ingredient price. Enter what one production batch actually yields, how many portions each guest needs, and who is working prep and service. The planner rounds up batches, shows leftovers, prices labor, and then applies overhead and target margin.
Read the methodology and worked examplesFrom inputs to a useful decision
All guidesConvert guest counts into catering production batches
Use usable yield and portions per guest to plan whole batches and see leftover portions.
Read guidePractical guideMake catering labor and target margin visible
Use prep and service hours, staff count, overhead, and target margin to review an event quote.
Read guideCommon questions
How are production batches rounded?
Required portions are divided by the usable batch yield and rounded up to a whole batch for each menu row.
What goes into labor cost?
Prep hours and service hours are added, multiplied by the row staff count, and multiplied by the entered labor hourly rate.
How is the suggested quote calculated?
The engine adds ingredient cost, labor cost, and overhead, then divides by one minus the entered target margin percentage.