Recipe Engineering & Costing

Recipe types

The type decides how a recipe is used:

• Finished Product — a dish you sell, linked to a menu item
• Sub-Recipe — a component used inside other recipes, such as a sauce, stock or dough. Sub-recipes carry their own cost, which rolls up into every dish that uses them
• Prep Item — something prepared in advance and drawn on through the service
• Beverage — drinks, where a recipe is often just a pour size

Recipe status

Recipes move from draft through testing to Approved, and retired ones become Archived. Status is a statement about whether the kitchen should be cooking from it — an unapproved recipe is a work in progress, not a standard.

Common Tasks

How to Create a Recipe (add recipe, new recipe, write a recipe)

Build a recipe by hand when you know exactly what goes into the dish.

Required permission: Recipe create

1. Go to Restaurant Setup → Recipes in the left sidebar
2. Create a new recipe
3. Enter the Name and choose the type — Finished Product, Sub-Recipe, Prep Item or Beverage
4. Set the yield — how much one batch of this recipe produces
5. Add each ingredient with its quantity and unit
6. Add prep and cook times, method, allergens and dietary flags where useful
7. Set the status to Approved when the kitchen should cook from it

Result: The recipe exists with a cost per portion derived from its ingredients, and can be linked to a menu item.

Note: Get the yield right. A recipe that makes four portions but is entered as one will show a cost per portion four times too high, and every downstream figure will be wrong.

How to Generate a Recipe with AI (AI recipe, create recipe from description, generate recipe)

Describe the dish and let AI draft the ingredient list for you to correct.

Required permission: Recipe create

1. Go to Restaurant Setup → Recipes and start a new recipe
2. Choose the AI option
3. Describe the dish — the more specific about portion size and style, the closer the draft
4. Wait while it generates
5. Review every ingredient and quantity against how your kitchen actually makes it
6. Correct anything that differs and save

Result: A recipe is created with AI-suggested ingredients and quantities, which you have reviewed.

Note: Treat the output as a first draft from someone who has never worked in your kitchen. Portion sizes and ingredient choices are generic until you correct them — and the cost of the dish depends entirely on those numbers.

How to Import a Recipe from a URL (recipe from website, import recipe link, extract recipe)

Pull a recipe from a web page rather than retyping it.

1. Start a new recipe and choose the URL option
2. Paste the link
3. Wait while the recipe details are extracted
4. Review the Extracted recipe and correct quantities to your portion size
5. Save

Result: The recipe is created from the page's ingredients and method, ready for you to adjust.

Note: Web recipes are written for domestic portions. Scale the yield to your service size before relying on the cost.

How to Edit a Recipe (change recipe, edit ingredients, update quantities)

Recipes are edited inline on the recipe page — click the thing you want to change.

Required permission: Recipe edit

1. Go to Restaurant Setup → Recipes and open the recipe
2. Click any value to edit it — quantities, units, yield and times all edit in place
3. Add or remove ingredients directly in the list
4. Changes save as you make them

Result: The recipe is updated and its cost recalculates immediately, along with the food cost of any menu item using it.

How to Improve an Existing Recipe with AI (enhance recipe, AI improve recipe, fill in recipe details)

Use AI to fill gaps in a recipe you already have — method, timings, allergens.

1. Open the recipe
2. Choose to enhance it
3. Give any specific instructions about what you want improved
4. Review the changes before accepting them

Result: The recipe is filled out with the detail you asked for, which you have reviewed.

Note: Enhancement can change quantities as well as prose. Check the ingredient list afterwards — the cost of the dish depends on it.

How to Route a Recipe to a Kitchen Station (prep station, which station cooks this, kitchen routing)

Tell the kitchen display which station should see the ticket.

Required permission: Recipe edit

1. Go to Restaurant Setup → Recipes
2. Set the station on the recipe — for example Hot Line, Cold Pantry, Bakery or Coffee
3. Or leave it on Auto-route to let the system decide from the recipe’s type and content

Result: Orders for dishes using this recipe appear at the right station on the kitchen display. A confirmation reads Routing updated.

Note: Use the All Stations filter on the recipe list to review routing across the whole menu at once. Dishes landing at the wrong station is a common cause of slow service.

How to Find Recipes That Are Not Properly Costed (uncosted recipes, missing ingredient cost, estimated cost)

A recipe with uncosted ingredients still produces a cost — a misleadingly low one.

1. Go to Restaurant Setup → Recipes
2. Filter by costing status rather than leaving it on Any costing
3. Look for recipes marked ESTIMATED, where costs are researched rather than actual
4. Open each and set real costs for its ingredients in Kitchen Stock

Result: Recipe costs reflect what you actually pay, so food cost percentages become decisions you can act on.

Note: This is the same problem as Part-costed on the food cost page, seen from the recipe side. See Food Cost Analysis.

How to Duplicate a Recipe (copy recipe, variant recipe, similar dish)

Start a variant from an existing recipe rather than rebuilding it.

1. Go to Restaurant Setup → Recipes and find the recipe
2. Choose Duplicate
3. Rename the copy and adjust its ingredients

Result: A copy is created that you can modify independently.

Note: Recipe names must be unique — you will see A recipe with this name already exists otherwise. Near-duplicate recipes split your cost history, so make the variant genuinely distinct or use a sub-recipe instead.

How to Archive a Recipe (retire recipe, remove recipe, delete recipe)

Take a recipe out of use while keeping its history.

Required permission: Recipe edit

1. Go to Restaurant Setup → Recipes and open the recipe
2. Set its status to Archived

Result: The recipe is out of active use but its history and past costs remain.

Note: Prefer archiving to deleting. Deleting a recipe that menu items reference breaks their costing; archiving keeps historical food cost figures comparable.

Where recipe cost comes from

A recipe's cost is the sum of its ingredients, each converted from the recipe unit into the purchase unit and priced. That conversion and pricing happens in Kitchen Stock. If a recipe cost looks wrong, the cause is almost always there rather than in the recipe itself — usually a conversion factor out by a factor of a thousand.