The Profitable Kitchen

Sound familiar?

• Knows the food cost, but the sheet hasn't been touched since opening day.
• Can't separate prep waste from purchase price, so every number is off in the same direction.
• On the line all day, with no time left to sit with the numbers.
• Avoids looking closely at the books, sensing a few dishes are losing money.

Each chapter answers one question

1. Chapter 1: Am I paying for food, or for what disappears?

   How many kilograms do I pay for, and how many of them do I actually sell?

   Money first leaks where nobody looks: between goods coming through the door and ingredients hitting the pan.

2. Chapter 2: If the recipe is right, why is every bowl different?

   My recipe says 70 grams; how many grams are actually in the bowl that reaches the customer?

   A recipe is an intention. The bowl is the result. How far apart they are depends on how the kitchen is designed, not on who is more careful.

3. Chapter 3: Is my best seller actually paying the rent?

   Of the thirty dishes I sell, which ones really keep the restaurant alive?

   A popular dish is not necessarily the dish that pays the rent. The menu is where those two get confused.

4. Chapter 4: Busy every day, so why is the month still short?

   How many portions a day must the kitchen sell before it earns real profit?

   Each dish's gross margin only becomes money when it adds up to enough to pay for what is not in the bowl: rent, wages, utilities, equipment.

5. Chapter 5: Will today's costing still hold in three months?

   Which numbers do I need to look at each week, and for how long, to know whether the kitchen is earning or leaking?

   A correct cost sheet that nobody reopens is, after three months, as wrong as one never made. What keeps it right is a fixed review schedule and one person assigned to count.