Markup, margin and food-cost percentage can all be about the same menu and still measure different things. Use the words as if they mean the same and two calculators that are both right will look like they disagree.

Food-cost percentage

Food-cost percentage asks how much of the selling price goes to ingredients.

Food-cost percentage = food cost ÷ selling price × 100

If a menu costs $26.93 per guest and sells for $68:

$26.93 ÷ $68.00 ≈ 39.6% food cost

The remaining 60.4% is not profit. It still has to cover labor, packaging, rentals, delivery, overhead, tax treatment where applicable, waste outside the recipe, and the return the business needs.

Markup

Markup compares the amount added with the cost you started from.

Markup = (selling price − cost) ÷ cost × 100

Using the same food cost and selling price:

($68.00 − $26.93) ÷ $26.93 ≈ 152.5% markup on food cost

Thirty percent food cost is not a 30% markup. A 30% markup on $26.93 would produce a selling price of only $35.01.

Food-only gross margin

Margin compares the amount left after food cost with the selling price:

Food-only margin = (selling price − food cost) ÷ selling price × 100

For the same menu:

($68.00 − $26.93) ÷ $68.00 ≈ 60.4% food-only margin

It’s just the 39.6% food cost seen from the other side. Still not profit: the only cost taken out so far is food.

Price from a target

When you start with a target food-cost percentage, divide the food cost by the target written as a decimal:

Selling price = food cost per guest ÷ target percentage
$26.9331 ÷ 0.30 ≈ $89.78 per guest

That number helps you decide. It doesn’t decide for you. If your market won’t pay it, the honest moves are to change the menu, change the portions, push your suppliers on price, lower the target knowing what that costs you, or pass on the event.

Pick one language for the quote review

For catering work, food-cost percentage is often the clearest way to compare different menus against the same internal target. Markup still works when you are pricing up from cost on purpose. Margin only helps when everyone at the table agrees which costs came out.

Write your target next to the quote, and write down what the number leaves out. A percentage that doesn’t say what it covers only looks sure of itself.