Plating Profit is for independent restaurant, café and food business owners who are busy every night and still not sure where the money went. Every two weeks, chef-turned-bookkeeper Steven Bonin (30+ years in kitchens, founder of Chef+) takes one real kitchen problem to the books: pricing, food and labour costs, cash flow, and building offers worth paying for. Plain talk, real numbers, no jargon. Find your number with the free Cash Flow Cure Diagnosis: app.thechefplus.com/diagnosis
After a busy season it feels like there's tons of money. Let's do the ad blitz. Let's do the rebrand. Then February comes, and you're scrambling, cutting staff and working extra hours, because your bank account is telling you everything is wrong.I've been there. In my own shop I'd come home in the middle of February and tell my wife, "We're done. It was a good run." Then summer would come and I'd be ready to book eight cruises.The problem isn't your sales. It's that every dollar coming in doesn't have a home yet. In this episode I walk through how to move profit to the front of the equation, the difference between prime cost and fixed costs, why you need a seasonal reserve, and why the meals tax should never sit in your everyday account. Then I lay out the four bank accounts to set up: Everyday, Profit, Seasonal Reserve and Meals Tax, and how to keep them free.Want to know how much should go into each account? Take the free Cash Flow Cure Diagnosis: https://app.thechefplus.com/diagnosis (https://app.thechefplus.com/diagnosis)Never enough cash? Find out why.I'm Steven Bonin at Chef+. We help independent food businesses fix their cash flow and grow their profit. thechefplus.com (thechefplus.com)
15 Oct 2026
Stop running promos. Build an offer.
Every month, small business owners decide they need a promo. Buy one get one free. Twenty percent off. Happy hour all day. They set it and hope.
A promo is hope. An offer is a plan.
In this episode, I walk through the difference, then show you how to build an offer backward, using a $12 pork loin to create a $70 dinner. You'll hear the three rules of a flagship offer (costed, specific, limited), why three to four times your average ring is the sweet spot, how to add value that costs almost nothing, and the micro offer at pickup that raises the basket size.
I used offers like this to get out of debt in my own sandwich shop and eventually exit it. Now I help other food business owners do the same.
Want to see where your cash flow sits? Take the free Cash Flow Cure Diagnosis. It's seven questions:
https://app.thechefplus.com/diagnosis
Never enough cash? Find out why.
I'm Steven Bonin at Chef+. We help independent food businesses improve cash flow and increase profits. thechefplus.com
30 Sept 2026
Beyond the Offer
Season 1, Episode 6. Season 1 set out to cover six letters and stopped at three.
This episode finishes the job.
F is Find the Leaks: the waste, portions and invoice mistakes that keep food cost a little too high.
I is Intentional Labour Deployment: why labour goes bad faster than anything in your walk-in, and how to give every slow hour a job.
T is Turn Up Volume: why more sales comes last, and how a costed, email-only cookie box became a high-margin offer.
That's the full framework, and the end of Season 1.
Free Cash Flow Cure Diagnosis (https://app.thechefplus.com/diagnosis)
5 Jul 2026
The Menu Matrix
In this episode of Plating P.R.O.F.I.T., Steven shows how four “perfectly fine” salads quietly dragged down his prime cost—and how a simple menu matrix turned that same case into a higher‑margin, lower‑waste engine. You’ll see how to classify your dishes as Stars, Workhorses, Puzzles, or Dogs, and use a free AI‑powered tool to run the numbers on your own menu in under ten minutes.
New episodes every two weeks
Free P.R.O.F.I.T. Assessment: thechefplus.com/assessment
Substack: platingprofit.substack.com
Spotify: https://tinyurl.com/platingprofits
YouTube: @platingprofits
Chef+ Strategic Bookkeeping | Financial clarity for F&B operators.
18 Jun 2026
The Freedom Trap
A warm everything sourdough bagel landed on the table in front of me.
You could just tell it was made in-house. The crust had that slight crackle. It smelled like something that had been proofed overnight and cared about. Before I took a bite, I asked the owner sitting across from me: “What would happen if you took a week off?”
She laughed.
Not because it was funny. Because she genuinely couldn’t picture the café running without her.
She hadn’t just built a café. She’d made herself impossible to replace.
That’s not a compliment. That’s a trap.
New episodes every two weeks
Free P.R.O.F.I.T. Diagnosis: thechefplus.com
Substack: platingprofit.substack.com
Spotify: https://tinyurl.com/platingprofits
YouTube: @platingprofits
Chef+ Strategic Bookkeeping | Financial clarity for F&B operators.
4 Jun 2026
The Assumption Tax
A few months ago I sat down with two operators who had been building their lunch program for weeks.
Solid concept. Good product. Pricing model they felt confident about.
One core item - a specialty bread - costed at $2.00 a portion.
The actual cost was $0.78.
That gap between what they thought it cost and what it actually cost: that's what I call the Assumption Tax. And every F&B operator I've ever worked with is paying it. Most don't know it exists.
That's what Episode 03 is about.
New episodes every two weeks
Free P.R.O.F.I.T. Diagnosis: thechefplus.com
Substack: platingprofit.substack.com
Spotify: https://tinyurl.com/platingprofits
YouTube: @platingprofits
Chef+ Strategic Bookkeeping | Financial clarity for F&B operators.
4 Jun 2026
The 30:30:30 Lie
Somewhere along the way, somebody decided that every food and beverage business should run the same numbers.
30% food cost. 30% labour. 30% operating expenses. 10% profit.
It gets taught in culinary schools. It gets repeated by accountants. It gets passed around like gospel at industry events by people who should know better.
And for a lot of operators, it becomes the measuring stick they hold their entire business against — month after month, year after year — wondering why they can never quite hit it.
Here's what I want to tell you: the problem isn't your business.
The problem is the ruler you're using.
That's what Episode 02 is about.
New episodes every two weeks
Free P.R.O.F.I.T. Diagnosis: thechefplus.com
Substack: platingprofit.substack.com
Spotify: https://tinyurl.com/platingprofits
YouTube: @platingprofits
4 Jun 2026
The Chef+ Manifesto
There was a week in my restaurant where we did the most covers we'd ever done.
All day, every day, everything on the menu was selling.
Staff were crushing each service.
I remember standing at the pass on Friday after the lunch rush thinking - this is it. This is what we built it for.
Three weeks later, I couldn't pay myself. That's what this show is about. The gap between busy and profitable - and how to close it.
New episodes every two weeks
Free P.R.O.F.I.T. Diagnosis: thechefplus.com
Substack: platingprofit.substack.com
Spotify: https://tinyurl.com/platingprofits
YouTube: @platingprofits
Chef+ Strategic Bookkeeping | Financial clarity for F&B operators.
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