A food service operates with a 35% food cost. If a menu item has a raw food cost of $1.25, and it takes an employee 45 minutes at $6 an hour to prepare, what is the traditional selling price?

To determine the traditional selling price of the menu item given a food cost percentage, you need to calculate the total cost of the item, which includes both the raw food cost and the labor cost associated with its preparation. Then, using the food cost percentage, you can derive the selling price.

Start with the raw food cost, which is $1.25. Next, calculate the labor cost. The employee's wage is $6 per hour, and since it takes 45 minutes to prepare the item, that is 0.75 hours (45 minutes divided by 60 minutes).

Calculating the labor cost:

Labor cost = Hourly wage × Hours worked

Labor cost = $6 × 0.75 = $4.50

Now, add the raw food cost to the labor cost to get the total cost:

Total cost = Raw food cost + Labor cost

Total cost = $1.25 + $4.50 = $5.75

Now that you have the total cost, and knowing that food cost is 35% of the selling price, you can set up the equation as follows:

Let the selling price be represented by ( P ):

0.35P = Total cost

0.35P =