Restaurant Prep List: How to Write One by Station (Free Template)

A restaurant prep list is the written plan for what each station has to make before service: every item, how much of it, in what unit, in what order, and whether it's done. The amount on each line comes from simple math. Take the prep par (how much you need until you prep that item again), subtract what's already made and still good, and prep the difference.

That's the whole idea. The rest of this guide is about getting the numbers right, so cooks aren't guessing, the line doesn't run out at 8 PM, and you're not throwing out a third pan of cut lettuce every night.

Prep sits right next to purchasing. Prep pars decide how much raw product the kitchen goes through, and that usage is what your order pars are built on. Our complete guide to restaurant purchasing and inventory management covers the ordering side of that loop, from the count to the closed purchase order.

In this guide

• What goes on each line of a prep list
• How to set prep pars from covers or sales
• Worked example: Friday prep for the cold station and grill
• Build the list by station, in shelf life order
• The daily routine: who writes it, when, and how it gets checked off
• How the prep list connects to ordering
• Avoiding overprepping and waste
• Common prep list mistakes
• Free daily prep list template
• FAQ

What goes on each line of a prep list

Every line answers the same handful of questions. Some of them are for the person who writes the list, and some are for the cook doing the work.

You don't have to show all of these to the cook. Plenty of kitchens keep par and on hand on the chef's master sheet and hand each station only the amount to prep, the unit, the priority, and a box to check off. That keeps the station copy short enough to read with wet hands. What matters is that someone did the par minus on hand math before the cook started.

A few details that save arguments later:

• Use the unit the cook measures in. Quarts for sauces and dressings, pounds for proteins and cut veg, each for portioned items, sheet pans or batches for things made by the recipe. Our guide to restaurant inventory units covers count units versus order units, and the same thinking applies here.
• Only count usable product as on hand. A quart of aioli that has to be tossed tomorrow isn't on hand for tomorrow's service.
• Name the spec, not just the ingredient. "Onions" could mean diced, sliced, julienned, or pickled. They're different jobs with different shelf lives.

How to set prep pars from covers or sales

A prep par is to prep what an order par is to purchasing: the amount you want ready, sized to last until you make that item again. It works the same way, just on a shorter clock.

Prep par = expected usage until the next batch + a small buffer
Amount to prep = prep par − usable on hand

The hard part is "expected usage." There are two common ways to get it.

Portioned items: use item sales

For anything that goes out one portion at a time (patties, marinated chicken, portioned fish, desserts), pull the item's sales from your POS product mix report for the same day of the week over the last few weeks. Multiply portions by the portion size and you have the usage.

Batch items: use a rate per 100 covers

Sauces, dressings, pickles, and garnish get used across several dishes, so item sales don't map cleanly. For these, work out how much you go through per 100 covers. You can get there two ways:

• From the dishes: if 16 out of every 100 guests order a Caesar, and each one gets 1.5 oz of dressing, that's 16 × 1.5 = 24 oz, or 0.75 qt per 100 covers.
• From your batches: if a 4 qt batch usually lasts about 800 covers, that's 0.5 qt per 100 covers.

Then multiply the rate by the covers the batch has to cover. Your forecast covers can come from reservations, the same day last few weeks, or both. If the last four Fridays did 205, 230, 214, and 231 covers, a Friday forecast of 220 is a fair start. Bump it for a big party on the books or a game night next door.

How much buffer to add

Some buffer keeps the line from running dry on a busy night. Too much is how you end up throwing food away. In the example below, we use about 10% and round to a unit the cook can actually make. That's a judgment call, not a rule. Use less on fragile items like cut herbs and sliced avocado, and more on things that hold well and are a disaster to run out of mid service.

Separate pars for separate days

If Saturday does 260 covers and Tuesday does 120, one prep par for every day either leaves you short on Saturday or wasteful on Tuesday. Set pars by day of the week for your high volume items, the same way you'd set restaurant par levels for ordering.

