Restaurant Owner Quizzes Employees on the Cost of Ingredients and Equipment — ‘Actually, It’s $405 a Case’

A restaurant owner challenged his employees to estimate the cost of everyday ingredients and equipment used to run the business, and most of their guesses were nowhere close. The video, shared on the restaurant's Instagram account, has prompted discussion about the often-overlooked costs of running a restaurant.

That's exactly what a group of employees learned after their boss asked them to estimate the prices of products and equipment used to keep his restaurant, Degidio's, running. In a clip shared to the restaurant's Instagram account (@degidios.restaurant), the owner goes around asking different employees to guess the cost of random items, from vanilla bean paste to custom tables inside the restaurant. And unsurprisingly, most of their guesses were pretty off.

The Restaurant Employees Underestimated the Cost of Everyday Ingredients and Equipment

The clip opens with the boss asking one employee how much he thinks a tub of chocolate chips costs. The employee guesses $8. After putting a screenshot of the invoice on the screen, the boss responds, "Actually, it's $405 a case." The employee’s expression after hearing that suggests he’s surprised by how much is spent on chocolate chips alone.

In another scene, the boss asks a different employee how much he thinks a brand-new commercial bread slicer costs. He guesses "maybe like 10 grand," but a receipt shared on the screen reveals the actual price is $6,500. So this time, the employee overestimated the cost.

Later, while sitting at a table, the boss asks a female employee how much she thinks a quart of vanilla bean paste costs. She guesses $8, but like the others, she underestimates the cost. He reveals it actually costs $132 per quart, and according to his receipt, he paid over $700 for a case of six.

The boss then asks another employee to estimate the price of a custom stainless steel dish table that stretches down the wall and around the corner. The employee guesses $6,000. But the boss quickly responds, "I wish," before revealing that the real price is $14,700.

While some people in the comments were surprised by how far off the employees were, others weren't shocked by the costs of the goods. "I knew the vanilla bean was gonna be so much because we live in a world where we have to have imitation vanilla because of how expensive it is lol," one person wrote.  Another added, "In my kitchen we have Ecuadorian chocolate, same brand you use... Taste amazing... A lot of money lol."

The Daily Dot was unable to independently verify the prices shown in the receipts included in the video.