Restaurants: track dish costs without changing your till

A supplier raises prices and your recipe sheets are out of date. A first tool may help recalculate dish costs while keeping your till and the routines that work.

A new supplier price list arrives before service. Which dishes are affected, and by how much will their cost rise? That is a concrete need for custom restaurant software: finding ingredients, quantities and purchase prices without opening several spreadsheets.

Start with three recipe sheets

Choose three dishes whose preparation you know well. For each ingredient, enter the quantity used, unit and purchase price. The first screen should let you check food cost, meaning the ingredients needed for the dish, without confusing it with full profitability.

Fictional example: an ingredient costs €8 excluding VAT per kilogram, and one portion uses 150 g, or 0.15 kg. Its cost per portion is therefore 8 × 0.15 = €1.20 excluding VAT. To prepare ten portions, you use 1.5 kg, costing €12 excluding VAT for this ingredient.

Do the same calculation for the other ingredients in this ten-portion recipe, then add their costs. Divide that total by ten to get the food cost per portion; if all your calculations are already per portion, add them without dividing again. Then change a purchase price to check that the result updates.

The selling price excluding VAT minus this food cost shows what remains after ingredients, not your profit. Staff, waste, energy, rent and other overheads also count towards the full cost. Keep that distinction visible so that purchase costs alone do not determine your selling price.

Keep your till and its requirements

Set a boundary for this project: the tool does not record payments or replace the till. French rules for till software depend in particular on your tax position and how the software is used. Check your situation with your accountant before expanding the project.

If your till exports sales, you can investigate importing them later. First check the file format and access conditions. Automatically connecting to existing software takes additional work; it does not follow simply from having a well-presented screen.

Keep the first tool focused

Purchasing, schedules and food-safety records can wait until recipe calculations are reliable. Digital records do not replace checks actually performed: the French agriculture ministry explains restaurant inspections. Rules need to come from your operation and the applicable requirements.

Describe the expected result

Bring recipe sheets without customer data and explain how you update them. Maestro can help you direct AI agents as they build; it does not include this restaurant application ready to use. Review the rules, then compare the result with your calculations.

Project files remain on your Mac, but material used by the assistant may be sent to it. The data explanation describes that distinction. Also keep a readable copy of your current spreadsheet and a way to return to your usual method during the trial.

Check whether the effort is worthwhile

Maestro is free during its invitation-only beta; AI cost comes on top of verification time and maintenance. Allow for hosting if the team needs online access. Compare that budget with an existing solution, considering costs over time.