# Culinary or Chef Software



## 24-7cook (Oct 29, 2007)

I would like to pose a question to the board. In a way it is market research. If this is against the rules of the board please remove this post.

Do any of you utilize professional culinary software ie. Cheftec.

If yes, what features do you like and or dislike?

If no, why not?

What features would you want to see in culinary software?

I am currently consulting with a company to design a website and software for home and professional chefs.

Any feed back would be appreciated.

Once again if this is against the rules please remove.

Thank You


----------



## chefross (May 5, 2010)

I don't use those programs simply because I am computer savvy and utilize Microsoft Exel.

I can enter any information into my program so that when inventory time comes, I simply enter the quantity of product and the program does the rest.

The thing I find the most unappealing about those store bought programs is that they are always needing updating which costs more money.

My program does not.  After work I input the new prices/ and/or changes in product through out the month so that all new inventory has the new up to date info.

I regret that I am unable to offer you any help here.


----------



## foodpump (Oct 10, 2005)

Similiar to Ross, but I am a computer eejit. Made my own program with excel, call it my "orthodontics" sheet.

Column 1 is weight of goods

Column 2 is price

Column 3 is price/ kg _*Everything*_ in $/kg even liquids. Makes inventories and scaling out recipies soooo much faster.

This is all I need to know. I can use it for inventories and have column 4 for goods on hand and column 5 for price of goods on hand.

Remember, prices ALWAYS fluctuate, suppliers come and go, and menus change

Since I only work with maybe 150-odd ingredients I can use it to cost out my recipies. Separate spreadsheet for recipies, plug in my weights of ingredients and my cost/kg and it spits out my cost of recipie. Many of the "store bought" programs have an ingredient list of 1000's of items and it become very confusing

Hate computers and fight with them all the time. Have attempted to use "store bought" programs, but back then, they came with a 200 pg instruction manual. Now the newer versions don't even have insturctions, they assume you already know the program, or download the 400 pages like an eejit.

Did I mention I hate compukers and fight with them all the time?.................


----------



## petemccracken (Sep 18, 2008)

Mastercook ($19.95 for the latest version) does everything I need as far as recipe management/costing and nutrition (though I'd sure like to see someone buy it from Valuesoft and update the USDA database)

Excel handles inventory.


----------



## chefross (May 5, 2010)

PeteMcCracken said:


> Mastercook ($19.95 for the latest version) does everything I need as far as recipe management/costing and nutrition (though I'd sure like to see someone buy it from Valuesoft and update the USDA database)
> 
> Excel handles inventory.


Hey Pete: Hope you have a great holiday weekend.

Did you know you can configure Excel to price out plates, banquets, as well as food cost?


----------



## petemccracken (Sep 18, 2008)

Chefross said:


> Hey Pete: Hope you have a great holiday weekend.
> Did you know you can configure Excel to price out plates, banquets, as well as food cost?


Yup, I use Excel extensively, especially for scheduling events as well as costing.

In fact, I have a worksheet (still rough) that I use for event planning, that takes into account food (menus), labor, rentals, guest count, etc., and generates client quotation, staffing plan, food prep and cooking schedule, and rental order.

I find it more practical to use MasterCook for recipe management, menu preparation, food costing, and nutritional info and just transfer the data I need to Excel.

Using Firefox with the RecipeFox add-in, it is a snap to extract on-line recipes and import into Mastercook. In fact, when I find recipes in MSWord, it is easy to save as HTML, open in Firefox, and import into Mastercook using RecipeFox


----------



## rat (Mar 2, 2006)

I am a huge fan of "resort software" it is a small company based out of Australia, it is  exportable to excel, easy to use, great costing, invernory and labor functions. I use it alot. Look it up, you can get a free 30 day trial to test it out.


----------



## chefcarole (Oct 10, 2010)

I've been using cheftec [the original] for about 14 yrs, like the software, dislike the company/lack of support

First time I needed to transfer MY data form my crashed computer to my new computer, they tell me I need to pay for support, I respond if you drop your fork on the floor in the middle of your meal, we do not charge you for another fork, I paid a geek $100 to get the info off my old hard drive, since then i always back up

I see alot of talk about the time it takes to imput, no doubt this is overwhelming in the beginning, but besides updating costs I'm still using this info all these years later

The best feature I think is the recipe costing, which not only can give you plate cost but costs out an entire catering job or private party.

I now run my cheftec on my virtual windows since I'm using a mac, having some printing issues, but I'll figure it out, I refuse to pay them for support


----------



## mindy8 (Feb 16, 2014)

I am looking for software that enables me to scan recipes I already have into a database, then allow me to search by several different categories.  I wanted to use Chef Tec, but it did not run on Mac computers.  Any suggestions?

Thanks

Mindy8


----------



## shibu thampan (Feb 28, 2016)

I use "Optimum Control" for everything in F&B. anyone else?


----------

