Glossary

HORECA terms in plain English

Every restaurant, hotel F&B, and catering term that matters in Indian operations — defined, with worked examples and India-specific context.

42 terms, organised A–Z

A

All-day-dining buffet — the workhorse F&B outlet of an Indian hotel.

Government of India's agricultural mandi price feed.

The ratio of secondary purchases per primary unit (e.g. IRD orders per occupied room-night).

B

Break-even Point

The revenue level at which a restaurant covers all costs and starts earning profit.

Buffet Par Level

The amount of each buffet item prepared for a service period.

C

Cancellation Rate

The share of orders that are cancelled or refunded after being placed.

Profit margin after channel-specific costs (commission, packaging, ad spend).

Cohort Retention

The share of a customer cohort that returns over time.

One paying guest at one meal in one outlet.

D

Daily Shopping List

Tomorrow's exact ingredient quantities, derived from the demand forecast.

Dog (Menu Engineering)

A dish with low popularity and low margin.

E

The eleventh day of each lunar fortnight; observed by many Hindus with fasting (no rice, no grains).

F

The percentage of revenue spent on raw ingredients.

The mandatory food business licence issued by the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India.

H

Hotels, Restaurants, and Catering — collectively, the food-service industry.

I

Hotel PMS + POS used widely by Indian mid-market hotels.

Ingredient Shrinkage

The unexplained gap between ingredients sold (recipe-implied) and ingredients bought.

IRD (In-Room Dining)

Hotel room-service food and beverage delivery.

K

Kitchen Throughput

Maximum covers a kitchen can plate per hour given cooks × stations × pass speed.

L

Disruption in the supply of cooking gas cylinders, often geopolitical or seasonal.

M

Wholesale market price of an agricultural commodity at a specific APMC mandi.

Menu Engineering

The discipline of analyzing dishes by popularity × margin to optimize the menu.

N

Nine-night Hindu festival observed twice a year (Chaitra in spring, Sharad in autumn).

O

Onion Price Crisis

Periodic 2–4× spike in onion mandi prices, usually Aug–Nov in poor monsoon years.

Enterprise hotel PMS used by international hotel chains.

P

India's largest restaurant POS by outlet count.

The cost of ingredients in a single plate of a dish.

A dish that sells well but earns thin margin.

Posist (Restroworks)

Enterprise restaurant POS used by chains and large QSR brands.

Food cost + labour cost combined as a percentage of revenue.

Professional Tax

A small monthly tax levied by states on persons earning a salary.

Promo Incrementality

The portion of promo orders that are genuinely new (not pulled from full-price demand).

A dish with high margin but low popularity.

S

The fifth month of the Hindu calendar (July–August), observed with widespread fasting and vegetarian preference.

Signage Licence

Municipal permission to display a board or sign outside a commercial premises.

Tomorrow's cooks + floor staff scaled to forecasted covers.

Star (Menu Engineering)

A dish with high popularity AND high margin — the ideal.

Forkcast's commodity + news signal layer that flags supply disruption 2–7 days early.

U

Indian restaurant POS + aggregator-management platform.

V

Vendor Overpayment

Paying more than mandi-implied fair price to a regular vendor.

W

Wedding Muhurat

Auspicious dates in the Hindu calendar on which weddings are scheduled.

Working Capital

Cash needed to fund daily operations between revenue and expense.

HORECA glossary — Indian restaurant, hotel F&B, and catering terms | Forkcast