Calcmenu Chef

Editors' ReviewDownload.com staffMarch 11, 2010It takes more than good cooking to run a successful restaurant; fanatical attention must be paid to every dollar spent. This feature-packed, but somewhat unreliable, application aims to help food-service professionals squeeze the maximum profit out of their kitchens. Calcmenu 2004 Chef's tabbed interface includes several features that for creating menus and controlling food cost. The Merchandise function and Recipe Creator let you create, search, and modify recipes, obtain ingredient lists, and calculate food cost percentages. Another helpful feature is the ability to attach three pictures to each recipe for menu standardization and training. The calculation function allows users to figure their profit margin and selling price. Other features include Recipe Exchange, Nutrient Calculation, Menu Planning, and Shopping List. Professional chefs, caterers, and restaurateurs will appreciate Calcmenu 2004 Chef's ability to easily standardize menus, define portion sizes, and track inventory to control costs. The downside? A hefty download size and some disturbing stability issues. Also, be aware that the program needs Microsoft's free SQL Server Desktop Engine to run. We wouldn't bet the business on this just yet, but a few improvements would make that prospect a lot easier to stomach.