You’ve priced a dish on a guess before. You picked a number that felt about right, and only found out later, once GST and the real cost of every ingredient were factored in, that the margin barely existed. A menu price built on instinct is hard to walk back once customers are used to paying it. Our recipe calculator works out your true food cost, your GST-inclusive cost, and your profit margin before the dish goes anywhere near a menu.
WHAT IS A RECIPE CALCULATOR?
A recipe calculator works out what a dish costs to make and what it needs to sell for to turn a profit. Some tools under that name are really a recipe converter, turning ounces and teaspoons into metric, or a recipe multiplier that scales quantities up or down, or a nutrition calculator returning the energy and carbohydrate count per serve. Ours is a recipe cost calculator. Enter your ingredient costs and servings, and you get a total cost, a cost per serve, and the margin behind your selling price.
HOW TO USE OUR RECIPE CALCULATOR
Enter your recipe name, method and serving size, and the number of servings the recipe makes.
Select “+ Add Ingredient” to build your ingredient list, then enter the quantity purchased and cost of goods for each item.
Enter the quantity your recipe actually uses for each ingredient, in grams, millilitres or each.
Select Calculate to see your total cost across the batch, plus the same figure with GST added and your cost per serve. This is where the calculator divides your total batch cost by your number of servings, converting it into a cost per portion.
Enter a Selling Price per serve to see your Food Gross Profit, Food Markup percentage and Total Generated Profit.
WHY FOODSERVICE BUSINESSES USE OUR RECIPE CALCULATOR
Cafes and quick service kitchens change their menus often, and costing a new dish properly before it launches matters more than costing it quickly. Catering and events businesses price the same recipe at different scales throughout the year, a function for ten one week and an event for two hundred the next. Enter the servings for each job, and the calculator handles that recipe scaling without you reworking your ingredient list from scratch.
Bakeries producing large batches need to know the per-unit cost still holds as bakery ingredient prices shift. Contract caterers working to a fixed per-meal budget, such as aged care or education providers, can check a recipe against that budget before it goes into a wider meal planner or seasonal menu.
Across all of these, the value is the same. You get a cost per serve and a margin you can trust, built from your actual supplier pricing rather than an estimate.
Browse our recipes for menu inspiration, then cost them here before you commit to a price.
WHAT MAKES OUR RECIPE CALCULATOR DIFFERENT
Most recipe cost calculators are standalone software with no link to where you actually buy. Ours sits within Goodman Fielder Food Service, a foodservice supplier. Once you’ve priced a recipe and know your numbers, you’re already talking to the team that supplies the ingredients themselves. If a margin looks tighter than expected, that’s a conversation about ingredient pricing you can have straight away.
If you want to work through pricing on a specific dish or menu, our team can help. Get in touch today.
COLD-SET PANNA COTTA
Method
PANNA COTTA
3 tsp powdered gelatin
60ml (¼ cup) cold water
500ml (2 cups) thickened cream
250ml (1 cup) full cream milk
60g CSR caster sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
80ml (⅓ cup) Olivani Extra
Virgin Olive Oil plus extra to drizzle
Flaked sea salt
STRAWBERRY & BLACK PEPPER SAUCE
500g fresh strawberries,
hulled and roughly chopped
2 tbsp CSR caster sugar
1 tbsp lemon juice
1 tsp freshly cracked black pepper
TO FINISH
8 fresh strawberries, halved
Freshly cracked black pepper
Olivani Extra Virgin Olive Oil, to drizzle
1. Sprinkle the gelatin over the cold water in a small bowl and leave to bloom for 5 minutes without stirring.
2. Combine the cream, milk, CSR caster sugar and vanilla in a medium saucepan over medium heat. Stir gently until the sugar dissolves and the mixture just comes to a simmer – do not boil. Remove from the heat. Add the bloomed gelatin and whisk until completely dissolved. Allow to cool for 5 minutes, then whisk in the Olivani Extra Virgin Olive Oil until smooth and glossy. Season with a small pinch of flaked sea salt.
3. Lightly oil four 180ml dariole moulds or ramekins with a neutral oil. Pour the panna cotta mixture evenly between the moulds. Refrigerate for a minimum of 4 hours or overnight until fully set.
4. For the strawberry sauce, combine the chopped strawberries, CSR caster sugar and lemon juice in a small saucepan over medium heat. Cook, stirring occasionally, for 8 to 10 minutes until the strawberries break down and the sauce thickens slightly. Stir through the black pepper, taste and adjust sweetness. Allow to cool, then refrigerate until needed.
5. To serve, run a thin knife around the edge of each panna cotta and invert onto a chilled plate. Spoon the strawberry and black pepper sauce around the base. Arrange the fresh halved strawberries alongside, drizzle with a little Olivani Extra Virgin Olive Oil and finish with an extra crack of black pepper.
For a smooth & silky cold-set panna cotta, whisk the Olivani Extra Virgin Olive Oil into the dairy mixture while it’s still warm, not hot. Ensure you whisk your gelatin thoroughly; alternatively use a stick blender to emulsify the mixture & ensure you pass the dairy mixture through a fine sieve ensuring the olive oil flavour carries evenly through every spoonful.
Ingredients
| Ingredient Name | Qty Purchased | Cost of Goods | Qty Used in Recipe | Total Cost |
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| mL | $ | mL | $ 0.00 | |
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| g | $ | g | $ 0.00 | |
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| each | $ | each | $ 0.00 | |
| g | $ | g | $ 0.00 | |
| mL | $ | mL | $ 0.00 | |
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| each | $ | each | $ 0.00 | |
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| each | $ | each | $ 0.00 |