Recipe Templates-Excel

Professional Chef Excel Recipe Templates

Chefs know the importance of a standardized recipe. It documents an established flavor profile and method of preparation so that your crew can duplicate your creations in a consistent manner. Excel recipe templates offer not only the opportunity to write a recipe for your staff, but also adds the number crunching power which Excel is known for, making it easy to calculate your costs at the same time as writing the recipe.

Below you'll find a variety of recipe templates available for free download which are created in Excel. We also have a plate cost recipe template. The images show examples of the templates in use. The download will be a clean recipe template with only the formatting and not all the content shown in the example. Grid lines have been turned off so the sheets look clean.

Recipe Template Set-up

The best way to use a recipe template is to set it up with all the basic info you want to appear on all your recipes, such as restaurant name, chef's name, etc. Save it as "Recipe Template". When you want to create a new recipe, open the "Recipe Template" file and immediately "save as" the name of your new recipe. Then add all of the content for your new recipe. This will keep your template blank and clear so it will be easy to use repeatedly. Do not open your template, add all the content for your new recipe, and simply click "save". This will overwrite your blank template with all the content from your new recipe.

Each Excel recipe template below has a "scale" feature in the header. If a 1 times batch yields 20 servings and you need a 5 times batch for a total of 100 servings, all you need to do is put "5" in the "scale" box and your entire recipe is recalculated to make a 5 times batch. If you know how to do some Excel formulas then this is a big help for scaling your recipes. The video below gives a tutorial on how to add formulas to make your Excel recipes scalable. You may also be interested in reading how to organize recipes on your computer. A separate article has a special Excel recipe template geared towards plate costing and managaging your food cost.

Below are several versions of Excel recipe templates which are available for free download.

Chef's Shorthand Recipe Template

This style is for shorthand recipes and has the "Procedures" in the right hand column. The ingredients are listed in groups based upon which step in the "Procedures" column they match to. There is also room at the bottom of the sheet for additional comments or to put "Prodecures" if you wish them at the bottom instead.

Classic Chef's Recipe Template

This is the classic recipe style and has the "Procedures" at the bottom. Its easy to add more space if needed. Simply click on "insert rows" in the Excel toolbar.

Classic II Chef's Recipe Template

This template style is has the "Procedures" in the right hand column and has a food cost calculation table. You enter the cost per unit of measure and then the table calculates your totals based upon the quantities entered. This is easy to add to any of the other recipe templates as well.

Video Tutorial: How To Make An Excel Recipe Template Scalable

Bulk Recipe Template

This template creates any number of recipe cards you choose. It is excellent for costing purposes, whether you are creating a single plated dish or a batch recipe, this template helps get accurate food costing for each recipe. This template does include macros so you will need to enable macros in Excel for it to work correctly.

Other Templates on this site:

Did you find the information about Recipe Templates-Excel useful? Or did you notice something which is missing on this page?
If so, please leave a comment.

Leave a Comment [ Add a Comment ]

Thank you Chefs. These tool are life savers

SJULESBECK - there are several possible solutions depending upon the version of Excel you are using. The problem probably has to do with your Excel security settings. You need to "Enable" Macros. And you need to be sure that the sheet is not protected from editing. To "Unprotect" the sheet, follow the instructions which are on the page when you download the file. To "Unprotect" means that you are able to edit the page. But the problem probably is related to your Macro settings. I just downloaded it and my version asked me if I wanted to "Enable Macros" and make the file "Editable".

I tried to download the bulk recipe template but get a "read only" file. Can you tell me what I'm doing wrong?

Thanks in advance!

This is a common occurance in Excel. There are two ways to fix it:

1) Go to the Excel tool bar and change that cell's "number settings" from "date" to "number" or "fraction". In Excel 2007, click on the "Home" tab. In the center of the tool bar is the "Number" settings. Click on the drop down box to change the settings for the cell or cells selected.

2) Select the cell you want to change. For the first character in the cell type the single quote character ' and then type your fraction ( it would look like this '1/4 ).

Hi everybody. First let me say that you have a very informative and helpful site. I'm trying to open my first restaurant business ever with my partner and this recipe template is what I,ve been looking for to organize my recipes.I've been trying to use the recipe template with the food cost in it but for some reason everytime that I write quantities such 1/2, 3/4 or something similar and then go to the Unit column, the numbers change into Dates!! like 1/2 turn into Jan-2, and 3/4 turn into Mar-4. Sooooo...weard. What I'm doing wrong? Please help

Culinary Knowledge for Professional Chefs, Foodies and Culinarians