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Hello folks!

Noob here. Thank you all in advance for any and all advice. I’ve AI to build the tool so far. Think I’ve made some mistakes.

Bit of background information. So I’ve been employed by a business to consult on a new food menu, cost recipes and implement a standard recipe book. They use airtable in their other venues for some things like inventory management but not kitchen operations. They’ve asked that I try build a tool for the kitchen that can then be shared across the group.

Being new, I only got so far and I’m feeling a bit lost and confused about layout, how some things drag information from where and why some things are where they are. The AI tool has got me so far and it’s been good. But to fine dial this tool for their specific needs I am seeking help!

How much are consultations? Does anyone do this for free/cheap to build their portfolio? I’m limited in what I can offer as the budget is well blown out on the venue already due to the build.

What I need help with is:

  • ingredient units as they are purchased versus how they are used in recipes. Eg. One bottle of soy sauce (800ml) costs $10.00 but want to only use 50ml in a recipe.
  • can’t seem to change ingredient amounts/weight in a recipe. It seems to be attached to the ingredient database. So if a recipe uses eggs and they are purchased by the dozen, there’s no where to put 1 egg in the actual recipe that the staff will use. (similar to the above but slightly different) hard to put into words.

But, this is a recipe example. And I can’t just choose 1 egg without it editing the ingredient database

 

 

 

  • what the difference is between these are is causing some uncertainty too. They all seem to be so similar.
Don’t need a recipe calendar, AI threw that in there. 
Ingredients list can be used for ordering. But feel like recipe editor should be in ‘Recipes drop down’

I’d like to see product pricing in the interface as well. Couldn’t seem make that work.

Also, think I’ve now just pressed too many buttons and may have deleted a couple things by accident. It’s all feeling a bit messy!

Looking for advice on what to be careful of when looking for help. Budget restrictive and time sensitive too. 

Many thanks to all in advance for any advice you’re willing to give. 

Many thanks!

Hey ​@Raf!

Consultation can go anywhere from $15/hs to +$300/hs.

I cannot stress enough the importance of building your database architecture/schema (what tables you have, and how you link them to each other) in a really scalable way. I’m afraid the lower end developers might have a hard time at nailing that down. If you could spend some more money (specially at the beginning) I would highly suggest doing so.

You can find developers/consultants on the community, as well as in upwork. When contracting, make sure the developer is an Airtable expert, and not someone who just uses Airtable ocasionally.

Those are my 2 cents on the matter!

Completely different matter, but would love to have you join our Airtable Hackathon! Make sure to sign up!!

Mike, Consultant @ Automatic Nation 
YouTube Channel

Hmm, could I confirm that your current tables look sometihng like this?

  1. Ingredients
  2. Recipes
  3. Recipe Line Items, where each record represents the variable quantity of an ingredient within a recipe

And so you have might have Eggs as an Ingredient record, and in Recipe A, you’d have a Recipe Line Item that uses two eggs, and in Recipe B you’d have a Recipe Line Item that uses five eggs?  It seems like that’s the case, but you mention that you can’t change the quantity without modifying the Ingredients table and so I’m a bit confused!

I do free half hour calls and would be happy to help, and you can grab a time here.  What you’re trying to build sounds pretty straightforward so I think we’ll be able to get you sorted within that time!

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