Add each ingredient with its quantity and unit cost to get your total recipe cost — then set the yield to see the cost per portion, the number you actually price against.
Costing one recipe by hand is fine. Costing all of them, every time an invoice changes, isn't. Let Lowboy keep every recipe priced automatically — and spend that time cooking instead.
Recipe cost is the sum of every ingredient's cost. For each ingredient, multiply how much you use by what it costs per unit, then add the lines together:
A recipe that costs $18.10 to make and yields 8 portions costs $2.26 per portion. That per-portion number is what you build a menu price on — divide it by your target food cost to find the price.
Use the as-used cost of each ingredient — the price after trim and waste — not the raw case price, or your cost will read too low. Once you have cost per portion, send it to the plate cost calculator to check food cost % at your menu price.
Every unit cost you enter here is a guess the moment a supplier raises a price — and they raise prices constantly. Lowboy is the sous-chef for the back of house: snap the invoices and recipes you already handle, and it costs every recipe from your actual ingredient prices, then re-costs it on its own the instant a price moves. The same paper you already touch becomes live, actionable numbers that save you money and time — no spreadsheet nights, no change to how you work.
Lowboy is $149/mo or $1,490/yr (two months free), with a 30-day money-back guarantee. The audit below is free and shows your real numbers first.
Snap your recipes and a few invoices. No login, no card. About 3 minutes.
Do the math: a kitchen spending about $50,000 a month on food that trims that by just 1% saves roughly $500 a month — about 3.4× the $149 plan. One caught price hike or one re-priced dish usually clears it.
Add the hours back, too — no spreadsheet nights, no manual invoice entry, no rebuilding the prep list when the menu changes.
Less time on the back office, more time on the food, your crew, and the reason you opened.
Get your free audit →