Costing & pricing
3 min read
How to calculate food cost per guest for a catering event
Work from total ingredient cost to food cost per guest, food-cost percentage, and the selling price needed to meet your target.
May 28, 2026
Practical answers for the numbers behind the food.
How to cost a recipe, price a menu and work out the buy, with the arithmetic left in so you can run it again when the count or a case price moves.
Costing & pricingMay 28, 2026 · 3 min read
How to calculate food cost per guest for a catering event
Work from total ingredient cost to food cost per guest, food-cost percentage, and the selling price needed to meet your target.
Work through the exampleBefore you say the price out loud.
Start: the menu, guest count, and current ingredient cost.
Check: food per guest and percentage against the target.
Decide: move the price, the menu or the target, or pass on the job, knowing what each one does to the number.
Choose the question in front of you.
Costing & pricing
Costing & pricing
2 min read
Catering menu pricing: margin, markup, and food-cost target
The three percentages people mix up when they price a catering menu, each one worked from the same food cost.
Jun 4, 2026
Costing & pricing
3 min read
The event is over. What should the food have cost, and what did you actually spend?
Before you judge how an event did, set what the menu should have cost against what you bought for it, what came off the shelf and what is left over.
Jul 16, 2026
Costing & pricing
6 min read
How to give your kitchen staff the app without your food costs
Your cooks need the quantities, not the prices. Invite them as Staff, see the same order through their eyes, and know what Managers get instead. Step by step in CostCook.
Sep 24, 2026
Costing & pricing
10 min read
How to close the month on food cost
A step-by-step guide with a screenshot at every step: compare what the month's events should have cost with what you paid, then check orders, deliveries, shelf counts and waste until the gap is explained or named.
Oct 29, 2026
Recipes & yield
Recipes & yield
3 min read
How to cost a recipe from case price to portion cost
Take a supplier case through units, usable yield, the recipe and the portion, with all the arithmetic left in.
Jun 11, 2026
Recipes & yield
7 min read
How to print food labels for a catering order
What goes on a kitchen label, and how to print one in CostCook: answer the allergens from the package, pick how it's stored, count the use-by date, print. One dish from one order, step by step.
Oct 1, 2026
Recipes & yield
10 min read
How to use one sauce in five dishes without costing it five times
A step-by-step guide with a screenshot at every step: build a sauce once as a sub-recipe, put it in each dish that uses it, and change it in one place when the recipe or the price moves.
Nov 5, 2026
Running the event
Running the event
3 min read
The client added 40 guests. What actually needs to change?
Sort what grows with the head count from what rounds to whole packs and what stays fixed, then look at the quote again.
Jun 18, 2026
Running the event
3 min read
How to scale a catering prep list without making half a pot
Go from guests to portions, batches, equipment runs and cases, and keep each kind of rounding from throwing off the next.
Jul 23, 2026
Running the event
10 min read
Running a catering event in CostCook, from the first call to closeout
One wedding followed through every step: the inquiry, the costed menu, the proposal they accept on their phone, the agreement, the deposit, booking, buying, prep, pack, receiving and the food-cost closeout.
Aug 13, 2026
Running the event
6 min read
How to take catering orders online, and approve them before anyone pays
What the client sees on their phone, what lands in Orders, which booking rule fits which job, and one office lunch for 40 from the order to the food cost.
Aug 27, 2026
Running the event
5 min read
How to put a catering order form on your own website
Add your site to the list, send your web person two lines and a note, go live, and check the form showed up. Plus what to do when it doesn't.
Sep 3, 2026
Running the event
7 min read
How to check a catering menu for a guest's allergy
A guest can't have sesame. Put the restriction on the order, answer each ingredient from its package, and read what CostCook flags before you confirm. One wedding for 120, step by step.
Sep 10, 2026
Running the event
8 min read
How to get a catering deposit in without chasing it
Put the deposit and the balance date on the proposal, so the client agrees to them with the food. Then ask for the deposit, record it when it lands, and book. One wedding for 150, step by step in CostCook.
Sep 17, 2026
Running the event
9 min read
How to send a catering proposal the client accepts on their phone
A step-by-step guide with a screenshot at every step: price the menu, set the deposit, send the offer, and see exactly what the client reads and presses on their phone.
Oct 22, 2026
Buying & suppliers
Buying & suppliers
2 min read
How to turn a catering menu into a shopping list in whole packs
Add up what the recipes need, turn it into the packs your supplier sells, round up on purpose, and keep the extra where you can see it.
Jun 25, 2026
Buying & suppliers
3 min read
How supplier price changes reach the recipes you already costed
Keep where the price came from, compare the same amount of food, change the price on purpose, and follow it into your recipes and open quotes.
Jul 2, 2026
Buying & suppliers
4 min read
The delivery arrived wrong. What should you check before accepting it?
Check the purchase order, the cases at the door and the invoice line by line, so a short or a substitute doesn’t end up as your stock count.
Jul 9, 2026
Buying & suppliers
3 min read
How to check a supplier invoice before it changes your recipe costs
Check the ingredient, the pack, the unit math and the price change before an imported invoice line becomes what your recipes cost.
Jul 30, 2026
Buying & suppliers
6 min read
How to get supplier invoices emailed straight into CostCook
Give your sales reps one address, forward the rest from Gmail, and check that the first invoice arrived and waits in review.
Aug 6, 2026
Buying & suppliers
5 min read
Your supplier emailed a credit memo. Where does it go?
A credit for a short case is not a cheaper price. Send it to your invoice address, check it reads as a credit, and see it named beside the month's food spend.
Aug 20, 2026
Buying & suppliers
14 min read
How to import your ingredients, invoices and recipes into CostCook
A step-by-step guide with a screenshot at every step: import your ingredient list, then your supplier invoices, then your recipes. What you need before you start, and what to do when something goes wrong.
Oct 8, 2026
Buying & suppliers
8 min read
How to count your inventory the first time, one shelf at a time
A step-by-step guide with a screenshot at every step: name one shelf, count what's on it, and watch the shopping list stop buying what you already have.
Oct 15, 2026
Bring the number you are working on.
Put one real menu and guest count through CostCook with Rayan.