Pizza recipe costing sheet: food cost, portions and price
A pizza costing sheet lists every ingredient in one pizza with its weight, price and cost, then the total food cost and the selling price. A Margherita comes to roughly £1.25 in ingredients. The sheet sets your price, keeps the pizza the same whoever makes it, and answers allergen questions.
What a costing sheet is for
- Pricing from a real cost, not from the menu across the road.
- Consistency: Saturday night’s pizza should be Tuesday lunchtime’s, whoever is on the oven.
- Training: a new pizza chef reads the sheet instead of guessing.
- Allergens: anyone on shift can answer without fetching the chef.
Example: a Margherita
| Ingredient | Quantity | Cost price (ex VAT) | Cost |
|---|---|---|---|
| Tipo 00 flour (+ water, salt, yeast) | 160 g flour | £0.95/kg | £0.17 |
| Peeled tomatoes | 80 g | £2.10/kg | £0.17 |
| Fior di latte | 100 g | £7.80/kg | £0.78 |
| Basil, olive oil | — | — | £0.08 |
| Waste (5%) | £0.06 | ||
| Food cost | £1.26 |
Example cost prices. Replace them with the ones on your invoices.
Add to the same sheet a photo of the finished pizza, the topping order, bake time and temperature, and the allergens (here: gluten, milk). For dough quantities, the pizza dough calculator scales the recipe to any number of balls.
Percentage or cash margin?
Food cost percentage (ingredient cost divided by the ex-VAT price) is the standard measure. On a pizza menu, though, it ranks your products the wrong way round:
| Pizza | Food cost | Menu price | Ex VAT | Food cost % | Gross margin |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Margherita | £1.26 | £10.50 | £8.75 | 14% | £7.49 |
| Ham and mushroom | £2.00 | £13.00 | £10.83 | 18% | £8.83 |
| Burrata, mortadella, pistachio | £3.76 | £16.00 | £13.33 | 28% | £9.57 |
The Margherita has the best percentage and the smallest margin. The burrata pizza has the worst percentage and earns about £2 more per pizza. Rent, oven electricity and wages are paid in pounds, not percentages: watch both, but decide on cash margin.
Standard portions in a pizzeria
| Item | Typical portion | How to hold it |
|---|---|---|
| Dough ball | 230–280 g | Scales, divider |
| Tomato sauce | 70–90 g | Portion ladle |
| Mozzarella / fior di latte | 80–120 g | Weighed or portion cup |
| Cured meats | 40–60 g | Counted slices |
| Vegetables | 40–80 g | Portion cup |
Keeping sheets up to date
A sheet with last year’s cost prices is useless. Update prices whenever you change supplier, and at least quarterly for cheese and cured meats, which move the most. To recalculate in seconds, use the pizza food cost calculator.
Food cost is only one of the numbers to watch: see pizzeria profitability ratios.