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Kitchen costing glossary

Short definitions for the numbers UK kitchens use to price a menu, control food cost and plan prep: food cost percentage, gross profit, par level, yield, prime cost and the rest, each with its formula and the free tool that works it out.

Actual food cost
The food cost you really incurred over a period, worked out from stock: opening stock plus purchases minus closing stock, then divided by ex-VAT food sales for the same period.
Actual cost = opening stock + purchases − closing stock See actual vs theoretical food cost and the free stock take template.
Allergen matrix
A chart of every dish against the 14 major allergens that UK food businesses must declare, showing which allergens each dish contains. Staff and customers use it to answer allergen questions consistently.
Free allergen matrix template; guide: the 14 allergens and PPDS labelling.
AP (as purchased) and EP (edible portion)
AP is the quantity you buy; EP is the quantity you can actually use after trimming, peeling, boning or cooking. A 5 kg box of carrots that gives 4 kg of peeled, trimmed carrots has an EP of 4 kg.
See the yield calculator and the guide to yield percentage and trim waste.
Cost factor
The multiplier between what you buy and what you can use: AP divided by EP. A cost factor of 1.25 means 1.25 kg bought for every 1 kg usable, so the usable cost per kg is 25% higher than the pack price per kg.
See the yield calculator.
Covers
The number of customers served, or meals sold, in a service or period. Forecast covers drive how much to prep and order.
See how to forecast daily covers.
Ex-VAT and VAT-inclusive prices
Menu prices shown to customers include VAT, but VAT is not yours to keep, so food cost and GP are calculated on the price without it. At the standard 20% rate, divide the menu price by 1.2 to get the ex-VAT price.
Calculating GP on the VAT-inclusive price makes every dish look better than it is. See the GP calculator.
Food cost percentage
The cost of a dish's ingredients as a percentage of its selling price excluding VAT. A dish with £3.00 of ingredients sold at £10.00 ex-VAT has a food cost of 30%.
Food cost % = ingredient cost ÷ ex-VAT selling price × 100 Typical UK figures are on the UK food cost and GP benchmarks page; work out your own with the food cost calculator.
Gross profit (GP) percentage
What is left of the ex-VAT selling price after ingredient cost, as a percentage of that price. It is the other side of food cost: a 30% food cost is a 70% GP. To hit a target GP, divide the ingredient cost by (1 minus the GP as a decimal): £3.00 at a 70% target gives £10.00 ex-VAT.
GP % = (ex-VAT price − cost) ÷ ex-VAT price × 100 Use the UK GP calculator.
Sorting menu items by popularity and profitability to decide what to promote, reprice or drop. The usual four groups are stars (popular and profitable), plowhorses (popular, lower profit), puzzles (profitable, less popular) and dogs (neither).
Guide: menu engineering for small restaurants. Spreadsheet: Menu Profit Matrix.
Mise en place
French for "everything in its place": having ingredients prepped and equipment set out before service starts. In practice it is the prep list worked through before the doors open.
See the guide to building a mise en place prep list.
Par level
The target quantity of an item you want on hand at a set point: at the start of service for a prep item (prep par), or when the next delivery arrives for a stock item (order par). You prep or order only the gap between par and what you already have.
Par = daily usage × days of cover × (1 + buffer) Use the par level calculator.
PPDS (prepacked for direct sale)
Food that is packed on the same premises before the customer orders it, such as a sandwich made in the morning and wrapped for the chiller. Since October 2021, PPDS food must carry a label with the full ingredients list, with allergens emphasised.
See the 14 allergens and PPDS labelling.
Prep sheet (prep list)
A list of what to prepare for a service: each item, its par level, what is already on hand, and the amount to prep to reach par. It is also called a prep list or a production sheet.
Free kitchen prep sheet template; guide: how to write a kitchen prep sheet.
Prime cost
Your two biggest controllable costs together: cost of goods sold (food and drink) plus labour, usually shown as a percentage of sales.
Prime cost = food and drink cost + labour cost Guide: how to calculate prime cost.
Stock take
A physical count of the stock you hold on a set date, valued at cost. Two consecutive stock takes plus the purchases between them give your actual food cost for the period.
Free stock take template.
Sub-recipe
A component made in a batch and used in several dishes, such as a stock, sauce or compound butter. You cost the batch once, work out its cost per gram or millilitre, and roll that into each dish that uses it.
Guide: costing a sub-recipe.
Theoretical (ideal) food cost
The food cost you should have had, built from your recipe costs multiplied by what you sold. The gap between theoretical and actual food cost is where waste, over-portioning, theft and recording errors show up.
See actual vs theoretical food cost.
Wet GP and dry GP
In UK pubs and bars, wet sales are drinks and dry sales are food. Wet GP is the gross profit on drinks sales, worked out the same way as food GP but on drink prices and costs, and usually reported separately from dry GP.
Guide: wet GP on beer, wine and spirits.
Yield percentage
EP divided by AP, as a percentage. A 5 kg piece that gives 4 kg usable has an 80% yield (a 20% loss). Trim yield and cooking yield multiply, they do not add: 80% × 80% is a 64% combined yield.
Yield % = EP ÷ AP × 100 Use the yield calculator.

Written by a working UK chef. Percentages and formulas here are the standard definitions; your own prices, yields and VAT position decide the numbers for your kitchen.