Menu Optimizer — Cost & Margin Management SaaS for Food Professionals

Overview

Menu Optimizer is a SaaS platform designed to help food service professionals — starting with a pastry business — gain full visibility over their product costs and profit margins.
The goal was to replace spreadsheet-based workflows with a clean, real-time tool that makes pricing decisions faster and more accurate.

Beyond development, I worked closely with the client to scope features iteratively, translating business needs into technical requirements and shipping updates based on direct feedback.

Key Features

• Ingredient & Recipe Cost Tracking
  Manage ingredients with unit prices and quantities, then compose recipes to automatically compute production costs.

• Margin Calculation & Pricing Insights
  Visualize margins per product in real time, helping professionals set competitive prices while protecting profitability.

• Iterative Feature Development
  Worked as an embedded technical partner, gathering feedback directly from the end user and shipping tailored features across multiple iterations.

• Authentication & Multi-User Support
  Secured access with Supabase Auth, enabling future scalability to multiple businesses.

Technologies Used

• React, Next.js, TypeScript
• Supabase (Database, Auth, Real-time)
• Vercel (Deployment & Hosting)
• Tailwind CSS

Challenges and Learnings

A key challenge was designing a data model flexible enough to handle varied recipe structures while keeping the UI simple and intuitive for non-technical users.
Working directly with the client reinforced the importance of short feedback loops and shipping incrementally rather than building in isolation.

Outcome

The platform replaced manual cost tracking and gave the client immediate visibility over margins, enabling faster and more confident pricing decisions.
The architecture supports onboarding additional businesses with minimal changes.