Arthur Ashe Tennis Stadium Suites

Sportservice had won the concessions contract at the Arthur Ashe Tennis Stadium in Flushing Meadows. The Executive Chef had developed the menus for the suites for the upcoming US Tennis Championships and needed to price the menu items to achieve Sportservice’s Food Cost objective.

I was assigned the task of assisting the Executive Chef in putting together the Cost Specification Sheets and calculating the cost of each menu item. Cost Specification Sheets show the breakdown of each ingredient going into the menu item and the cost of each ingredient. There is a separate Cost Specification Sheet for each menu item and they are generally stored in a three-ring binder.

The Executive Chef and I sat down in a quiet room and we got to work. I inputted the first item from the menu on an Excel spreadsheet. The Executive Chef told me the ingredients and the number of ounces per serving that would be used. I keyed the information in the appropriate place on the Cost Specification Sheet. We looked up the cost of each ingredient on the purveyor’s price list and keyed that cost in the Cost Specification Sheet.

When we were finished with the first item, we had complete information for each of the following columns: Ingredient Description, Quantity, Unit (ounces, teaspoons, piece, etc.), Unit Cost, Extended Cost. The spreadsheet totaled the extended costs of all ingredients to arrive at the total cost of the menu item. It multiplied the total cost by the multiplier to calculate the selling price. Thus, if the total cost was $10 and we desired 33% Food Cost, the multiplier was three, and the selling price was $30.

We proceeded with the remaining items in the suites menu, and printed each Cost Specification Sheet as it was completed. When we were finished, we had a three ring binder containing Cost Specification Sheets for every menu item and the selling prices that would enable Sportservice to meet its Food Cost objective.

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