The Business of Food & Beverage
Like Duolingo, but for The Business of Food & Beverage. Tomo turns the whole topic into a game you play five minutes a day, until it actually sticks.
For the part of you with thirty open tabs that never became anything.
A short one: 12 levels across 2 sections, about 24 minutes end to end, roughly 5 days at five minutes a day. It moves through Mastering the Core Numbers and Designing a Profitable Service. It starts from scratch.
Free forever · No credit card · iPhone & Android
Key ideas in The Business of Food & Beverage
- Invoice price per pound is based on raw weight, but usable weight is always lower due to trim and moisture loss
- Cost per usable pound is total batch cost divided by finished yield, not raw weight
- A portion cost must be calculated from the usable yield price to avoid underpricing
- Menu price is calculated by dividing total plate cost by target food cost percentage
- Target food cost percentages ensure standard pricing discipline rather than guessing what competitors charge
- A 25% food cost means ingredients account for one-fourth of the dish's selling price
- Pantry staples like cooking oil, butter, and deep-fryer shortening add significant per-plate cost
- Finishing garnishes like microgreens, flaky salt, and herbs add up across hundreds of covers
- Recipe costing cards must account for incidental prep fats and garnishes, not just center-of-the-plate proteins
- Contribution margin is the cash dollars left over after food cost (Selling Price minus Plate Cost)
- A lower food cost percentage does not always mean more money in the bank per cover
- Bulk prep costs must be calculated as a complete batch first before dividing into standard portion units
- Batch yield in fluid ounces or weights determines the cost per ounce of the intermediate component
- The plated dish cost is assembled by adding the measured sauce portion cost to the individual plate ingredients
- Prime cost is calculated by adding total food and beverage cost to total labor cost
- A healthy prime cost target for full-service restaurants hovers around 60% of total sales
You've tried the other tabs
Thirty open tabs. Four facts you actually kept.
You watched. You nodded. By Sunday it was gone.
One answer, then back to scrolling.
Eight weeks. You meant to finish. You didn't.
Tomo gives The Business of Food & Beverage the Duolingo treatment: levels, streaks, and quick quizzes that test what you just learned. That game loop is what the tabs above never had, so it's the one you actually finish.
Here's what playing it feels like
A real question from this course. Take your best guess.
To find the cost per usable pound of cooked meat, what do you divide the total batch cost by?
Get it right to open this lesson and 11 more in the app.
Where The Business of Food & Beverage takes you
Learn how profitable cafes and restaurants turn culinary craft into viable businesses. Master dish costing, prime cost control, and menu engineering to ensure your concept survives and thrives.
- 1
Mastering the Core Numbers
- Costing a Dish from the Cutting Board Up
- Controlling the Prime Cost Baseline
- 2
Designing a Profitable Service
- Engineering the Menu for Profit
- Balancing Seat Turns and Ticket Size
2 sections · 4 units · 12 levels. Built to play, not to enroll.
You pick the voice
The Business of Food & Beverage is taught in the Explain Like I'm 5 style: no big words. promise.. Want a different feel? In the app you can spin up the same topic in any of Tomo's teaching styles. Same facts, totally different vibe.
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Start The Business of Food & Beverage today.
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