Notes from the kitchen table
Short, practical guides on costing, pricing and planning the way small food businesses actually work.
- 7 min read
When flour goes up: how to update recipe costs without redoing everything
A repeatable way to re-cost recipes when supplier prices rise, without redoing every recipe by hand.
- 7 min read
How to cost a cake properly (ingredients first, then the hours)
Sponge, filling, covering, boards and boxes, waste, and a worked example: how to cost a celebration cake properly.
- 4 min read
How much should a micro-bakery charge? A founder's honest answer
There's no single number, there's a process. Here's what actually goes wrong when small food businesses set prices.
- 4 min read
The real cost of running out of ingredients mid-batch (and how to avoid it)
A founder's story on why production planning fails, and what actually fixes it.
- 5 min read
Retail vs wholesale vs catering pricing: why one price doesn't work for everyone
Why the same recipe needs three honest prices, and how to set wholesale and catering without giving margin away.
- 7 min read
How to start a food business in the US: cottage food laws, licensing, and costing
Why there's no single national checklist, and the practical steps to take before your first sale, whichever state you're in.
- 7 min read
How to start a food business in the UK: the practical first steps
Council registration, sole trader setup, business banking, accounting software, and where costing and pricing actually fit in.
- 4 min read
Allergen labelling for small US food businesses: FALCPA and the "Big 9" explained
What FALCPA actually requires, the 9 major allergens, and how cottage food law can add extra rules on top.
- 4 min read
Allergen labelling for small UK food businesses: Natasha's Law explained
What Natasha's Law actually requires, the 14 allergens, and the labelling mistake that trips up most small producers.
- 6 min read
Recipe costing spreadsheet vs software: what changes when you switch
An honest comparison, spreadsheets are genuinely fine at small scale, here's exactly where and why they start to break.
- 5 min read
Pricing for wholesale without giving margin away
Wholesale doesn't have to mean working for free. A simple framework for setting a wholesale price that still pays you.
- 6 min read
How to cost a recipe properly (without a spreadsheet meltdown)
The maths behind a true cost per portion, why most bakers get it wrong, and a five-minute method you can use today.