CARLUCCIO’S

SPAGHETTI CARBONARA: £10.50

deSCriBed on the menu as a ‘roman Classic’, the dish was served in a stylish bowl with an enormous rim, giving the impression of a slightly larger portion than it really was, though it was still generous: the full dish, with sauce, weighed 430g.

Nonetheless, the raw ingredients do not amount to much including: an egg, 32g of smoky bacon, some Grana Padano cheese and cream. Cost of ingredients: £1.53 Mark-up: 586 per cent

CHICKEN MILANESE: £12.95

a thiCk piece of chicken breast, flattened, and then given a crispy bread crumb and cheese coating, the dish was accompanied by a rather ungenerous salad topped by two yellow plum tomatoes and half a red one. Cost of ingredients: £2.08 Mark-up: 523 per cent

GREEN BEANS: £3.50

Side dishes of vegetables are often how the cost of restaurant meals can creep up. this little dish of green beans totalled just 28 beans, with a drizzle of olive oil. Cost of ingredients: 88p Mark-up: 298 per cent

RISOTTO AI FUNGHI: £12.95

a StaPle vegetarian dish in many italian restaurants, this is finished with a hit of chilli and truffle oil, which is a very luxurious ingredient, costing £35 a litre. But, in fact, only about 11p of it was used in this dish. Cost of ingredients: £2.16 Mark up: 500 per cent CarluCCio’S says: ‘the profit on food in restaurants is actually very slim.

‘the cost of the ingredients is a tiny part of the price you pay with ingredients in each dish costing typically 25 per cent of the final price. the remaining costs have to cover myriad items.’

the chain says 20 per cent goes to hMrC in Vat and then there are labour costs, which are ‘significantly more expensive than the actual ingredients’.