Wednesday, December 1, 2010

Cooking Calculations

I dream of building my own bakeshop one day (of course, this is after I’ve establish myself as a successful lawyer J) I do not know how to cook or bake, but as far as I can remember, I’ve always had an affinity for cakes and pastries. This is perhaps the reason why I want to create my own collection of cake designs and recipes.

Just this year, I was introduced by my friend to Calcmenu, a new software which has been used by professional chefs in countries like Switzerland. It is a professional recipe management software that provides user-friendly features to manage merchandise and recipes. It is packed with helpful and useful features like “recipe creation, recipe costing, merchandise management, nutrient calculation, printing of recipe cards with pictures, recipe resizing, sub-recipes, baker’s percentage”[1] and others. My friend explained to me further that the program not only shows recipes, it also gives tips on how to be cost-efficient by suggesting alternative ingredients or showing places in the area where items are sold for cheaper prices. Furthermore, it recommends different strategies for better and more expedient management. In other words, Calcmenu promises to make foodservice faster and easier!

sample window of Calcmenu


I was impressed with the program’s promise of expediency and seeming simplicity. I was even more impressed by the utility of software programs in what was formerly a purely manual task. As my friend proudly exclaimed, “Oo! Kahit sa pagluluto ginagamit na ang computer ngayon!”

The pervasiveness of technology cannot be denied. Every day, mankind finds some way to make life faster and easier. It should come as no surprise, therefore, that even software programs are not utilized by chefs to make the operation of their restaurants more efficient. This is good news for a young man like me who dreams (eventually, after practicing law) of entering into the foodservice industry. However, we should all be smart enough to know that no amount of technology could ever substitute for hard work, creativity and hands-on ingenuity.


JERIC CRUZ (3rd blog entry)


1 comment:

Alexandria said...

You should make something for class...like Gingerbread Men hehehe! Kidding :D