AI recipe builder
Build recipes by hand or let Basanti read your recipe sheets, with live costing per batch and per unit.
Recipes live in the kitchen console’s Recipes library. Build one by hand in the recipe form, or hand Basanti your existing recipe sheets — she separates each recipe, matches every ingredient line to your stock items, and costs them — then you review, fix anything she got wrong, and save. Either way, every recipe’s cost stays live: it is always worked out from what your ingredients cost right now, per batch and per unit.
New to the terms here (semi-finished, sub-recipe, food cost %)? See the Glossary.
Where recipes live
Chefs (the kitchen persona) find Recipes under Library in the kitchen console. The library lists that production unit’s recipes with each one’s type, yield, Batch ₹, ₹/unit and FC % (food cost), with All / Semi / Finished / Menu tabs and search. Tap a recipe for its full costed sheet. A chef never sees another unit’s recipes or costs.
Owners and managers don’t build recipes — they approve and price sellable dishes in the POS app’s Menu section, with each item’s recipe cost and food cost % alongside (see Menu and pricing).
Build a recipe by hand
- In Recipes, click New recipe.
- Name it. Where the business has more than one production unit, Produced at picks which unit makes it — this is stamped on creation and can’t be changed afterwards.
- Pick its Type — Semi-finished, Finished good or Menu item (see below).
- Set the Yield per batch and its unit — pick a common unit or choose Other… for anything else (loaf, tray, portion). You can also add a batch time, shelf life in days and a thumbnail.
- Add ingredients from stock — raw materials, or sub-recipes marked 🔗. Each row shows the live rate and line cost, and Batch cost and Cost/unit update as you build.
- Optionally switch on Queue a batch on the make list right away to get the first batch going.
- Click Add recipe.
Building by hand is always free — it never uses Basanti’s credits.
Recipe types
Every recipe carries one Type, which says what it produces:
| Type | What it means |
|---|---|
| Semi-finished | A sub-recipe that stays on kitchen shelves and is used inside other recipes — not sold on its own. Choosing it reveals a Par level (CK) field: below that on-hand, it shows as below-par in kitchen stock. |
| Finished good | An inventoried finished good that is not on the menu. When a batch is made at a commissary, it transfers to the warehouse. |
| Menu item | A sellable dish. Saving one submits it for approval in the POS app’s Menu section — its selling price per channel is set there, not in the recipe. On an outlet-linked kitchen it scopes automatically to that unit’s host outlet; on a commissary it starts with no outlets and is mapped to the ones that sell it in the POS app. Track its progress on Menu status. |
Note: the type is fixed once the recipe exists — it defines what the recipe produces. To change it, create a new recipe.
Menu item is available on every production unit, commissaries included — a central kitchen is usually where a menu is developed. What differs is the sell-side: a commissary’s dish reaches no counter until it is mapped to the outlets that sell it, in the POS app, and the note under Produced at says so. See Production units.
Note: the Par level (CK) field still carries the old CK shorthand for central kitchen — it is the par level at the production unit that makes the semi.
Let Basanti read your recipe sheets
If your recipes already live in a spreadsheet or a document, don’t retype them:
- In Recipes, click Ask Basanti.
- Paste your recipe sheet into the box, or drop an Excel, CSV or text file. One recipe or a whole stack — separate recipes with a blank line or “Recipe 1 / 2 / 3” headings. Batches of about 40–50 recipes are the comfortable size to review in one sitting.
- Click Ask Basanti to read it (or Read file). Keep the tab open while she reads — big sheets can take a minute.
- Review each drafted recipe: the ingredients matched to your items, the quantities, and its type. Any unmatched ingredient must be matched to a stock item (or removed) before saving — nothing is dropped silently.
- Click Create. Recipes save one by one with a progress bar. If a save fails partway, the failed ones stay in the list — press Create again to retry them; nothing needs re-reading.
Note: Basanti matches ingredients to your existing stock items, so your item masters should be in first. To bring items and vendors in from sheets, see Bulk onboarding.
Live costing
Open any recipe for its full costed sheet:
- Recipe cost / unit and per batch — what it costs using your current ingredient prices, including sub-recipes at their own recipe cost.
- True-raw / unit — the same recipe with every sub-recipe broken down into its raw ingredients, so you see the honest raw-material cost.
- Food cost %, plus a per-ingredient table with each line’s quantity, rate, line cost and whether there’s enough stock on hand to make a batch.
Switch between Recipe view and True raw with the toggle, and expand any sub-recipe row to see what’s inside it.
Credits and the usage meter
Reading recipes with Basanti spends the same monthly Basanti allowance as bulk onboarding and the assistant. The meter at the top of the Ask Basanti panel shows how much of this month’s allowance is used.
If credits run out partway through a sheet, nothing is lost: whatever was already read stays in review, and saving reviewed recipes doesn’t use credits — save them, then read the remaining part of your sheet again after credits reset on the 1st. If you need more before then, contact Maska.