Worked example: Friday prep for the cold station and grill

This is an illustrative example. The restaurant, covers, portion sizes, and shelf lives are made up to show the method. They aren't typical numbers for any concept, and your own shelf life rules come first.

The setup

• A neighborhood restaurant, dinner only, seven days a week.
• Forecast covers: Friday 220, Saturday 260, Sunday 180.
• About 16 Caesar salads per 100 covers, each with 5 oz cut romaine and 1.5 oz dressing.
• Grilled chicken thighs sell about 12 orders per 100 covers, at 6 oz raw each. They marinate overnight, so Friday's prep is Saturday's chicken.
• In this kitchen, cut romaine is made fresh daily, Caesar dressing is made to cover two services, and pickled red onions are made to cover three.

Usage rates per 100 covers

Cut romaine:     16 × 5 oz   = 80 oz  = 5 lb per 100 covers
Caesar dressing: 16 × 1.5 oz = 24 oz  = 0.75 qt per 100 covers
Pickled onions:  from past batches    = 0.5 qt per 100 covers
Chicken thighs:  12 × 6 oz   = 72 oz  = 4.5 lb per 100 covers

Prep pars and amounts to prep

The buffer is about 10%, rounded to the nearest whole unit.

Here's the math for each line:

Romaine:   220 ÷ 100 × 5    = 11 lb   → × 1.1 = 12.1  → 12 lb par
           12 − 2 on hand   = 10 lb to cut

Dressing:  480 ÷ 100 × 0.75 = 3.6 qt  → × 1.1 = 3.96  → 4 qt par
           4 − 1.5 on hand  = 2.5 qt to make

Onions:    660 ÷ 100 × 0.5  = 3.3 qt  → × 1.1 = 3.63  → 4 qt par
           4 − 1 on hand    = 3 qt to make

Chicken:   260 ÷ 100 × 4.5  = 11.7 lb → × 1.1 = 12.87 → 13 lb par
           13 − 0 on hand   = 13 lb to marinate tonight for Saturday

Notice what the on hand column is doing. If the cold cook just "makes Caesar dressing" from the recipe card, they make a full batch of 4 qt on top of the 1.5 qt already in the reach in, and half a quart or more gets tossed later in the weekend. Subtracting first is the whole point of the list.

Build the list by station, in shelf life order

One section per station

Group the list by the station that does the work: grill, sauté, cold apps, fry, pastry, and a general prep section for stocks and big batches. Each cook reads only their part, and the chef can see at a glance which station is behind.

If one prep cook handles everything in the morning, still group by station. It tells them where each finished item goes, and it matches how the line will look for it at 4 PM.

Order the work by how long things take and how long they keep

Within each station, the priority column sets the order. A simple rule that works in most kitchens:

1. Long lead items first. Stocks, braises, doughs, and anything that has to cool before it's stored. They take the most time, and they're often for tomorrow.
2. Items that hold well next. Sauces, dressings, pickles, and marinades. Make them early and they're out of the way.
3. Fragile items last. Cut herbs, sliced avocado, cut lettuce, and anything that browns, wilts, or weeps. Do these as close to service as you can.

That sequence fits the workday and gives the most perishable items the longest life on the line.

Rotate what's already there

When a cook tops up something that's already on hand, the older product goes on top or in front and gets used first. Label and date every container. For prepped, refrigerated food held more than a day, follow your local food code's date marking rules. Your health department has the final word on how long each item can be held.

The daily routine: who writes it, when, and how it gets checked off

The best prep list in the world doesn't help if it shows up at 2 PM. Here's a routine that works for a lot of dinner kitchens. Adjust the times to your service.

At close: count what's left

The closing cook or sous walks each station's lowboys and the walk in shelf for prepped items and writes down what's left and still good. This is the on hand number for tomorrow's list. It only takes a few minutes if the sheet lists items in the order they sit in the cooler, the same idea as a restaurant inventory count sheet in shelf walk order.

