A dine-in restaurant that costs its dishes accurately knows its margin. A cloud kitchen that does the same thing knows a fiction, because the plate cost is only the first layer of what an order really costs. Packaging leaves with every order, the delivery platform takes its commission off the top, and a menu that shows a comfortable margin on paper can be trading at a loss on one channel while nobody looks. Catering has the same shape with different names: the recipe cost is only the start, and the quote lives or dies on what gets added between the kitchen and the venue.
