Oak & Ember Operations Platform — recipe costing and event planning for a catering business
Every menu decision backed by real numbers
One system, from ingredient to invoice
A single application server handles bookings, costing, and production, backed by a real Postgres database — plus a live connection to Square for pop-up sales.
Menus were priced by feel, not by cost
Oak & Ember quoted catering events off spreadsheets and gut instinct. A booking that looked profitable on paper could land as a loss once real ingredient costs, batch yields, and prep labor were tallied up after the fact.
Costs flow from recipe to estimate to production
A recipe costing engine ties every dish to its ingredient costs and yield, so an estimate for a 150-guest event is built from real per-serving numbers, not a guess — and the same data drives the shopping list and production schedule once the event is confirmed.
Food cost and margin, visible before you commit
Staff can see true food cost percentage and margin on an event before confirming it, then get a batch-by-batch production plan and shopping list generated from that same booking — no re-entering numbers by hand.
This isn't a prototype
You're using the same application showcased above. Book an event, price a recipe, and walk it through production planning. Demo data resets daily so every visitor starts with a clean environment.
This is a foundation, not the ceiling
What's live today covers recipe costing through production planning. Real engagements grow from here — the same foundation extends with integrations and features scoped to how a specific kitchen actually operates.
We build systems like this for real businesses.
If your menu pricing, event bookings, or production planning are living in spreadsheets disconnected from real costs, this is exactly the kind of thing we replace it with.