Before prep starts: write the list

The chef, sous, or kitchen manager (one person, so there's one voice) checks reservations and the cover forecast, picks the right day's pars, subtracts last night's on hand, and writes the amounts. Do it before the first cook clocks in, or have the closer write it the night before and the opener double check it against reservations.

During prep: check it off as you go

Cooks mark each line done when it's finished, labeled, and put away, not when it's started. Initials help. Anything that can't get done (missing product, equipment down, ran out of time) gets flagged to the chef right away, not at line check.

At line check: confirm it's actually there

Before service, the chef or sous walks the line and checks the list against what's on the station. Done on paper but missing from the lowboy is the one you want to catch at 4:30, not 7:45.

Line cooks: what helps most

• Call it when something's low, not when it's gone. "Down to one quart of dressing" at 7 PM gives the chef options.
• Write leftovers down honestly at close. If the closing count says 2 lb of cut romaine but it's slimy, tomorrow's list will be short.
• Flag anything you threw out. That's how the chef knows a par is too high.

How the prep list connects to ordering

Prep pars are where a lot of the kitchen's raw usage is decided. If the cold station cuts 12 lb of romaine every Friday, the produce order has to bring in enough whole romaine to make that happen, plus what gets trimmed off.

From prepped amount to raw amount

The bridge is yield: how much usable product you get from what you buy. Going back to the example, say this kitchen gets about 75% usable cut romaine from the whole heads it buys (an illustrative figure; measure your own).

Cut romaine, Fri through Sun:  660 covers ÷ 100 × 5 lb = 33 lb cut
Raw romaine needed:            33 lb ÷ 0.75 yield      = 44 lb as purchased

That 44 lb, not the 33 lb, is the usage your produce order has to cover for those three days. If you only ever look at the cut amount, every order comes up about a quarter short. The yield calculator does this conversion for any item.

Feed it into your order pars

Your order pars should be built on actual usage from counts and deliveries, which already includes trim and waste. Prep pars help you predict when that usage is about to change: a new dish, a bigger portion, a busy holiday week. When a prep par goes up, look at the order par for the raw ingredient too.

Two things to watch:

• Don't stack buffers blindly. If the prep par has a 10% cushion and the order par has its own safety stock, you may be carrying more than you need. Pick where the buffer lives for each item.
• Prep timing affects order timing. If Saturday's chicken marinates Friday, the chicken has to arrive by Friday morning, not Saturday. That changes which delivery has to cover it.

For produce in particular, the restaurant produce ordering guide covers ordering to the next truck and checking quality at the door. And if the walk in is full but the line keeps running out of a prepped item, the problem is the prep par, not the order. Our guide on why restaurants run out of ingredients walks through how to tell the two apart.

Avoiding overprepping and waste

Overprepping feels safe, but it's money in the trash. It usually comes from a few habits:

• Prepping by recipe batch instead of by need. The recipe card makes 4 qt, so the cook makes 4 qt, no matter what's already there. Scale recipes so they can be made in half or quarter batches, and write the amount on the list.
• Prepping for the busiest day, every day. One par for the whole week means Tuesday gets Saturday's prep. Day of week pars fix this.
• Padding because the list was wrong last time. If cooks start adding "a little extra" because the list has been short, the list will drift up and nobody will know why. Fix the par instead.
• Prepping fragile items too early. Cut herbs at 9 AM for a 6 PM service lose quality, and they get tossed sooner.

Keep a simple waste note

Add a line at the bottom of the closing count: what got thrown out, how much, and why (expired, quality, dropped, overprepped). After a week or two, patterns are obvious. If 3 lb of cut romaine goes in the bin every Tuesday and Wednesday, drop those days' par. If an item never has leftovers and keeps running low before close, raise it a little.

Not every item should have leftovers. For specials or fragile items, it's fine to prep a set amount and sell out on purpose. That's a decision, not an 86.

