Hospitality (Hotels & Restaurants)
Food cost is the biggest controllable cost in any restaurant, and in most family operations it is felt, not counted. What a dish should cost (its recipe and quantities at the supplier's current rate) is never compared to what it actually cost (purchases against stock), so the gap, over-portioning, wastage, spoilage and pilferage, hides by outlet, by kitchen and by section. Dishes whose cost has crept up because an ingredient's price rose keep selling at yesterday's price until the margin is gone. In any property with a bar, liquor is high value, easy to steal and tightly excise-regulated. What the bar should have used for the drinks it sold (the theoretical pour) versus what actually left the bottle store is never measured, so over-pouring, unrecorded drinks and outright theft stay a suspicion. And the excise stock register is kept by hand, so a state-excise inspection is a panic.
Who has it
Restaurants, QSR and cafe chains as the signature build; cloud kitchens across their virtual brands; banquets, catering and events for per-plate banquet food; and hotels and resorts with restaurant outlets. The pour-cost side applies to hotels and resorts and restaurants with a bar, and partly to banquets, catering and events for event beverage.
What we build
A recipe-and-costing engine on the connected layer: cost every dish from its recipe at today's supplier rate to get the theoretical food cost, compare it to actual food cost from purchases and stock, and surface the gap by outlet, kitchen and section. Flag the dishes whose ingredient cost has risen so the menu is re-priced before the margin disappears. (Treated as production-and-job-work in the operating map: this is the running record of the making, the recipe as the bill of materials, material issued against output, and the cost per unit made.) Re-pricing a menu item goes to a person, it touches the guest. A pour-cost tracker, theoretical pour for the drinks sold against actual stock movement out of the bottle store, so the variance shows up as a number, plus a clean, reconciled excise stock register so an inspection is never a scramble. A discrepancy is flagged; the disciplinary or write-off decision goes to a person.
What is automated, where AI helps, who signs off
The reliable spine
The non-AI spine is the costing engine: theoretical food cost from each recipe at today's supplier rate against actual cost from purchases and stock, the gap by outlet, kitchen and section, plus the pour-cost and excise-register arithmetic.
Where AI helps
AI reads the recipe sheets, supplier rates and stock records to keep the theoretical cost current and flags the dish whose ingredient cost has crept up; re-pricing and any write-off go to a person, and it never owns the number, the approval, the promise or the decision.
Who signs off
A named person signs off anything touching money, stock, a customer promise, a regulated filing, a payment, a price, a credit decision or a people decision.
What changes day to day
The kitchen leak becomes a number by outlet and section; over-portioning and wastage surface; the menu gets re-priced before the margin disappears instead of after. A leak many owners suspect but cannot prove becomes a measured, controlled number; the liquor register is always audit-ready.
Illustrative outcome
Food cost reduced by a few percentage points in the first few months, a meaningful lift on volume. Pour-cost variance brought into a measured band and an audit-ready excise register. Illustrative; final numbers come from your own data.
Illustrative; final numbers come from your own data.
Path to the build
Book a free 60-minute call, then a free Blueprint on the firm's own records. Deep-dive and build, followed by run and govern so the workflow keeps paying back.
Related builds
A free 60-minute call. No cost, no obligation, just a clear read on what is worth building.