Let us give you a few reasons why... then we will explain how!
Plate and Pour costs give you real time profitability details.
Real-time cost information allows you to set menu prices to achieve your food and bar cost goals.
Portion and prep consistently.
Visually train new staff with line-friendly reference photos and videos of prep techniques (in English, French or Spanish). Our mobile & tablet-friendly Recipe Viewer allows staff to access recipe instructions and scale recipes as needed. Prices and costs are removed.
Trim the waste, then the fat.
Easily record waste from your phone for both products and recipes to save money, manage shrinkage and identify areas for improvement.
The Puzzle of the Star Plow Horse.
This Menu Analysis visual takes your sales data and plots your dishes across a chart that lets you visualize which plates should shine like stars and which should be in the dog house.
Uncovering your profitable dishes that also sell - game changer.
Actuals vs. Theoreticals - But what should I have?
With your recipes completed and PMIX mapping done, Actual vs. Theoretical reporting can flag waste, theft or even inefficiencies in prep, letting your team make adjustments in the moment, not after too much fat on a tenderloin is trimmed.
These are a few of the reasons why recipes are so powerful in MarginEdge - they are fundamental to controlling your costs.
How do I actually enter my Recipes?
Here's two options for those of you with a well-loved, greasy recipe binder:
- Our AI tool supports a quick copy + paste of your ingredients into MarginEdge
- Hire us to build the recipes for you
Of if you're in the camp of incomplete recipes, no problem!
You can still get a lot of value from [me] Recipes with just a few quick recipes to get you going:
- Create basic recipes with your most expensive ingredients to start. For example, just add the meat (ground beef + weight) and the most expensive toppings (avocado, bacon, etc) to a burger recipe for now. This will give you a good sense of the plate cost.
- Or create recipes for your 10 most popular menu items to start. Add others down the line as you have time.
Now let's get to it!
Step 1: Create Recipe Types
Recipe Types: Video / Help Article
Step 2: Create Recipes
Create your Prepared Item recipes first - these will be used in other recipes so you’ll save time by having them in the system before you create other Menu Items
Creating a Recipe: Video / Help Article
Cut and paste with the AI loader to speed up the process to get ingredients and instructions into MarginEdge
Copy & Paste with AI: Video / Help Article
Central Settings: Allergens and Restrictions
Allergens (optional)
- Set up the list of allergens you want to track in Recipes
- Associate allergens with Products
- Recipes will now show allergens based on the products in those recipes
Allergens in Recipes: Video / Help Article
Restrictions
If you have more than one MarginEdge restaurant, you probably have recipes that apply to some but not all locations. Set up recipe restrictions so your teams see only the recipes that apply to their location.
Restrictions: Video / Help Article
Tricky but Critical: Conversions and Yields
Conversions
Many conversions from weight to volume (pound to cup) and each to weight (each to ounces) are in MarginEdge. And, the system automatically scales up and down (knowing how many tablespoons are in a cup). But, you may have to do some conversions as you create recipes.
Conversions: Video / Help Article
Yields
If you want to account for waste or shrinkage in order to have more accurate plate costs, you’ll want to add Yields. Create Prep Recipes with yields for items your team preps daily or add the yields in at the product level as you create recipes.
Yields: Video / Help Article