What does your dish actually cost?
Type in ingredients. Get total cost, cost per serving, and food cost % live as you type. No signup. No email.
⚡ 33 ready-made template recipes · 📚 9 pricing playbooks · ∞ unlimited free recipes
Built for small food operators
After the 30-second calc
Sign up - get the rest of the engine.
The calculator above is the surface. Underneath: a full ingredient ledger, recipe library, audit trail, menu engineering, and PDF export. All free during early access.
Save recipes
Build your full recipe book once. Edit anytime - costs auto-update.
Auto-recalc engine
Change one ingredient price. Every dish using it updates instantly.
Sub-recipes
Build a sauce once, reuse in 5 dishes. Cost flows through automatically.
PDF export
Cost sheets for the kitchen. Catering quotes for the office.
Menu engineering
Auto-classify dishes - stars, puzzles, plowhorses, dogs.
Overhead allocation
Add labor + rent + utilities % - see real margins per dish.
Batch quotes
1, 10, 25, 50, 100, 200, 500 servings - one click for catering.
Price history audit
Time-series log of every ingredient cost change.
No credit card · Unlimited recipes · 5-min setup
Three steps
From "what does this cost?" to printable cost sheet.
Add your ingredients
Enter what you actually pay - your suppliers, your prices.
Build a recipe
Pick ingredients, set quantities, set yield. We compute the rest.
Update once, recalc all
Beef goes up 18%? Edit the price once. Every recipe updates.
Or just snoop
Browse 33 template recipe costs.
Real ingredient breakdowns and US-average costs for popular dishes. Use as a starting point or just see what your dish "should" cost.
vs the world
The price gap nobody else fills.
| Excel | MarginCub | MarketMan | MarginEdge | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cost to start | $0 | $0 | $199/mo + $500 setup | $330/mo |
| Auto-recalc | ✗ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Sub-recipes | ✗ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Menu engineering | ✗ | ✓ | ✗ | ✓ |
| Setup time | days | 5 min | weeks | weeks + POS integration |
| Built for small ops | ~ | ✓ | ✗ | ✗ |
Free playbooks
Pricing strategy, no email gate.
Food Cost Percentage Formula: Calculator + 2026 Targets by Segment
Food cost % = ingredient cost ÷ menu price × 100. Healthy targets: 20-25% pizza, 28-32% casual dining, 30-35% fine dining. Free calculator + 30-day fix plan.
Read →
Supplier Negotiation Playbook (Get Sysco / US Foods Pricing Down 6-12%)
Most small restaurants accept whatever pricing their primary distributor sends. This playbook covers the five levers - bid sheets, quarterly rebids, PAR commitments, payment terms, secondary sourcing - that pull 6-12% off your top 20 SKUs. Worked numbers, phone scripts, 30-day plan.
Read →
Where Restaurant Revenue Actually Goes (The 3% Net Margin Problem)
The average independent restaurant nets 3-5% of revenue. This breakdown of a $1M casual-dining P&L shows exactly where every dollar lands - and which 3 levers actually move the bottom line. Worked examples, category-by-category benchmarks, 90-day audit.
Read →
Reducing Food Waste (The Hidden Profit Lever for Small Restaurants)
Most kitchens waste 4-10% of food purchased before it reaches a plate. On $30K monthly spend that's $1,200-3,000 monthly in the trash. This guide breaks down the four waste categories, how to measure each, and the 30-day plan that typically claws back 2-4 FCP points.
Read →
Menu Engineering Matrix - The Complete Guide to Stars, Puzzles, Plowhorses & Dogs
Most restaurant menus carry 2-4 dogs that quietly drain margin. Menu engineering is the quarterly habit that finds them, repositions the puzzles, and protects the stars. This guide walks the full process with worked examples, action playbooks, and a 30-day rollout plan.
Read →
Food Truck Menu Pricing Guide (How to Not Go Broke Your First Season)
Food trucks have a cost structure brick-and-mortar restaurants don't share - fuel, commissary, permits, event fees, generator. This guide walks through pricing that survives the first season, the per-event break-even math, and the menu architecture that drives margin.
Read →
Common questions
Things people ask.
Do you ship me ingredient prices? +
No. Prices come from you - your suppliers, your invoices. Sysco ≠ Costco ≠ Walmart, and no API can know your contract pricing. Our value is the math + workflow + auto-recalc, not data.
Will paid tiers be enforced later? +
Yes, eventually. But early-access users keep generous free use forever - we'll never silently lock you out of recipes you've already built. When pricing launches, you'll get a heads-up and a grandfathered free tier.
Is this for me if I'm a hobby baker? +
Yes. Cottage food operators systematically underprice. Even if you're selling 10 cookies a week at the farmers market, you should know what each one costs you in butter, sugar, and time.
Why no POS integration? +
POS systems are inventory + sales tracking. We're costing + pricing. Different jobs. We export PDFs and CSVs - drop those into your POS yourself if needed. No 6-month integration project.
What about data export and migration? +
Your recipes and ingredients stay yours. PDF export available now. CSV and JSON full-export coming soon.
Numbers don't lie.
Spreadsheets do.
Free during early access. Every feature unlocked. No card. No call. Just margins.