Chefmath

Thinking about an amazing recipe you wanted to try with your partner or with friends:

Have you ever forgotten to buy an ingredient for your recipe?
Have you ever forgotten to use an ingredient and realize that when it was too late to add it?
Have you ever made some trivial mistakes when recalculating the quantities of ingredients for the servings you needed?

We did! Chefmath for Android™ is useful in managing these aspects of cooking and others, and will help us making our recipes just... perfect!

Adding a pinch of math

There are plenty of cooking resources in internet and most of them are worth trying. But often the ingredients are for 4 servings and you want to try the result by yourself before sharing the dish with friends. Or you are planning a party and need 20 servings. Chefmath computes the correct amount of each ingredient for you. Just select the original number of servings, the desired one, fill the list and get the result. And if you run into basic foreign measurement units, Chefmath can convert them for you.

From the shopping cart to the pot

When the math is done Chefmath can help you checking what ingredients you need to buy and be a very easy shopping list while you are at the market. You will never forget to buy ingredients: no more last-second rush for shop. With the same intuitive interface Chefmath will help you remembering to use all the ingredients you need. The very important spice for your new dish will no more stay unnoticed under the eggshells. You will notice that everything is in place at a glance. Green light for the chef.

Definition page

Shopping list

Cooking list

Proof of concept

In developing this application we decided to follow an innovative approach that has to be language independent. Chefmath is an app without words. All the indications and actions are represented using symbols and icons only. The only, necessary, words of the app (i.e. the names of the ingredients) are written by you in your preferred language.

It is not easy to choose sysmbols that have the same specific meaning in different cultures. We choose symbols taken from the visual language of internet, standard user interfaces, international measurement units and street color code. We slightly differenciate active buttons from icons, we use dialogs to catch your attention and we always use a secondary code beside colors to help color blind people. We are not sure to have hit the nail on the head, thus we need your feedback! But do not worry, nothing very bad could happen to you with Chefmath: just try using it as your intuition suggests you.

In the next versions of Chefmath we will try to stress this concept even more. Stay tuned!

Get Chefmath

You can download Chefmath from Google Play™. It's for free!

Please do not forget to rate Chefmath and to let us know what you think about it.

Feedback

Chefmath is continuously under development. If you find a bug please let us know so we will fix it and everybody will enjoy a better experience. In addition to the description of the problem be sure to include all relevant information, such as the model of your device, the version of Android and, in case of graphical issues, the screen resolution.

As explained in Proof of concept, we designed Chefmath to be language independent. If an icon that we have chosen is not meaningful to you, or its meaning is clearly different, please let us know, in particular if there are cultural reasons for the misinterpretation. We will remain faithful to our design strategy, thus please do not say that you prefere words but, if possible, explain us how you would express the idea using a different graphics.

If you are looking for new features, let us know what you miss in Chefmath. However we are delighted to announce that ChefmathPro is on its way, with a lot of new functionalities and improvements. We will keep you posted!

Please contact us at chefmath@sharpsideoftech.com.

Screenshots

Definition page on Android 2.1 screenshot

Landscape definition page on Android 2.1 screenshot

$Landscape fraction help screenshot$

Faq

Why do you call the app Chefmath?
In Chefmath we use fractions, GCDs, proportions, conversions and rounding. Beside molecular gastronomy and chemical analysis we think that this is all the math you can find while cooking. Thus the name.

I made a big cake for 30 servings and it was really bad. Why?
Math is important in cooking, but it is not enough. Some ingredients, such as spices, do not scale well. Some recipes (i.e. pastry-making) have to be followed scrupulously. Chefmath is an aid, but the art is in the chef :).

I disagree with your conversion ratios and/or your definition of cup/teaspoon/tablespoon, will you change them?
If you find a real mistake in our data please let us know and we will fix it. Keep in mind that Chefmath is simply an aid and does not replace professional tools. Measurements and conversions are approximate thus suitable for domestic use only.

Is Chefmath available for iPhone and iPad?
Unfortunately the answer is no. We are aimed at Android for now but we will release Chefmath for other platforms if the request will be adequate. So keep asking!

Credits

Chefmath and this website have been built using Eclipse, Inkscape, GIMP, darktable, Argyll CMS, dispcalGUI and Bluefish on Ubuntu. This website is based on a template design by andreasviklund.com.

Android and Google Play Are trademarks of Google Inc. The Android robot is reproduced or modified from work created and shared by Google and used according to terms described in the Creative Commons 3.0 Attribution License.

The font used in the opening image is Sansumi by Manfred Klein.