New operators often try to bake commissary rent into food cost percentage, which distorts the math. Commissary rent is overhead. Plate price minus plate food cost equals gross margin per plate. Gross margin pays for everything else: commissary, fuel, insurance, truck payment, labor, marketing, owner pay. Example: commissary rent $800/month, realistic volume 3,000 plates/month — commissary per plate = $0.27. At an $11 average price and 30% food cost, gross margin is $7.70; commissary takes $0.27, leaving $7.43 for fuel, insurance, labor, debt service, and you. Operators with healthy 30% food cost still lose money because their average ticket is too low to absorb fixed costs. The fix is rarely lowering food cost further — it is raising average ticket through combo bundling, upsells, or raising prices on items with strong demand.