Kitchen Stock — Ingredients, Matching & Cost

Why there is a separate ingredient layer

A chef and a buyer describe the same thing differently. A recipe says butter, 200g. A supplier invoice says Anchor Unsalted Butter Block 5kg × 4. Kitchen Stock is where those two meet: one ingredient, linked to the product you buy, with the arithmetic to get from one to the other.

Three things have to be true for a recipe cost to be trustworthy:

1. The ingredient is linked to the product you actually purchase
2. The conversion factor between the purchase unit and the recipe unit is correct
3. The ingredient carries a cost

Any one of those missing and the dish that uses it is mispriced.

Common Tasks

How to Add an Ingredient to Kitchen Stock (add ingredient, new kitchen item, add to kitchen stock)

Add an ingredient your recipes need but that is not yet tracked.

Required permission: Inventory read, with restaurant modules enabled

1. Go to Restaurant Setup → Kitchen Stock in the left sidebar
2. Click Add Item
3. Enter the ingredient name as your recipes refer to it
4. Choose the storage location — Chiller, Freezer or Dry Store
5. Set the unit the recipes will use, such as g, ml or each
6. Save

Result: The ingredient appears in Kitchen Stock and can be used in recipes. A confirmation reads Item added.

Note: Name ingredients the way your kitchen speaks, not the way the invoice does. The link to the purchased product handles the translation.

How to Link an Ingredient to a Purchased Product (match ingredient, link to product, connect ingredient to inventory)

Linking is what lets a purchase price become a recipe cost.

1. Go to Restaurant Setup → Kitchen Stock
2. Find the ingredient. Unlinked ingredients are flagged
3. Open the link control and choose the product you buy
4. Confirm the link — the hint reads Click to edit (also confirms the link)
5. Set the conversion factor between the purchase unit and the recipe unit

Result: The ingredient draws its cost from the linked product. Recipes using it start costing from real purchase prices.

Note: Qvian suggests matches automatically when goods are received, so most links are proposed for you rather than hunted down by hand. You confirm rather than search.

How to Set a Conversion Factor (unit conversion, kg to g, case to unit, wrong quantity)

The conversion factor says how much of the recipe unit one purchase unit contains. This is the single most common source of wrong recipe costs.

1. Go to Restaurant Setup → Kitchen Stock and find the ingredient
2. Click the conversion value — the hint reads Click to edit conversion factor
3. Enter how many recipe units are in one purchase unit. A 5kg block used in grams is 5000
4. Save

Result: Recipe quantities convert correctly to purchase quantities, so cost per portion is accurate. A confirmation reads Conversion factor updated.

Note: A conversion that is out by a factor of 1,000 — kilograms treated as grams — produces a cost that looks either absurdly high or suspiciously close to zero. If a dish's cost looks wrong by orders of magnitude, check the conversion before anything else.

How to Set or Confirm an Ingredient Cost (ingredient price, set cost, confirm cost, AI research cost)

An ingredient needs a cost before anything made from it can be costed.

1. Go to Restaurant Setup → Kitchen Stock
2. Find an ingredient showing Click to set cost
3. Enter the cost per recipe unit, or use AI research to get a starting estimate
4. Review and save it. Once confirmed the hint changes to Click to edit (confirmed cost)

Result: The ingredient carries a cost and every recipe using it can be costed.

Note: An AI-researched cost is an estimate to get you moving, not a purchase price. Once you actually buy the ingredient, the linked product's real cost is the better number — confirm it then.

How to Find Ingredients That Are Breaking Your Recipe Costs (missing cost, unlinked ingredients, why is my food cost wrong)

Work the gaps rather than auditing every recipe.

1. Go to Restaurant Setup → Kitchen Stock
2. Filter to ingredients with no confirmed cost
3. Then filter to ingredients with no linked product
4. Work through both lists, setting costs and confirming links
5. Re-check Food Cost Analysis once the gaps are closed

Result: Every ingredient carries a cost and a link, so recipe costs reflect what you actually pay.

Note: A recipe where only some ingredients are costed still shows a number. That number is a lie of omission — it looks like a low food cost because part of the dish is missing. See Part-costed items on the food cost page.

Where an ingredient cost comes from

In order of preference:

1. The linked product's actual cost — what you really paid, converted into the recipe unit. Always the best answer.
2. A cost you set and confirmed — your own figure, used when no purchase history exists yet.
3. An AI-researched estimate — a starting point so a new kitchen can cost its menu on day one rather than waiting for a delivery.

How this connects to the rest of the system

• Recipes consume kitchen stock ingredients and derive their cost per portion from them.
• Food Cost Analysis rolls those recipe costs up against menu prices.
• Goods receipt is where new products arrive and matching is proposed.
• Replenish uses ingredient consumption to work out what to reorder.