Food Cost Calculations

Food-service operations are businesses. This means someone in the operation must worry about budgets, cost accounting, bills, and profits. Usually this is the job of the manager, while the cook takes care of food production.

Cooks have a great deal of responsibility for food cost controls, however. They must always be conscious of accurate measurement, portion control, and careful processing, cooking, and handling of foods to avoid excess trimming loss, shrinkage, and waste.

The manager, on the other hand, is concerned with determining budgets, calculating profits, and expenses, and so on. We cannot deal with these subjects here, as this is a book about food preparation. But you may encounter them later in your studies or in your career.