Menu items are dishes that appear on the menu and can be ordered by the customer.
Recipes, on the other hand, contain additional details such as a list of ingredients and instructions for preparing the menu items.
Information on a menu item is visible to customers (e.g. item name, description, properties such as vegan, low-carb, etc.), while information on a recipe (e.g. recipe name, ingredients, cooking instructions) is only visible internally to the kitchen staff.
Example: A recipe could be called “My Favorite Lasagne” while the menu item is labeled “Lasagne Verde”
A recipe can optionally be added to a menu item, but this is not always necessary e.g.:
For “Lasagne Verde” you would add the recipe to the menu item, whereas “Coca Cola” would be a menu item without a recipe
The kitchen could order certain ready-made products from certain suppliers, which are then resold as menu items without a recipe being stored - for example the menu item “Gipfeli”.
Not all recipes are linked to a menu item. For example, you could have a recipe for a sauce. This sauce in itself does not constitute a menu item
Recipe ingredients
Adding recipe ingredients to a menu item helps the kitchen with inventory planning and purchasing. The ingredient quantities can be derived from the quantities ordered. For example, if 60 full portions of Lasagne Verde were ordered, then it is possible to calculate the total quantity of ingredients required to cook 60 portions as long as the recipe ingredients are maintained.
Adding recipe ingredients to menu items helps automatically derive nutritional information based on the products used in a menu item.
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