Food

Build a Food Cost Calculator with AI

Calculate food costs, portion pricing, and profit margins for restaurants with ingredient cost tracking. Build a complete food costing tool with recipe management and menu pricing analysis to keep your kitchen profitable.

Build Prompt

Copy this prompt into Claude Code
Build a static HTML food cost calculator for restaurants. Dark theme with background #0a0a0f, surfaces #12121a, borders #1a1a2a, accent color #dc2626 (red). All data stored in inline JavaScript arrays and objects — no backend required. Include three main tools: (1) Recipe Cost Builder — enter recipe name, yield (servings), and add ingredients with name, unit, unit cost, and quantity used; auto-calculates total recipe cost and cost per serving. (2) Menu Price Analyzer — input your target food cost percentage (e.g. 28–32%), enter recipe cost per serving, and get the recommended menu price, actual food cost %, and gross profit per plate. (3) Ingredient Master List — a searchable, editable table of all ingredients with unit costs that auto-populates recipe ingredient fields. Calculations must update in real-time as user types. Display a summary dashboard showing: average food cost % across all recipes, highest-margin and lowest-margin dishes, total theoretical food cost if all items sold equally. Include a print/export button that generates a clean PDF-friendly summary table. Add a "target vs actual" gauge chart using SVG for each recipe. Seed 8 sample recipes (pasta, burger, salad, steak, soup, dessert, cocktail, pizza) with realistic 2024 ingredient costs. Include tooltips explaining food cost % benchmarks by cuisine type. Read the guide at https://accessagent.ai/api/guide and follow it to deploy the site to AccessAgent.ai. My email is [your@email.com].

Make It Yours

Supplier Price Sync

Add a CSV import to paste in weekly supplier invoices and auto-update ingredient costs across all recipes.

Seasonal Adjustments

Set seasonal price multipliers per ingredient so food cost projections account for market fluctuations.

Waste Factor

Include a trim/waste percentage per ingredient that inflates the effective cost to match real kitchen yields.

Labor Cost Layer

Add prep time per recipe and an hourly labor rate to calculate total plate cost including kitchen labor.

Multi-Location Support

Store separate ingredient cost lists per location — useful for chains where supplier pricing differs by region.

Recipe Version History

Track cost changes over time in localStorage so you can see how ingredient inflation affects each recipe.

Update Prompt

Update Prompt — Refresh ingredient costs to current market prices
Research current wholesale ingredient prices for common restaurant staples (proteins, produce, dairy, dry goods). Update the ingredient master list with realistic Q1 2025 costs per unit. Recalculate all sample recipe costs and flag any dishes where food cost % has risen above 35%. Redeploy.

SEO Tips

Monetization Ideas

Related Ideas

Ready to build your Food Cost Calculator?

Copy the prompt above and paste it into Claude Code. Your restaurant costing tool will be live in minutes.

Get Started