Food cost by cuisine
Ghost kitchen food cost percentage
The only format here where the food cost percentage is computed against money you never receive. A delivery-only kitchen is judged on net revenue, and the gap between gross and net is the whole business.
This is the numbers page
Bands, one plate costed to the packaging, and the commodities that plate is exposed to. No general costing advice — that lives in the guides, and the two most relevant to a ghost kitchen are linked at the foot of this page.
The cost structure of a ghost kitchen
Planning conventions, not research findings — the ranges an operator budgets against. Use them to sanity-check your own arithmetic, never as evidence about the industry.
| Food cost | 25–32% |
|---|---|
| Labour | 20–26% |
| Prime cost target | 46–58% |
| Implied by the two bands above | 45–58% |
Both bands can run at their high end and the prime cost ceiling still closes, which is unusual and is this format's structural advantage. It is also why the pressure on a ghost kitchenrarely shows up in prime cost at all — look for it further down the P&L.
No dining room means no front-of-house labour and a smaller kitchen, which is what puts the labour band lowest on this page. The catch is that the prime cost band is misleadingly comfortable: it is computed on gross menu price, and a marketplace commission removes a fifth to a third of that before anything else is paid. Judge the format on prime cost against net revenue, and the advantage largely disappears.
One plate, costed line by line
Marketplace menu price, typically set above the dine-in equivalent to absorb part of the commission. Line prices are inputs we chose — plausible mid-2026 wholesale figures, not quotes. Replace them with yours and every number below recalculates on the same arithmetic.
| Line | Portion | Cost | Share of plate |
|---|---|---|---|
| Chicken thigh, marinatedtrackedThigh, not breast. The tracked series is boneless breast, so read it as poultry direction only. | 6 oz raw | $1.13 | 40% |
| Rice | 6 oz cooked | $0.16 | 6% |
| Black beans | 4 oz | $0.22 | 8% |
| Salsa, cheese, crematracked | per bowl | $0.61 | 21% |
| Bowl, lid, bag, cutlery, sealPackaging is an ingredient in this format, not an overhead. | 1 order | $0.74 | 26% |
| Plate cost | $2.86 | ||
Food cost
17.9%
$2.86 ÷ $15.95
Contribution margin
$13.09
per plate sold
Against the band
Below the planning band.
band 25–32%
The same plate, after marketplace commission
- Menu price
- $15.95
- Marketplace commission at 30%
- −$4.79
- Revenue received
- $11.17
- Food cost on money received
- 25.6%
- Contribution after commission
- $8.31
A 30% marketplace rate is a stated planning input, not a quote — published rates vary by market, tier and whether you take delivery or pickup. Put your own contracted rate through the delivery margin calculator.
Against the menu price it looks like the healthiest plate on this page. Against revenue after commission it is a different dish entirely — the same food, a third less money, and a food cost percentage that jumps from under eighteen per cent to the bottom edge of the band. Both numbers are on the page above because operators who only ever see the first one are the reason this format has the reputation it does.
What the last 12 months did to this plate
A model, not a measurement: the lines above that map to a tracked commodity, repriced to what they would have cost a year ago if each had moved exactly with its Bureau of Labor Statistics series. Untagged lines are held flat. Real invoices move by more or less than a national average — this shows which lines carry the risk, not what you paid.
| Line | Tracked series | 12-month move | A year ago | Today |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Chicken thigh, marinated | Chicken breast | −1.2% | $1.14 | $1.13 |
| Salsa, cheese, crema | Cheddar cheese | −5.0% | $0.64 | $0.61 |
| Whole plate, modelled | $2.91 | $2.86 | ||
| Food cost at $15.95 | 18.2% | 17.9% | ||
Tracked lines moved this plate by −$0.05 over twelve months — a saving you keep on every one sold, unless the menu price moved with it. Series and methodology on the index methodology page.
Three traps specific to this format
1
Costing against the menu price instead of the deposit
The percentage that matters is food cost over what actually lands in the bank. If you have never computed it that way, the number you have been managing to has been overstating your margin by roughly the commission rate, on every single order.
2
Packaging treated as overhead
Bowl, lid, bag, cutlery and seal are consumed per order in fixed proportion to sales — that is an ingredient by any definition. Leaving it in overhead makes every dish look cheaper than it is and makes packaging changes invisible to the only report anyone reads.
3
One kitchen, several brands, one cost report
Running three virtual brands from one line is the format's real advantage, and it destroys your reporting unless each brand carries its own menu, its own mix and its own margin. Averaged together, a losing brand hides indefinitely inside a winning one. See ghost kitchen.
What a ghost kitchen is exposed to
Of the ten commodities we track from Bureau of Labor Statistics data, these are the ones that decide this format's food cost. Prices are US city averages, monthly, and we publish nothing that is estimated rather than measured.
Chicken breast
$4.15/lb
−1.2% over 12 months
Poultry is the most common protein in delivery-first concepts because it travels well and costs less than beef. The tracked series is boneless breast; most delivery kitchens buy thigh, so treat it as direction.
Chicken breast prices and menu impact →Cheddar cheese
$5.74/lb
−5.0% over 12 months
A common topping across virtually every delivery concept, portioned by hand at speed into a container nobody inspects.
Cheddar cheese prices and menu impact →Tomatoes
$2.00/lb
+11.7% over 12 months
Salsas and sauces. Minor per bowl, and the line most likely to be replaced by a shelf-stable version once volume rises.
Tomatoes prices and menu impact →Our plate is a worked example. Yours is the one that pays the rent.
Photograph your menu and every dish comes back costed from your own supplier invoices — the same line-by-line arithmetic as the table above, recomputed the day a price moves, with the invoice line attached to the dish it changed.