The Chef is on The Table
Section 04

Food Cost

The economics that fill or close a room — food cost percentages, service charge law, delivery commissions, and the four-day week.

5 pieces Method & FireKitchensThe BrigadeIngredients
Empty restaurant dining room with chairs stacked on tables and red pendant lights
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A Full Room, and Still Nothing Left at the End of the Month

The piece takes a notional 40-cover room and works through a realistic revenue-to-cost breakdown: food cost at 30%, wages at 35%, rent and service, leaving the margin that actually remains. Argues that full occupancy is a necessary but insufficient condition for a restaurant to survive.

  • Two people point at line items on a printed invoice or price list
    02

    The Tips Act Settled Who Owns the Service Charge, Not What It Costs to Cook

    The UK's Employment (Allocation of Tips) Act came into force on 1 October 2024. The piece explains what it requires — all tips and service charges passed to workers, no deductions — and what it does not resolve: the fundamental question of whether a service charge can cover the cost of the brigade that earns it.

  • An apron-clad worker hands stacked takeout containers to a customer at a counter
    03

    Thirty Per Cent Off the Top Before the Kitchen Has Spent a Penny

    Delivery platform commission rates (typically 25–35% of order value as of 2024) as a structural problem for restaurant economics. Covers how kitchens price delivery menus differently from the dining room, what ghost-kitchen models attempt to recover, and why the margin arithmetic is different from table service.

  • Masked workers prepare tacos beside a spinning trompo at a busy taqueria counter
    04

    The Bib Gourmand Goes to Rooms That Cannot Afford a Full Brigade

    Michelin's Bib Gourmand designation signals good food at moderate prices, but moderate prices and the cost of a kitchen skilled enough to earn recognition are in direct tension. The piece examines the economics of a Bib Gourmand room — what the food cost looks like, how thin the brigade runs — as a case study in the gap between culinary recognition and commercial viability.

  • Rows of freshly baked sourdough loaves cooling on shelves inside a commercial oven
    05

    The Sourdough Bakery Solved One Problem and Created Three Others

    The sourdough-bakery model — low covers, high throughput, early close, product that can be priced at cost-plus — as a response to restaurant economics. Covers why the model works on paper, where it fails in practice (real-estate cost per square foot, equipment depreciation, the baker's hours), and what it borrows from and returns to the restaurant.