Imagine it’s the end of service. The chef opens the walk-in, looks at the tomatoes and says, “We’ve got two left. Order another six for Friday.”
Online-Chef Tales · By Chef Jules
I’m Jules. I write code for Online-Chef, and this is exactly the sort of sentence that makes me stop typing. Two tomatoes or two crates? Six kilos or six cases? And does “for Friday” mean the delivery should arrive on Friday morning or that the tomatoes need to be ready for Friday lunch?
The chef has already moved on to the next job. I’m still standing there, trying to find out what a tomato is.
Teach the bot how your kitchen counts
If I were building a restaurant inventory bot, I’d start with one shelf in the walk-in. Pick a few ingredients the team buys often and write down what each one is called, how it’s counted and how the supplier sells it. Your chef might count tomatoes in kilos, while the supplier sells them in six-kilo crates. Both units belong in the system.
Then I’d let the team leave a quick note: “Four kilos of tomatoes in the walk-in, one kilo set aside for staff lunch.” The bot could turn that into a count for someone to confirm. If somebody says “two left,” it should ask what unit they mean. And if the latest count is from Tuesday, it should say so when someone asks what’s available on Thursday.
A good count still starts at the shelf. The bot can make the result easier to find and compare across shifts. Managing Food Inventory
Show me the order before you send it
Here’s the screen I’d want to see before the supplier’s cutoff.
Tomatoes for FridayPlanned use before the next delivery: 12 kgUsable stock counted today: 4 kgConfirmed delivery arriving in time: 6 kgStill needed: 2 kgSmallest supplier pack: 6 kgDraft: one crate. Expected surplus: 4 kg.
That last line is where the chef comes in. Four extra kilos might be fine if Saturday’s menu has a tomato special. If the restaurant closes for two days after Friday lunch, that same crate might be a bad buy. And if the van is due after lunch, those six incoming kilos can’t help with lunch service.
Stock-based order suggestions already exist in restaurant inventory software. The part I’d like to build is the explanation beside the quantity, so the chef can see the count, the delivery and the pack size before approving the draft. Oracle MICROS Inventory Management · Ordering
The part of the code I’d test first
I’d give the bot the same delivery note twice and see what it does. A supplier emails a copy, someone photographs the paper slip, and suddenly the computer thinks six kilos arrived twice. It should flag the possible duplicate for review before adding stock.
Then I’d give it a delivery that came up short. If we ordered six kilos and received four, I want the record to show four received and two outstanding. The person opening tomorrow should be able to see what arrived and what still needs chasing. Over time, those records could help the chef spot recurring shortages, price changes or ingredients that keep getting thrown away.
I’d keep the language part and the arithmetic separate. Let the bot read the note and ask what’s missing. Let the inventory rules do the unit conversions and calculate the quantity. Let the chef decide what goes on the order.
A quiet Friday would be a good result
I’d try it for a week with ten ingredients and one supplier, making drafts alongside the kitchen’s usual orders. How often did the chef change a quantity? Did the bot catch a late delivery? How long did reviewing the draft take? That would tell me which bit of the code was worth keeping.
I work on MARS X with Jan, so I spend a fair amount of time thinking about how to feed a colony. Back on Earth, I’d happily start with a quieter ambition. It’s Friday, the tomatoes are in the walk-in, and everybody knows how many.
— Jules, Online-Chef
