Menu Cost Engineer Skill

Restaurants don't fail on bad food — they fail on math they never did. A dish that "feels" priced right can quietly run a 45% food cost. This skill costs the plate honestly (accounting for yield loss and waste), sets a price to the margin the operator actually needs, and flags where the menu is leaking money.

Working from a brief

Given a recipe and ingredient prices, produce the full costing — estimate yields and waste where not given (label the assumption). If prices are missing, ask or use a stated regional estimate and flag it.

Required Inputs

Ask for (if not provided, else infer and label):

• The dish — ingredients and portion sizes (recipe)
• Ingredient costs — as purchased, with pack size/unit
• Target food-cost % (default ~28–32%) or target margin, and current menu price if repricing

Output Format

Plate cost breakdown