Recipes

Background

Recipes are a vital trade secret for food stands. Customers want their food prepared precisely how they like it, down to its taste. Unfortunately, it is not a one-size-fits-all affair; customers like different things. 

For instance, health-conscious customers pay more attention to the tomatoes, lettuce, and cheese in a burger recipe than its taste. In comparison, taste-oriented customers are thoroughly dissatisfied with a sauceless burger.

Simulation

The Perfect Recipe

Recipe development in a food stand is often an iterative process of trying different ingredient combinations based on the target customer's needs to discover what works best for them.  In the simulation, this process eventually leads to the discovery of a Perfect Recipe for the customer. Discovering the customer's Perfect Recipe increases customer satisfaction and the perceived quality of the food stand. 

Linking Recipe, Inventory, and Price

The quality of a recipe has a direct impact on inventory management and pricing. For example, a burger recipe with extra patty and cheese depletes stock faster and costs more to make per burger. Because storage space is always limited in a food stand, inventory management is critical.

Experimenting with the recipe during the day without adequate inventory to cater for the experimentation will lead to a stock run-out before the day ends. A burger recipe with a higher unit cost will also command a higher price, potentially leading to missed sales if customers are unwilling to pay it.

Understanding the relationship between recipe, inventory, and price helps to develop purchasing and cost controls that improve the cash flow and profitability of the food stand.