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How To Handle Customer Choice Recipes With Variable Ingredients

  • Updated

Some menu items allow customers to choose from multiple options, such as toppings, side dishes, or buffet selections. reciProfity makes it easy to manage these variations while maintaining accurate costing.

Examples of Customer Choice Scenarios

  • Pizzas with multiple topping options
  • Buffet lines or salad bars with many ingredients
  • Entrées with side dish choices (e.g., baked potato, French fries, rice)
  • “Make Your Own” items like omelets or pasta
  • Call drinks with multiple brand options (e.g., Gin and Tonic with different gins)
  • POS keys that ring up multiple inventory items under one PLU (e.g., “Small Soda”)

 

Step 1: Analyze Sales Data

To calculate average costs for variable ingredients:

  1. Collect customer selection data from guest checks, POS reports, or plate waste analysis.
  2. Determine the percentage of each option selected.

Example: Pizza Toppings

  • Out of 100 pizzas sold:
    • 40 had pepperoni → 40/100 = 0.40
    • 25 had mushrooms → 25/100 = 0.25
    • Remaining 35 were other toppings → convert each to a decimal
  • The total of all topping percentages must equal 1.00 or 100%.
  1. Calculate the average topping cost:
    • If the total cost of all 100 pizzas is $78.60, then:
      • Average topping cost per pizza = $78.60 ÷ 100 = $0.79
        Avg Cost Spreadsheet.png

This gives you a weighted average cost based on actual customer behavior.

 

Step 2: Create Prep Recipes for Each Option

To accurately track inventory and cost fluctuations:

  1. Create a prep recipe for each topping or side dish.

    • Example:
      • “Pepperoni for Pizza” = ½ cup pepperoni
      • “Mushrooms for Pizza” = ¾ cup mushrooms
        Pizza Prep Recipe.png

  2. Set the Yield/Portion to “1 ea” to represent one serving.
    Even if the ingredient quantity varies, the yield should always be “1 ea” to reflect one portion used in a serving recipe.

  3. Repeat this process for all topping options:
    • If you offer six toppings, create six prep recipes.
    • If you offer ten toppings, create ten prep recipes.

Units of measure (e.g., cups, ounces) can be customized based on your recipe’s requirements.


Step 3: Build a Customer Choice Serving Recipe

  1. Create a new serving recipe called something like “Customer Choice Pizza Topping.”
  2. Add all the prep recipes as ingredients.
  3. Assign decimal quantities based on the popularity percentage of each option:
    • Pepperoni = 0.40
    • Mushrooms = 0.25
    • All toppings combined = 1.00

Pizza Serving Customer Choice.png

This ensures the recipe reflects real-world customer behavior and supports accurate costing.

 

reciProfity Automates Inventory Depletion

When a pizza is sold, reciProfity uses the assigned percentages to deplete inventory proportionally.

  • Example:
    • 100 pizzas sold
    • 40% with pepperoni
    • Each uses ½ cup → 40 × ½ = 20 cups of pepperoni depleted

This method ensures your inventory and costing reflect real-world usage and customer preferences, without needing to manually update spreadsheets.

 

 



 

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