Built for independent operators
RecipeCoster logo above a sandwich with a dollar bill tucked inside. Tagline: “Know the true cost of every item. Before it eats your profit.”

Your menu has a food cost problem. RecipeCoster will show you exactly where it is.

Most operators know their rent and their labor. Almost none know their true cost per menu item. RecipeCoster builds that number from your actual ingredients and prep yields — then shows you, on a color-coded Performance Board, which items make (or lose) you money on each order.

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Free to start · No credit card · Early access

The problem

You're flying blind.

You've probably tried to solve this. A spreadsheet, a back-of-the-napkin formula, a hunch. None of it stuck because the inputs keep changing and the tool didn't move with them.

Spreadsheet hell

You built a costing sheet once. It broke when ingredient prices changed.
You haven't opened it since.

Hidden prep waste

That avocado isn't $0.79.
After skin and pit, it's $1.05.
Yield matters. Most tools don't even ask.

No record, no pattern

When did your margins start slipping?
You can't answer that if you never saved the numbers.

Your first aha moment!

When you sign up, the board is already running.

The Performance Board in the Paco’s Tacos sample workspace, showing five recipes with color-coded food cost percentages and a banner noting this is sample data.

You land inside Paco's Tacos — a fully working sample workspace with five real recipes and a live Performance Board. Green, amber, red. You can see exactly which items are hitting margin and which aren't, before you've entered a single number of your own. That's the point. Then you'll want it for your menu.

Now, make it yours

Ready to see your own numbers?

01

Build your catalog

Add your ingredients with real purchase prices and yield percentages. Chicken thigh at 85%? Avocado at 75%? RecipeCoster accounts for every ounce of prep waste.

02

Cost your recipes

Build each menu item from your ingredient catalog. Yield-adjusted costs calculate automatically. See the real cost per plate, not the guess.

03

Run the board

Enter units sold, then hit calculate. Green means you're hitting target. Amber means watch it. Red means something needs to change — and now you know exactly what.

Performance Board

The payoff screen is the home screen.

Every session opens on the Performance Board. Not a setup checklist. Not a blank ingredient list. The screen that tells you whether your menu is making money, the moment you log in.

Paco's Tacos is yours to play with. Change a price, edit a recipe, break something — it's a sandbox, and nothing you do there touches your own data. When you're ready, switch to your own workspace and start fresh.

Green, amber, red — a food truck operator who has never opened this product can tell in three seconds which recipe is underperforming.

The Performance Board table: three recipes in green, Loaded Taco in amber and Breakfast Burrito in red, with $921.18 total weekly profit.
The What If? screen: raising the avocado price from $0.79 to $0.90 pushes Loaded Taco from amber to red and affects two recipes.
What If?

Avocado prices just went up. Now what?

See the blast radius before you change a thing. Select an ingredient, enter the new price, and RecipeCoster shows you exactly which recipes get hurt and by how much — before you've committed to anything.

When you're ready, one tap writes the new price to your catalog and recosts every affected recipe. Insight to action in one step.

Recipe Editor

Where costs get built — fast.

Build each menu item from your ingredient catalog. Set quantities, assign yield percentages per line, and let the math run. The true cost per plate calculates as you go.

  • Yield % per ingredient line — the same ingredient can carry different prep loss across different recipes
  • Component recipes like House Salsa slot in as a single line, cost already factored
  • Notes and Directions sidebars always visible — everything in one place
  • Every save triggers a full recalculation, and costs are always current
The recipe editor for Loaded Taco, showing a red 42.5% food cost above an ingredient table with yield percentages, plus Notes and Directions panels.
A Run History detail screen showing a saved snapshot from May 4 to May 11, 2026, with $921.40 total profit and color-coded food cost for each recipe.
Run History

A record you can actually hand someone.

Every margin report saves automatically as a dated snapshot. Tap any run to see the full Performance Board exactly as it was. Export to CSV and hand it to your accountant.

  • Snapshots are immutable — subsequent price changes don't alter saved runs
  • Free plan includes 6 saved runs. Premium plan is unlimited.
  • CSV export on Premium plan, clean and print-ready
  • No charts, no dashboards. Just the numbers, exactly as they were
Who it's for

Built for people running their own kitchen

If you're running a food business without a full finance team, RecipeCoster is for you. Whatever you're making, whatever you're selling — if margin matters, this is the tool.

“You're selling out specials daily. Are you making a profit?” Stacks of takeout containers with dollar bills tucked in at a food truck service window.

Food Truck

You're selling out every shift and still not sure if you're making money. RecipeCoster gives you the number for every item on your window before service starts.

“The shakes are thick. Are the margins thin?” A thick milkshake and a plated sandwich on a cafe counter, with dollar bills tucked in.

Cafe

Drinks look easy until you cost the milk, the syrup, the straw and cup. RecipeCoster handles component recipes — so your milkshake cost includes every ingredient and part it takes to make one.

“Every item looks profitable. But are you sure?” A bakery display case of pastries with dollar bills tucked among them.

Bakery

Every pastry has a cost: flour, butter, even the labor and oven time. RecipeCoster shows you which items are worth making at your current prices and which ones need a price increase.

“Every head has a cost. Did you price yours?” Covered catering trays of food with dollar bills tucked in.

Caterer

Your margins live in the details of a 200-person menu. RecipeCoster lets you scale recipes, track yield, and know your per-head cost before you quote the next event.

“Tonight's plates look great. What are they costing you?” Finished plates on a restaurant pass with dollar bills tucked beside them.

Restaurant

Your menu changes, your suppliers change, your prices change. RecipeCoster helps you keep your cost data current, so when your chef reprices a dish, the numbers update everywhere.

“You're slicing all day. Are you slicing into profit?” A deli counter of sliced meats and sandwiches with dollar bills tucked in.

Deli

You're buying in bulk and building plates from scratch. RecipeCoster ties your ingredient costs to your menu items so you always know what each sandwich actually costs to make.

Pricing

Straightforward.
No surprises.

Start free inside Paco's Tacos. See what your menu actually costs before you spend a dollar. Upgrade when you're ready for more.

Free
$0

Everything you need to get started.

Join waitlist
  • Up to 10 recipes
  • Up to 20 ingredients
  • Full Yield % Costing
  • Performance Board
  • What If? Tool
  • 6 Run History snapshots

You're already spending time on costing that isn't working — a spreadsheet that breaks, a hunch that's probably wrong.
And somewhere in your menu right now, something is costing more than you think.

RecipeCoster finds both.
$29 a month is a steal for that kind of clarity.

Stop guessing.
Know your numbers.

Join the waitlist. First access goes to operators ready to actually use it.

Free to start · No credit card · For independent operators