Price per portion excluding VAT
FREE GP & FOOD COST GUIDE
Know your food costs.
Protect your GP.
A simple way for UK chefs to understand gross profit, cost per portion and what each dish really earns on ingredients.
See exactly how the numbers work, then cost your own recipe with our free calculator. No spreadsheet, login or card required.
✓ Free one-recipe calculator✓ No account needed✓ Built for working chefs
Food GP breakdownWORKED EXAMPLE
Ingredient-based gross profit
70%
Based on a £12.00 ex-VAT selling price and £3.60 in ingredient costs.
Ingredient GP70%
Food cost30%
GP per portion£8.40
Illustrative ingredient GP — not net profit.
MADE BY A WORKING CHEFREAL RECIPE COSTINGFREE TOOL, NO SIGN-UP14-DAY FULL-APP TRIAL
THE NUMBERS, MADE SIMPLE
Calculate your GP with confidence.
Four figures tell you how your ingredients are performing against your selling price.
Actual ingredients used per portion
Price minus ingredient cost
Ingredient-based gross profit
THE FORMULA
How to calculate food gross profit
GP per portion = selling price excluding VAT − ingredient cost per portion.
Food-cost GP % = (GP per portion ÷ selling price excluding VAT) × 100.
EXAMPLE(12.00 − 3.60) ÷ 12.00 × 100= 70% GP
Food-cost GP is based on ingredient costs only. Labour, energy, rent, overheads and waste are not automatically deducted. Compare ingredient costs and selling prices on a consistent VAT basis.
YOUR KITCHEN, YOUR NUMBERS
What happens when costs change?
Every supplier increase can affect your GP. Learn how to price a dish and protect its ingredient margin.
GP vs food cost
Food cost percentage is ingredient cost divided by selling price. With a 30% food cost, ingredient-based GP is 70%.
Price for target GP
Divide ingredient cost per portion by (1 − target GP decimal). £3 cost at 75% target GP gives a £12 ex-VAT selling price.
Keep recipes current
Re-cost dishes when supplier prices rise. The full app lets confirmed price-book changes feed into linked recipes.
Costing for events and catering?
Read the catering costing guide Work out the full ingredient batch cost, divide by portions or covers and then allow separately for staff, transport, equipment and wastage.
FROM CALCULATION TO CONTROL
Take the guesswork out of costing.
Mise en Price puts recipe costings, GP calculations, supplier prices and invoice review together in one place.
- Know your ingredient cost per portion
- Build a reusable supplier price book
- Review invoice scans before importing
- Keep saved recipe costs up to date
Mise en PriceREAL APP SCREEN
Actual recipe costing screen from the app
READY TO COST YOUR FIRST DISH?
Prep it. Price it. Plate it.
Try one recipe completely free, then explore the full app for 14 days with no payment card. After the trial, choose whether to subscribe for £9.99/month; there is no automatic charge.