How to Cost a Bulk Buffet Menu to Hit Your Target GP (UK)

To cost a bulk buffet menu and hit a target gross profit (GP), work out the total ingredient cost per head, then divide that cost by your target food cost percentage to set the price. If you want a 70% GP, your food cost must be 30% of the selling price — so a buffet costing £4.50 per head needs to sell at £15 (£4.50 ÷ 0.30). Buffets add extra layers of risk because of over-catering and plate waste, so you build a wastage buffer into the cost before you price. That's the whole method. The rest of this article shows you how to do it accurately.

Step 1: Decide your target GP first

In the UK, most kitchens aim for 65–70% gross profit on food, which is the same as a 30–35% food cost. Buffets sit at the tighter end because portion control is harder, so many operators target 68–72% GP and price defensively.

The formula you'll use throughout:

• Food cost % = (ingredient cost ÷ selling price) × 100
• Selling price (ex VAT) = ingredient cost ÷ target food cost %
• GP % = 100 − food cost %

Everything below feeds into these three lines.

Step 2: Cost every dish per portion, not per recipe

You can't cost a buffet by eye. Break each dish down to the cost per portion using this approach:

1. List every ingredient in the recipe.
2. Record the pack price and pack size you actually buy (e.g. 5 kg bag of rice at £6.50).
3. Calculate the unit cost (£6.50 ÷ 5,000 g = £0.0013 per g).
4. Multiply by the quantity used in the recipe.
5. Divide the total recipe cost by the number of portions it yields.

Worked example for a chicken curry serving 20:

£27.20 ÷ 20 portions = £1.36 per portion.

Do this for every dish going on the buffet.

Step 3: Account for yield and waste

Raw ingredient weight is not the same as usable weight. This is where buffet costings quietly leak profit.

• Trim and prep loss: A whole chicken, vegetables to peel, or fish to fillet lose weight. Apply a yield percentage. If a vegetable yields 80% usable, your effective cost is unit cost ÷ 0.80 — so it's 25% higher than the raw price suggests.
• Cooking loss: Meat can lose 20–30% of its weight during cooking. If you portion cooked, cost on the cooked yield.

Skipping yield adjustments is the single most common reason UK kitchens miss their target GP. A dish that looks like 30% food cost on paper can be 38% in reality.

Step 4: Build a per-head cost by predicting consumption

A buffet doesn't sell fixed portions — guests help themselves. You need a consumption forecast per head, not a plate spec.

A workable UK starting point for a mixed hot buffet:

• Protein: 150–200 g per head
• Carbohydrate (rice/potato/pasta): 150 g per head
• Vegetables/sides: 120 g per head
• Bread/starters: 60–80 g per head
• Dessert: 100–120 g per head

Multiply your per-portion dish costs by these consumption figures to get a realistic cost per head. Guests take more of cheap carbs and less of expensive protein — but they also come back for seconds, so don't under-forecast.

Say your forecast lands at £4.50 per head in ingredients.

Step 5: Add a wastage and over-production buffer

Buffets must always look full, which means you cook more than you'll serve. Add a buffer to your per-head cost:

• Over-production buffer: 10–20% depending on service length and refill policy.
• Plate/return waste: food left on plates and unrepurposable pans.

At £4.50 per head with a 15% buffer, your true working cost is £4.50 × 1.15 = £5.18 per head. Price off this number, not the clean recipe number.

Step 6: Price to hit your target GP

Now apply the formula. Using £5.18 per head and a 70% GP target (30% food cost):

• Selling price ex VAT = £5.18 ÷ 0.30 = £17.27 per head

Then handle VAT. Restaurant food in the UK is standard-rated at 20%, so the menu (VAT-inclusive) price is:

• £17.27 × 1.20 = £20.72 per head

Round to a sensible £21 per head. Always calculate GP on the ex-VAT figure — GP is never measured on the VAT-inclusive price, or you'll overstate your margin.

Step 7: Sanity-check and stress-test

Before you commit:

• Recalculate GP at the real numbers. If your actual per-head cost creeps to £5.60, GP at £17.27 drops to 68%. Know your break point.
• Test the low-attendance scenario. Buffets have fixed prep costs. If you cater for 100 and 70 turn up, your effective per-head cost rises because production doesn't scale down neatly. Set a minimum number in the booking terms.
• Separate labour and overheads. GP only covers food cost. Your net profit still has to absorb staff, energy, and rent, which is why hitting a healthy GP matters so much on high-volume buffets.

Step 8: Lock in specs and re-cost regularly

Ingredient prices move constantly in the UK. A costing done in January can be wrong by March. Protect your GP by:

• Writing standard recipes with fixed quantities so anyone can reproduce the dish at cost.
• Re-costing monthly or when a supplier price changes by more than 5%.
• Tracking actual vs theoretical usage after each service to expose over-portioning and waste.

Quick reference

• GP % = 100 − food cost %
• Price ex VAT = per-head cost ÷ target food cost %
• Menu price = price ex VAT × 1.20
• Always adjust for yield, cooking loss, and a waste buffer before pricing.
• Aim for 68–72% GP on buffets and set a minimum guest number.

If you'd rather not build all this in a spreadsheet by hand, try the free food cost calculator at getprepsheet.com/calculator to check any dish's cost and GP in seconds — and if you want ready-made costing templates that handle yields, portions and batch scaling for you, take a look at the Excel templates in the shop at getprepsheet.com/shop.