Pricing a catering menu is not guesswork or "cost times three." Done right, it covers food, labor, and overhead while hitting a target gross margin — and stays consistent whether you sell per person or per platter.
This guide gives you the formulas, the benchmarks, and the method to price every item for profit.
Start from accurate per-serving plate cost (recipe-costed with yields), divide by a target food cost percentage (e.g. 30%) to get the price, then confirm labor (~25–35%) and overhead leave a healthy gross margin (~65–70%).
Rather than a fixed multiplier, price from a target food cost %. A 30% target implies ~3.3× plate cost; 28% implies ~3.6×; premium menus go higher, high-volume value menus lower.
Per-person is simplest for buffets and corporate orders; per-platter or by-the-pound suits shareable and BBQ formats. Derive both from the same plate cost and target margin for consistency.