Eight loss-making dishes nobody had ever seen
Margins falling for 18 months despite steady volumes. The owner couldn't see why. Ordina's food cost module had the answer in 30 days.
Client: Old Wild West Rome EUR, steakhouse 80 seats
80 seats, two full services, the usual. Yet end-of-month numbers got tighter every time. The owner checked supplier invoices once a year with the accountant. Recipes lived in the chef's head. When meat prices rose 22% in 8 months, nobody caught it dish-by-dish. The margin quietly ate itself.
The solution
01
Import 6 months of supplier invoices
PDFs uploaded to /cucina/fatture, Mindee OCR extracts lines. 320 ingredients mapped with weighted-average prices over 90 days.
02
Recipes to the cent in the menu builder
Each dish has its recipe with weights. The system computes food cost to the cent + margin + green/yellow/red status.
03
Weekly /cucina/margini dashboard
Monday morning, 5 minutes with the tablet, the owner sees the top 5 losers and top 5 winners. Decides.
Tech stack
- Ordina Pro
- Food Cost Engine
- Mindee OCR (PDF fatture)
- Dashboard /cucina/margini
- 320 ingredienti mappati
Results
- 8dishes found with >45% ratio (target 32%)
- +€2,300monthly margin within 60 days
- −3dishes removed (the worst — no lost customers)
“I thought my tagliata was my best dish. It was the worst. Without data I'd have closed within a year.”
— Roberto, owner
Illustrative example — simulated results based on realistic scenarios and the technical capabilities of our stack. Real cases coming autumn 2026 with our first pilot clients.