See an example calculation of a professional kitchen
Calculating actual costs in a professional kitchen is sometimes surprisingly challenging. Costs related to labour, raw materials and waste add up quickly, and the final price can be surprising.
So we calculated an example: how much does it cost to make 30 kg of cream potatoes (about 190 portions) with different raw material options?
In the example comparison, we had three different potato options at example prices:
- Raw sliced potato – 1,73 €/kg
- Raw knife-peeled portion potatoes – 1,07 €/kg
- JEPO cooked sliced potato – 1,58 €/kg
Of course, wage costs and the time spent on the different stages of the work will vary from one kitchen to another. Our example calculation was based on a gross hourly wage of €15. The additional cost factor for wages was 1.53.
What all happens (and costs) before the finished casserole is on the table?
Below you can see the steps in the production of cream potatoes where costs are incurred:
| Working step and
duration per 30 kg |
Raw potato slice | Raw, knife-peeled portion potato | JEPO cooked sliced potato |
| Pick up from the warehouse (2 min) | x | x | x |
| Rinse (1 min) | x | x | |
| Slicing (10 min) | x | ||
| Washing the slicer (10 min) | x |
In addition, there are costs for cooking food and waste during preparation:
- Baking time:
- Raw slices and whole roast potatoes: 1.5 h
- JEPO cooked slice: 0,5 h
- Loss:
- Raw potato: 15 %
- JEPO cooked: 2 %
The JEPO cooked slice needs only half an hour of gratinating when ready to use. The low wastage of the product is in turn due to the steam cooking process and strict quality control, which guarantees a uniform and finished product without any unexpected variations in maturity or shape.
The end result surprises
In this comparison, when adding up the price of the potato, the cost of the operations, the wastage and the energy cost of baking, a JEPO cooked slice was 23% cheaper than a raw knife-peeled whole potato and 43% cheaper than a raw sliced potato. Why? There are significant labour savings because the ready-to-use JEPO product does not require slicing or washing of the slicer after preparation. Waste is virtually eliminated, as everything that goes into the pan ends up on the customer’s plate. The cooking time is only a third of that of raw potatoes, which also reduces energy consumption and the overall load on the kitchen. In addition, the product is uniform in quality and ready to use immediately, so the end result is always predictable and consistent in quality.
Want to know how much you can save in your kitchen with the most ready-made solutions? Let’s do a calculation together without any commitments.