Common prep list mistakes

• No units. "Romaine: 2." Two pounds? Two heads? Two cases? Every amount needs a unit.
• Copying yesterday's list. Without subtracting what's on hand, the list ignores what's already made.
• Counting stuff that's about to expire as on hand. It won't be good for tomorrow's service, so it isn't on hand.
• One long list for the whole kitchen. Cooks can't find their part, and nobody can see which station is behind.
• No priority. Without an order, the fun jobs get done first and the 3 hour braise starts at noon.
• Same pars every day. Saturday and Tuesday are different restaurants.
• The list lives in the chef's head. When the chef is off, prep falls apart. Write it down, even on a whiteboard.
• Nobody checks it. If the list never gets checked against the line, cooks learn it doesn't matter.

Free daily prep list template

If you'd rather not build this from scratch, we have a free daily prep list template you can download as an Excel file. It's organized by station, with columns for Station, Item, Amount, Unit, Priority, Done, and Notes, plus a date and an assigned lead at the top. It comes with a few made up example rows to show the format, and blank rows for your own items.

To use it with the method in this guide:

1. Replace the example rows with your stations and your prep items, specs included.
2. Keep your prep pars and on hand somewhere the chef can see them. The template's Amount column is what the cook should finish, not what's in the walk in. If you want the math on the same sheet, add Par and On hand columns before Amount.
3. Write each day's amounts after the closing count and a look at reservations.
4. Sort or filter by Station so each cook only sees their section.
5. Mark Done as each item is finished and put away.

FAQ

What should be on a restaurant prep list?

Every line needs the item (with its spec, like "diced" or "sliced"), the amount to prep, the unit, the station, a priority, and a place to mark it done. The person writing the list also needs the prep par and the usable amount on hand, so they can work out the amount. Notes are useful for things like "for Saturday" or "use yesterday's first."

How do you calculate how much to prep?

Subtract what's already prepped and still good from your prep par. The prep par is your expected usage until the next batch plus a small buffer. For example, if 220 covers use 5 lb of cut romaine per 100 covers, that's 11 lb. Add about 10% and round to get a 12 lb par. With 2 lb left from yesterday, you prep 10 lb.

Who should write the prep list?

One person who knows the menu and the book for the day, usually the chef, sous chef, or kitchen manager. The closing cook can do the leftover count, and in some kitchens the closer drafts the list for the opener to check against reservations. What matters is that one person owns the numbers.

What's the difference between a prep par and an order par?

A prep par is how much of a prepped item you want ready until you make it again, often a day or two. An order par is how much raw product you want on the shelf until the next delivery after the one you're ordering. Prep pars drive how fast the kitchen uses raw product, so changes to them should flow through to your order pars.

How far ahead can you prep?

That depends on the item and on your local food code. Fragile items like cut herbs and sliced avocado are best done the day of service. Sauces, dressings, and pickles often hold for a few days. Anything that has to marinate, braise, or thaw gets started the day before. For refrigerated, ready to eat food held more than a day, follow your health department's date marking rules.

Should a prep list be on paper or digital?

Either works if it has amounts, units, and a done column, and if someone checks it. Paper on a clipboard or a whiteboard is quick and easy to read on the line. A spreadsheet makes it easier to keep pars by day and print a clean list each morning. Digital boards help when several people need to see progress at once.

Prep and purchasing in one place

Proteus Kitchen is purchasing software first: inventory counts, vendors and their order deadlines, purchase orders, and purchasing history. It also includes a digital prep board for daily portion targets, carryover from the night before, and marking prep done. On the board, the amount to prep is the day's target minus what's left from yesterday, the same par minus on hand math as the paper list.

Start with the free daily prep list template if you want a paper or shared file version first. If your inventory list, order guide, or vendor list already lives in a spreadsheet, free setup means you can send it over and the Proteus team will help import it. There's also a 30-day free trial below.

Next step: fix one station's list this week

1. Pick your busiest station and list every item it preps, with a spec and a unit.
2. Work out a prep par for each item from the last few weeks of sales or covers, by day of the week for the big ones.
3. Have the closer count what's left tonight, and write tomorrow's amounts as par minus on hand.
4. Keep a waste note for a week, then adjust the pars that were too high or too low.