A standard recipe card records how a dish is made in your kitchen: what goes in, how much, how it is cooked and how it leaves the pass. With a card for every dish, the plate is the same on a Tuesday with the sous chef as on a Saturday with the head chef.
What a recipe card does for you
- Consistent plates. Guests get the dish they ordered last time.
- Controlled food cost. Portions stay at the size you costed, so the plate cost stays where you planned it.
- Accurate allergen information. In the EU, Regulation (EU) No 1169/2011 requires you to give guests information on 14 allergens for the food you serve. The card is where that information starts.
- Faster training. A new cook learns each dish from the card and the photo.
What to put on the card
- Dish details: name, menu section and station.
- Batch size and portion size: how many portions one batch makes, and the weight or count per portion.
- Ingredients: quantity per batch and per portion, with prep notes. Per batch helps the prep team, and per portion helps costing.
- Method: short numbered steps with times and temperatures.
- Plating: plate type, placement, garnish, and a photo of the finished plate.
- Allergens: a tick against each of the 14 allergens the dish contains, checked against ingredient labels and supplier specifications.
- Plate cost and menu price, and the date the card was last updated.
A worked example
| Dish | Braised beef with mashed potato, Mains, Hot station |
| Batch | 10 portions of 200 g beef and 200 g mash |
| Ingredients | Beef chuck 2 kg, onion 400 g, carrot 400 g, olive oil 100 ml, red wine 500 ml, beef stock 1 L, floury potatoes 2 kg, butter 200 g, milk 300 ml |
| Method | Brown the beef in batches. Soften the onion and carrot, add the wine and reduce by half. Add the beef and stock, cover and braise at 150 °C for 2½ to 3 hours. Mash the potatoes with warm milk and butter. |
| Plating | Warm deep plate. Mash in the centre, beef on top, two spoons of sauce, chopped parsley. |
| Allergens | Milk (butter, milk), celery (check the stock label), sulphites (wine) |
| Plate cost / price | €3.60 / €14.50 |
Keep the cards up to date
A card is only useful while it matches what the kitchen cooks. Update it whenever a recipe, a portion, a supplier or a key price changes, and date every update. A new supplier can bring a new allergen, so recheck the labels each time one changes.
Ready-made cards
The Standard Recipe Cards template includes this worked example and a blank card to copy for every dish, with sections for batch and portion quantities, method, plating with a photo, the 14 allergens, plate cost and menu price. It opens in Word and Google Docs. For the plate cost, the Menu Profit Planner costs every dish from your ingredient prices.
Related
- Read: How to Calculate Food Cost per Plate
- Read: HACCP for Small Restaurants
- Also useful: Allergen Matrix, every dish against the 14 allergens, built from your recipe cards
Every template in Restaurant Notes is in the Complete Restaurant Collection: 25 tools in one download.