Need advice

[chefsarah87]

I am currently trying to price a new special for work and I’m having a brain misfunction on how to break down the costing of a whole guinea fowl, I’m going to use the breasts and legs, and the bones and wings for stock. To get the price of the legs and breast I have divided the whole cost by 4.....to work out the wastage I took 5% of the starting price and a further 15% for the bones which I have added to the price of my sauce.

is this the best way to do it or does anyone else have a better method?

 

[kuan]

That's way too complicated to me. Your breast and leg is one main course so just use half the cost of the bird. Then add your mirepoix cost and demi and other garnishes and then add 10% for miscellaneous stuff like oil, salt, pepper, butter.

 

[Chef Piya]

I am currently trying to price a new special for work and I’m having a brain misfunction on how to break down the costing of a whole guinea fowl, I’m going to use the breasts and legs, and the bones and wings for stock. To get the price of the legs and breast I have divided the whole cost by 4.....to work out the wastage I took 5% of the starting price and a further 15% for the bones which I have added to the price of my sauce.

is this the best way to do it or does anyone else have a better method?

my suggestion is to work with weighing scale, you break down your parts in order. then weigh them individual - take note, then use the whole chicken to find the percentage. what you are using on your plate are stating them as yield, what go to stock are call waste in accounting wise. but physically we are not throwing any of that but it will give you a proper cost price. after your whole dish ingredients are weigh, then you will add buffer(%) - Buffer are % that will help you to get average Up-down market price. so you can have stable cost with stable selling price for customers. Look, it take time at first beginning to make yield chart but it worth life-time. do that for every single ingredients, I am not suggest you to look from the book or ask another chef for this. cause knife skills aren't the same. Hoping this help

 

[Mischief]

I would just cost your entree portions out via whole costs and make sure that covers your percentage. Anything like bones you can use just pad your stats and add another reason for an owner to pad your pockets.

 

[chefwriter]

I think I'm confused about the confusion. The bird costs X; Let's say $8. You get 2 portions, each with leg and breast. So that's $4 raw cost per plate just for the Bird. Trim and clean it, use the wings, etc for stock.
Price the wings, etc at the per pound price paid for the bird. The recipe for the entire dish will naturally include other ingredients but the bird seems pretty straightforward to me.