Chef Software | FAQ & Insights

Frequently Asked Questions

How long does onboarding take?

Most of the time, you'll be setup in under a day. If you are a very large business with a thousand plus recipes, it could take a few days to a week. The next step is getting your team involved and we recommend tablets or phones for day to day use in the kitchen (though printing works great too).

How do I get my recipes into meez?

Quickly and easily. Oh, you mean like how... A few ways:

‍Upload from most file types right into meez, your recipes auto-format upon upload
Type them in using the meez predictive text technology.
‍Just send them our way, our team can upload recipes for you. Learn more about recipe upload services here.

How do I get my ingredient costs into meez?

There are 3 ways to get your purchase costs into meez

‍Add purchase costs directly to an ingredient's. learn how here
‍Update costs in bulk by uploading a spreadsheet with the meez template learn how here
‍Sign up for Automated Invoice Processing. Scan your invoices to meez and our team will digitize them for you. Create a live feed of your purchases directly into your account. Contact Sales to learn more

Are the built in yields and conversions customizable?

Absolutely! Though our team has tested every item for accuracy, we understand that your cup of diced onions may weigh more/less than the average weight we determined. You can update any ingredient or prep action from the ingredient's detail page.

Is there a mobile app?

Currently meez is accessible and optimized for use on any computer, tablet, or mobile device. There is not an iOS or android app yet (but it's coming soon!)

Can I still print recipes?

Yes you can. Print any recipes including sub-recipes if you like. You can also print recipes in bulk by printing one or many recipe books.

Are there any setup fees?

No setup fees to get going. But if you sign up for invoice processing, setup a direct purchase feed to another system, or sign up for back office recipe sync, there is a small one time setup fee per location.

FAQ - Insights

What is food costing?

Food costing is the total cost of all ingredients required to make a dish. It does not include things like labor costs and overhead, though sometimes will include the labor required to prep the food but not to serve the food. It is important to note that food costing pertains to the entirety of the ingredients used. For example, you may add "1 lb diced onions" to a recipe, but if you began with whole raw onions, peeled them and trimmed the core before dicing, you likely used more than 1 pound. Proper food costing accounts for the total amount of product used. This difference in the amount of product is called the ingredient yield, which we've calculated and tested for thousands of ingredients in the meez database.

What is food cost control?

Food cost control is the ongoing process of understanding your actual food costs, further reducing food waste and optimizing the profitability of menu items. Understanding your food cost requires accurate recipes, properly calculated ingredient yields and unit conversions, and real-time purchase prices tied to your recipes. Food cost control allows you to improve the bottom line of your food business or restaurant.

How do you calculate food cost?

There are two approaches to food cost: first is the accurate real-time cost of the menu item. Next is expressing that as a percentage of that menu item's sell price, known as the food cost percentage.

We calculate the cost of a menu item with the total cost of the raw amounts of ingredients used to make a recipe or menu item.

To calculate the food cost percentage, you will divide the food cost of the menu item by the sell price of that item. For example, if a salad has a direct food cost of $3 and a sell price of $10, then the food cost percentage is 30% ($3 divided by $10 = 0.03 or 30%). The food cost caluclator in meez takes care of this for you.

How do you calculate profit margin?

Profit margin is the sell price of a menu item minus the food cost. In the case of the $3 salad from above at a $10 sell price, the profit margin would be $7 ($10 - $3 = $7).

The profit margin % is then calculated by dividing the profit margin by the sell price. In this case it would be 70% ($7 / $10 = 0.7).

How do you calculate a total menu cost?

To calculate the total cost of a menu you'll first need to calculate the theoretical food cost of the menu items. Multiply the quantity of the menu item sold by the direct food cost of that menu item. For example, if you sell 10 salads that cost you $3 each, your theoretical food cost is $30 ($3 x 10 = $30).

You can then do this for each menu item sold and calculate the total theoretical menu cost. For example, let's say all the menu items sold total $100 in cost.

Finally, you'll want to express this as a percentage. You will take the total theoretical menu cost and divide it by the total sales of your menu to achieve your theoretical food cost %. In this example, let's say you had sales today of $400. This means your total theoretical food cost is 25% ($100 / $400 = 0.25).

How do you calculate the actual food cost percentage of your business?

To calculate the actual food cost percentage of your business you will need to track inventory either once a week, month, quarter or year. The calculation is then the total amount you spent + beginning inventory dollar amount minus ending inventory dollar amount divided by total sales.

How to do food costing for a restaurant or food business?

Food costing starts with a thorough and accurate accounting of all ingredients, no matter how small, used in a dish. Properly tracking food cost in your restaurant or food business means consistently tracking the theoretical food cost percentage of your total menu versus the actual food cost percentage you are achieving. The difference between the two is what you are wasting and your opportunity to save money and improve your bottom line.

What are the benefits of food costing?

Food costing has many benefits. The most important is that it allows you to understand, and thus control, the effect food spending has on your budget. It also helps you control overall costs thus giving you control of your bottom line and helping you build a profitable business. meez makes this much easier than the traditional methods of manually calculating with notebooks and spreadsheets.

What is the purpose of food costing?

Food costing allows you to determine the food cost of every dish. This helps with budgeting and menu pricing, among other things. Food costing has a direct impact on restaurant profitability. Combined with other factors, like overhead and labor, food costing helps you control restaurant costs and maintain a profitable bottom line.

What is food costing software?

Food costing software should automate the critical process of food costing for restaurants. At its best, it should help you determine accurate yield loss, unit of measure conversion, and prepped recipe costs nested in menu items easily and quickly. It will help you build a comprehensive database of recipes and current ingredient costs. It should also allow you to improve your recipes and menu items for the optimal profit margins/profitability of your restaurant or food business.

How can you reduce food cost for a restaurant?

The number one way to reduce food cost in your restaurant or food business is to reduce the theoretical menu costs. This is done with a tool that can help you engineer optimal profit margins for each dish. The best way to maintain food costs is to execute properly and have clearly defined recipes and a single source of truth for all of your content.

What is a recipe management system?

While food costing software automates the critical process of food costing for restaurants, a recipe management system should enable you to manage every process associated with your recipes. This means organizing recipes, scaling batch sizes, collaborating with team members, R&D, food cost analysis, nutrition labeling and allergen analysis, training and learning management, and sharing recipes with team members and colleagues.

What is a recipe database?

A recipe database is the entirety of all of your recipes stored digitally in one place. You should be able to search, filter, sort and manage all of your content quickly and easily. Book a meez demo to learn more.