3 min read
Today is a good day! We announced that Folio and meez are partnering to give chefs and hospitality pros more visibility into food and recipe costs. That means more clarity for chefs to unlock more creativity. Now, you can plan recipes, manage costs while tracking margins, and place orders, all in one spot. It’s gonna be good.
Historically, menu planning, pricing, inventory, and procurement have all been separate and retroactively stapled (or stuck) together. A chef would create a recipe, buy from separate suppliers, get invoiced, and get feedback at the end of the month if costs were running hot. There would be no guidance at the recipe level, just raw profit and loss and the dreaded directive, “we need to lower food costs.” The onus was on the chef to figure out how to do that and create a system to keep track of it all (sticky notes, spreadsheets, you name it). Together with meez, we’re changing that.
Folio is all about using technology to make smarter, more connected systems that help operators see profitability. So when we met with our partner chefs and they gushed about the ease of meez (forgive the rhyme, it’s so fun), we knew we wanted to partner with the meez team. Now, chefs can log into Folio, click on Recipes, and start building knowing every penny that’s sprinkled in. (The view is so detailed that you can see the price of salt for each portion!).
Here are a few of my favorite features of our integration:
One place to buy: Ever walk into a room and forget what you came in for? I do. I feel the same way about switching tabs on my computer. Now instead of going to multiple (in some cases a dozen) supplier websites, chefs can order everything they need right in Folio.
Real time cost and margin tracking: Now you see food costs at both the recipe and ingredient level, making it easier to identify the shrimp and grits as the star menu item and the tuna tartare that may not be doing the operation any favors. Plus you’ll see real-time pricing changes on tuna that may allow you to pivot early, before it’s too late..
Inventory and recipes unite: Do we have enough tomatoes for gazpacho? Now you can see exactly how many you have left, how many you need for the recipe, and what they cost. If you need 10 more, you can add to cart for your next order, or adjust the menu entirely for the inventory you have on hand
A smart home for your recipes: Within the recipes tab, you can see all your recipes at a glance. Open it up for spring menu planning, or download analytics for corporate. It’s all right there, costed out, and dynamically updating.
There’s a common misconception that chefs are craftspeople who aren’t focused on business. It’s fundamentally untrue. The chefs we work with take great pride in creating delicious menus that people love while also being quite mindful of their budgets and turning a profit. Knowing exactly what you have to work with and how much it will cost allows these culinary pros to deliver a great service and be right there within their target margins. They’re in it for a business that works both financially and as the kind of meaningful, bread breaking memory machine that we all love. And we are in it to support them. We’re working every day to make Folio, now with meez built right in, a tool that chefs love as much as their favorite chef’s knife. We can’t wait to share more about what they create in the weeks to come!