Import your recipes
Turn a recipe spreadsheet or PDF into draft recipes in one go, then finish them in the app.
If your recipes already live in a costing sheet or a PDF, import the whole file instead of typing them one by one.
Open the importer
Tap the camera button, then Import a brand. The screen is headed Rip a whole brand.
Choose the brand
Under Which brand?, pick one of your own brands, or type a name under …or name a new brand. Every recipe in the file goes into this brand.
Choose the file
Tap Choose a file to rip and pick your file. ChefAdmin accepts .xlsx, .xls, .csv and .pdf. Reading the file does not use your AI allowance.
Review and finish
You land on Finish your rip, with a count of how many recipes are ready.
Finish your rip
The review screen splits what it found into Menu Items and Sub Recipes. Each recipe shows whether it is complete or needs finishing.
- Move recipes between sections. Tick the ones in the wrong place and tap Move to Sub Recipes or Move to Menu Items.
- Fill the gaps. Tap Let me help: methods, allergens & macros to fill in what it can across all the recipes. It tells you how many are now complete and how many still need a look.
- Finish by hand. Tap a recipe to open it and complete it.
- Approve. When a recipe is complete, tap Approve.
When everything is complete, you will see Brand ready to promote. Finish on the desktop. Promoting puts the recipes into a live kitchen and needs the plan. See Engineering.
You can leave and come back. Unfinished imports stay on the Hub under Finish your rip.
The free plan and imports
Imported recipes count towards the free 10. If your file has more, the first 10 land and the rest wait. Upgrade to and import the file again: the rest come in, and recipes you already have are skipped.
Getting a good import
One recipe per block or sheet, with a clear recipe name, then ingredient rows with a quantity and a unit. Sheets with a weight column work better than baker's percentages. Totals rows are ignored.
If several recipes sit one under another on the same sheet with no gap or heading between them, they can be read as one. Put each recipe on its own sheet, or add a blank row and a name above each one, and import again.
Use the tick boxes on the review screen to move dishes to Menu Items in one go.
Draft brands you created can be removed from the importer: tap the × on the brand and confirm Delete brand. This removes the brand and its draft recipes. Live brands cannot be deleted.