Straightforward answers to the questions we hear most often. If you have something specific that is not covered here, the contact page is the right next step.
It means working directly inside your operation to document, organize, and improve the processes that determine your cost efficiency. This includes things like creating recipe normatives with precise ingredient weights, building calculation cards that show the actual cost of each dish, establishing systems for tracking waste and losses, and organizing shift schedules around your real operational needs. It is on-site, practical work. Not reports delivered by email from a distance.
No. Urban Guide Base provides operational consulting only. We do not advise on investments, loans, accounting, tax, or financial planning. If you need financial advice, you need a licensed financial professional. What we do is focused entirely on the operational side: ingredient costs, recipe documentation, kitchen organization, and waste tracking. These are operational matters, not financial ones, even though they affect your financial outcomes.
We work with restaurants, hotels, cafes, bars, catering operations, and similar hospitality businesses. Size varies. Some clients are small family-run restaurants with a handful of staff. Others are larger operations with multiple service areas and complex scheduling needs. The common thread is that they prepare and serve food, and they want a clearer operational picture of what that actually costs and how it is organized.
A calculation card is a document that records the complete cost of a single menu item. It lists every ingredient with its gross weight (as purchased), net weight (after prep), cost per unit, and the total ingredient cost for that dish. It also typically includes prep waste percentages and can incorporate labor time if needed. The reason it matters is simple: you cannot make a rational pricing decision without knowing what something actually costs to prepare. A calculation card makes that cost visible and documentable.
A recipe normative is a standardized recipe document that defines exactly how a dish should be prepared. It includes precise ingredient quantities by weight, the preparation method, cooking instructions, expected yields, and the final portion size. The purpose is consistency: when a normative exists, any trained kitchen team member should be able to produce the same dish with the same cost and quality, regardless of which chef is on shift. It removes the dependency on memory and individual interpretation.
No. Our office is in Dubrovnik, but we work with hospitality businesses across Croatia. The coastal and island regions are areas we know particularly well given the specific seasonal patterns of tourism-driven hospitality. If you are located elsewhere in Croatia, get in touch and we can discuss what a practical working arrangement would look like.
The programs are structured specifically to transfer knowledge to your team rather than just implementing changes for you. In a consulting engagement, we do the work alongside you. In a training program, the goal is for your team to understand the methods well enough to maintain and develop them independently. Programs produce working documentation your team keeps. Both approaches are practical and on-site. The difference is in who is doing the work and who is learning it.
It depends on the scope. A focused engagement covering a single area, like building calculation cards for an existing menu, might take a few working sessions spread over one to two weeks. A comprehensive operational review covering cost analysis, recipe normalization, shift organization, and waste tracking will take longer and typically includes follow-up visits. We discuss scope and timing during the initial consultation, before any commitment is made.
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