Build a recipe from scratch

A recipe in Chefy is a list of inputs (the products and sub-recipes that go in) and one or more outputs (what comes out). Chefy costs the recipe from its inputs and spreads that cost across its outputs, so you always know what a batch, a kilo or a serve costs you.

You need products in your venue first. See Upload an invoice or Add a supplier product by hand.

Create the recipe

1. Open Recipes from the main navigation.
2. Click the round button at the bottom of the list and choose Add Recipe.
3. Details: enter the recipe Name, pick any of the suggested Tags you want, and add an Image if you have one. If you do not, Chefy generates one for the recipe. Click Continue.
4. Scope: leave as it is and click Continue.
5. Method: type the method steps if you want them in Chefy. You can skip this and add them later. Click Continue.
6. Confirmation: check the details and click Continue.

You land on the recipe's page, on the Inputs tab. This page is the control panel for the recipe: Inputs, Method, Outputs and Allergens tabs across the top, and a strip of numbers (Total cost, Wastage, By-product, Yield, Cost / unit) that updates as you build.

Add the inputs

7. A new recipe has no inputs, so the page prompts you to add the first one. Click Add input.

8. Chefy shows everything that can go into a recipe: your supplier products and the outputs of your other recipes. Search or filter to find the one you want and click it.

9. On the right, enter how much of it this recipe uses. Chefy shows what that amount costs and what it does to the recipe's cost before you commit. Click Add.

10. Keep adding inputs until the recipe is complete. The cost strip updates after each one, so you can watch the cost per kilo settle as you go. Chefy also suggests inputs it thinks belong in a recipe with this name; a recipe called spaghetti bolognese will be nudged towards spaghetti. Take the suggestions or ignore them.

To use another recipe inside this one (a sub-recipe), pick that recipe's output from the same list. It behaves like any other input, and its cost comes from its own recipe.

Set up the outputs

Every recipe starts with one default output that takes 100% of the yield and all of the cost. For a simple recipe, where ingredients go in and one thing comes out, that is all you need: the default output is the recipe as far as the rest of Chefy is concerned, and it is what other recipes and menu items use.

Open the Outputs tab when a recipe produces more than one thing, or when some of what goes in does not come out.

11. Click Edit outputs, then add an output and give it a Name. Choose what kind it is:
    • A normal output carries cost. Use more than one when a recipe yields several usable things, for example butchering a chicken into breasts and thighs. Both outputs get the same cost per kilo because they came from the same inputs; they cost different totals only because they weigh different amounts. Chefy has no notion of one cut being worth more than another.
    • Wastage is the part of the yield you cannot use: trim, peel, evaporation. Chefy removes it from the yield available to the other outputs and their cost per kilo goes up to match.
    • By-product is usable in other recipes but carries no cost: bones for stock, vegetable scraps. It can be an input elsewhere at zero cost.
12. Set how the yield is divided between the outputs. Outputs balance themselves: as you give more to wastage, the default output shrinks to match. Turn on Locked for any output you want to hold still while you adjust the others.
13. Give an output its own unit when the recipe is measured in something other than weight. A cake recipe can have an output of 10 slices; a soup can be measured in serves. Chefy then shows the cost per slice or per serve.

What the numbers mean

• Total cost: the cost of all the inputs for one batch.
• Wastage and By-product: how much of the yield is going to each.
• Yield: what is left for the outputs that carry cost.
• Cost / unit: the cost of one unit of the default output.

Next steps

• Put a recipe on the menu and set a price
• Make a change safely when you come back to edit a recipe that is already in use