The menu moves faster than the costing
A tasting menu that changes with the season or the market means a dish is costed once, in a spreadsheet, and served for weeks after the numbers behind it have moved.
For fine dining
Food cost for a menu that changes every week
PlateSense is recipe costing and inventory software for fine dining kitchens, where the menu turns over faster than any spreadsheet and most of a plate’s cost is buried in prep. It starts from your supplier invoices, costs each stock, sauce, and cure by batch yield, and carries those costs into every dish so you know what a plate leaves you before it goes on the menu.
The problem
What a fine dining kitchen is up against
Most of the cost is in prep
A single plate can sit on four prep recipes. If the stock, the sauce, and the cure are not costed by yield, the dish cost is a guess stacked on other guesses.
The proteins that carry the plate move the most
Dry-aged beef, day-boat fish, and specialty produce arrive with a different price on nearly every invoice, and a 12 percent swing on one line can erase a plate’s margin.
How PlateSense fits
From the delivery door to the printed menu
Every delivery re-costs the menu the day it arrives
Photograph the invoice at the back door or forward the PDF. PlateSense extracts each line, matches it to the ingredients you carry, and flags the lines whose price moved since the last delivery.
- Handles the different layouts your specialty suppliers use
- Holds anything it cannot match for your review before it touches a cost
- Price Watch shows which ingredients moved and by how much
PLATESENSEInvoices · ExampleSupplier invoice / #4182
A delivery, ready to review.
Specialty supplier · 3 ingredients
Ready for your approval| Ingredient | Received | Total |
|---|---|---|
| Day-boat halibut2 boxes × 8 lb | 16 lb | $440.00 |
| Trumpet mushrooms3 cases × 3 lb | 9 lb | $127.80 |
| Meyer lemons1 case × 40 ct | 40 each | $31.20 |
Price Watch · Day-boat halibut$24.60 → $27.50 / lb · up 11.8%
Nothing added to stock yet$599.00
Cost a mother sauce once, carry it into every plate
Build stocks, sauces, doughs, and cures as prep recipes with a batch yield. PlateSense works out the cost per portion and brings it into every dish that uses the prep, so a change in cream moves the beurre blanc and every plate built on it.
- Batch cost and cost per portion for every prep recipe
- See which menu items depend on each prep
- Prep costs update when the ingredients underneath them do
PLATESENSEPrep recipes · ExamplePrep recipe / Sauces
Beurre blanc
Batch yield · 40 portions$0.71per portion
| Ingredient | Batch cost |
|---|---|
| Heavy cream | $9.60 |
| Cultured butter | $8.55 |
| Dry white wine | $7.40 |
| Shallots & thyme | $2.85 |
Total batch cost$28.40
Used in these menu items
Seared halibutRoasted turbot
Know each plate’s contribution before you print the menu
Each dish has a Build Sheet of ingredients and prep at today’s prices, alongside its selling price. Food cost percentage and contribution per plate are there when you set the menu, not a month later in a report.
- Food cost and contribution margin for every menu item
- Recipes whose food cost percentage moved are flagged
- Reprice the dish or swap the ingredient with the numbers in front of you
PLATESENSEMenu items · ExampleMenu item / Build Sheet
Seared halibut
Menu price · $42.00
$27.78Contribution per plate
| Build Sheet | Cost per plate |
|---|---|
| Day-boat halibut6 oz portion | $10.31 |
| Trumpet mushrooms2 oz | $1.78 |
| Fingerling potatoes & herbs | $1.42 |
| Beurre blanc1 portion · Prep recipe | $0.71 |
Food cost · 33.9% of selling price$14.22
Contribution is selling price less ingredient cost.
Examples use illustrative figures, not customer data.
Questions
Fine dining kitchens ask
Can PlateSense cost a tasting menu that changes every week?
Yes. In PlateSense a dish is built from ingredients and prep recipes rather than typed in as a fixed cost, so a new course is costed the moment its Build Sheet is assembled from items you already carry, and it stays current as later invoices change the prices underneath it. Retiring a course is just removing the menu item; the prep recipes and ingredients it used remain costed for the next menu.
How does PlateSense handle prep recipes like stocks and sauces?
PlateSense treats a stock, sauce, dough, or cure as a prep recipe with its own ingredient list and a batch yield you set once. It calculates the batch cost and the cost per portion, and any menu item can include a portion of that prep as one line on its Build Sheet. When an ingredient in the prep changes price on a supplier invoice, the prep cost and every dish that uses it update together.
Does PlateSense work with many small specialty suppliers?
Yes. PlateSense reads invoices with AI extraction rather than a fixed template, so a handwritten slip from a fishmonger and a PDF from a broadline distributor are handled the same way. Each line is matched to inventory you already carry, and anything it cannot match confidently is held for you to review before it changes a recipe cost.
Ready to know your real food costs?
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