Menu engineering matrix — from your sales mix, thresholds included
Which menu items are stars, and where do the thresholds come from?
On this example menu the popularity threshold works out at 14% and the average contribution margin at $7.00: 1 of 5 items classify as stars — and the top seller, Tomato Soup, is a plowhorse, because volume alone does not make a star. Both thresholds are computed from the mix you enter, never assumed.
Any currency, any country — this is pure arithmetic, with no tax or legal rules inside.
Templates hand you the four quadrants and leave the two cutoff lines blank — yet the cutoffs are the whole method. This matrix computes both from your own mix and shows the source. Plate cost comes from your own recipe costing: free recipe cost calculator
Menu items — one row per competing item
Price is what the menu charges; cost is the plate cost of one serving; units sold is the count over one period. A listed item that sold nothing still competes — leave its units at zero rather than deleting the row.
The symbol is display only — it never enters the arithmetic.
The matrix — thresholds first, then every item against them
Top seller: Tomato Soup — a plowhorse. 1 of 5 items classify as stars.
Every item against both thresholds
| Item | Units | Share of units | Food cost | Margin per unit | Class |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Classic Burger | 46 | 32.8571% | 34.3096% | $7.85 | star |
| Caesar Salad | 28 | 20% | 30% | $6.65 | plowhorse |
| Ribeye Steak | 9 | 6.4286% | 44.8898% | $13.75 | puzzle |
| Tomato Soup | 51 | 36.4286% | 17.6923% | $5.35 | plowhorse |
| Veggie Wrap | 6 | 4.2857% | 34.0782% | $5.90 | dog |
Totals for the period: 140 units sold, $1,425.45 of revenue, $979.30 of contribution margin.
Boundary convention: both comparisons count meets-or-exceeds — an item exactly at a threshold classifies as high, on the popularity side per the source and on the margin side as our printed convention.
How the classification works
- Each item's share of units is its sales divided by everything sold in the period. The number of competing items sets the expected even share.
- The popularity threshold is the method's factor — 70% — of that even share, so it moves with the size of your menu instead of being a fixed number.
- The margin benchmark is the weighted average: total contribution margin earned in the period divided by total units sold. Items at or above it count as high-margin.
- High on both axes is a star; popular but low-margin is a plowhorse; high-margin but slow is a puzzle; low on both is a dog. The labels are the method's own.
- One period of sales, entered by hand. It does not read your POS, remember past periods, or track movement between quadrants over time.
- The popularity factor is fixed at the method's published 70% here, with its source shown below. The paid workbook lets you set your own factor and prints the source of the default beside it.
- Plate cost is your number — this page does not compute it. The free recipe cost calculator linked above works it out from pack prices and yields, and the workbook keeps the two connected so a supplier price change moves the matrix.
- No prescriptions. The method classifies; whether a plowhorse gets a price change or a smaller portion is a decision this page does not make for you.
- Items are treated as one competing set. Separate menus — bar against dinner, weekday against brunch — deserve separate matrices, because the thresholds are computed from whichever set you enter.
Method: Kasavana–Smith menu engineering, as published in the sources below. Every threshold is computed from your entries; no benchmark folklore is printed anywhere on this page.
Educational arithmetic on numbers you enter — not business, pricing or accounting advice.
The workbook that keeps this matrix alive
This page classifies one period you type in. The Recipe Cost & Menu Pricing Spreadsheet costs every plate from pack prices and yields, prices it both ways, and feeds the same Kasavana matrix automatically — so when one supplier price moves, the whole menu moves with it.
Get the workbook — $15Questions this page settles
Why is my best seller not a star?
Because popularity is only one axis. A star must also meet the margin benchmark — the weighted average margin of your whole mix. A high-volume item below that average is a plowhorse: it fills seats and earns less than the menu's average on every plate.
Where does the popularity threshold come from?
From your own menu, not from a table. The method takes the even share every item would have if sales were uniform, then counts an item popular when it reaches the published factor of that share. Fewer items means a higher bar; a longer menu lowers it.
Does an item that sold nothing belong in the matrix?
Yes. A listed item that sold zero units still competes for menu space, still has the lowest possible popularity, and still lands in a quadrant — usually a puzzle if its margin is high, a dog if it is not. Deleting the row would also change every other item's threshold.
What do the four class names mean?
They are the method's own labels, quoted in the sources below: stars are winners on both axes, plowhorses are marginal, puzzles are potential, dogs are losers. The names carry no arithmetic — the thresholds above them carry all of it.
