How to calculate the real cost of every dish on your menu (before you raise prices again)

According to Colombia's statistics office DANE, restaurant and hotel prices rose 9.44% over the last year, more than any other CPI category. Even so, many restaurants lose money on dishes that sell well. The problem is rarely the whole menu: it's a handful of dishes whose cost nobody has recalculated. This guide shows you how to cost every dish using recipe, yield and real purchase price, and when a spreadsheet stops being enough.

Raising the whole menu evenly doesn't fix your margin

In September 2026, Restaurants and hotels was the fastest-rising division of Colombia's CPI: 9.44% over twelve months, versus 6.74% for food and non-alcoholic beverages and 6.29% for headline inflation (DANE, 2026). Behind that number are restaurants adjusting prices to keep up with costs rising on several fronts. Early in the year, the Bogotá restaurant association Acodrés projected that food cost would climb from 35% to 43% of revenue and payroll from 25% to 30% (Portafolio, January 2026).

The usual reaction is to raise the whole menu by the same percentage. The problem is that every dish has its own cost structure: one built on an expensive protein doesn't behave like one built on potatoes and rice. With an even increase, some dishes end up with margin to spare while others keep losing money, even if they sell very well.

What the real cost of a dish is

The real cost isn't the sum of what the invoice says. It's what each gram that ends up on the plate costs, after trimming, peeling, cooking and portioning. To calculate it you need four data points per ingredient:

The formula, step by step

For each ingredient: (purchase price per kilo ÷ yield) × grams per portion. Add up all the ingredients and you get the portion cost.

An example with round numbers: you buy tenderloin at $40 per kilo and the yield is 80%, so the usable kilo costs you $50. If the dish takes 200 g, the meat alone costs $10. With sides, sauce and oil, the dish reaches $12.50. If you sell it at $32 before tax, your food cost is close to 40%.

The number that really matters isn't that percentage: it's the contribution margin, what each dish leaves you to cover payroll, rent and profit. In this case, $19.50. A dish with a 45% cost that you sell 300 times a month can earn you more than one at 28% that you sell 20 times.

Where the spreadsheet breaks

A costing spreadsheet works as long as one person maintains it, with a single location and few suppliers. It breaks in three places:

That's why many owners have a well-built cost sheet they don't use to make decisions: it's out of date the day they need it.