Reference guide for day-to-day management of your menu content — ingredients, dishes, and meals.
Which content you manage depends on your Meal Components mode (set in Settings):
Ingredients appear only when ingredient tracking is on ( Dietary needs and ingredients ) and you're in Meals or Meals with dishes mode.
Dishes appear only in Meals with dishes mode.
Meals appear in Meals and Meals with dishes modes.
In Dietary needs by day mode there is no content to build here — you assign dietary needs directly on the calendar.
Ingredients
Navigate to Menus and open the Ingredients tab.
Browsing Ingredients
The ingredient list shows all active ingredients with search and pagination. Use the search bar to find an ingredient by name.
Adding an Ingredient
Click + Add ingredient .
Enter the ingredient name and select the default unit of measurement.
Click Save .
If you order from a specific supplier (e.g., Sysco, US Foods), consider adding the supplier's product number to the ingredient name for easy reference on shopping lists.
Editing & Deleting Ingredients
Click an ingredient to open its detail view, then click Edit to update the name or unit.
To delete, click Delete . You cannot delete an ingredient that is currently used in a dish or meal.
Dishes
Dishes are used in Meals with dishes mode. Navigate to Menus and open the Dishes tab.
Adding a Dish
Click + Add dish .
Enter the dish name and optionally a description.
Set the Recipe portions — the base serving count used for ingredient scaling.
Click Save .
Adding ingredients and dietary needs to a dish
On the dish detail page, add ingredients with a quantity and unit per serving (these scale automatically on reports), and link dietary needs to substitution actions:
Alert / Omit Item — flags the dietary need on delivery reports so kitchen staff can adjust the client's meal.
Substitute Meal — swaps the client's product for the day to the designated substitution meal.
The detail page has tabs showing Ingredients, Dietary Substitutions, and the Meals that include this dish.
Meals
Navigate to Menus and open the Meals tab.
Adding a Meal
Click + Add meal .
Enter the meal name and optionally a description.
Click Save .
What lives on a meal
How you give a meal its dietary needs and ingredients depends on your mode:
Meals with dishes mode — add dishes to the meal (e.g., an entrée + side + dessert). The dishes carry the ingredients and dietary needs.
Meals mode — the meal carries its own dietary needs and ingredients directly. On the meal detail page, use Edit Dietary Needs and Edit Ingredients to manage them. Each opens a list with an add form (the add forms include a Save and add another button for entering several at once).
Editing & Deleting Meals
Click a meal to open its detail view, then click Edit to update.
To delete, click Delete . You cannot delete a meal that is currently assigned to the calendar.