studio.Start free

Food costing for kitchens that move

While you eat with your eyes, we eat with our calculators. Seriously. That’s what we do.

Price a menu in 20 seconds. Send a branded proposal in two taps. Run service from your phone. That’s the power of Studio by SERVD.

Start free — no credit cardSee it in action →
A plated dinner of teriyaki salmon roll, tempura shrimp, broccolini, and a couscous grain salad.

The cost of this plate

Every ingredient. Every price. Live.

  • Organic chicken thigh

    ~6 oz cooked

    $2.45

  • Tempura shrimp

    2 large shrimp

    $1.65

  • Tempura batter / oil

    coating + fry oil

    $0.20

  • Salmon cubes

    ~3 oz cooked

    $1.50

  • Sushi roll pieces

    3 pcs · fish, rice, nori

    $1.20

  • Broccolini

    ~3 oz

    $0.55

  • Couscous / grain salad

    ~1 cup

    $0.45

  • Sauces / glaze

    teriyaki, eel sauce

    $0.20

Total plate cost

Calculated in real time from your pricebook

$8.20

Already a SERVD chef? Studio is included free with your platform account. Open it now →

See it in action

Built for your phone. Because that’s where the kitchen is.

Four flows, four taps each. This isn’t a desktop tool with a mobile site — Studio was designed for the phone in your apron pocket.

Photo to costed menu in 20s

Snap a menu. We do the rest.

Photo of a printed menu, handwritten card, or PDF — Claude extracts every dish, infers proportions, matches your pricebook.

9:41100%

Recipe import

Heirloom Tomato Salad

starter · serves 4

7 exact1 fuzzy
  • Heirloom tomato3 largeExact
  • Burrata8 ozExact
  • Shallot1 smallExact
  • Basil1/4 cupExact
  • Olive oil2 tbspExact
  • Balsamic vinegar, aged1 tbspFuzzy
  • Flake salt1 tspExact
  • Black pepperto tasteExact

Your numbers, on the home screen

The dashboard you check every morning.

Stale prices, this week's events, last variance, market savings — at a glance the moment you open the app.

9:41100%

Food costing

Cost your menus.
Price them right.

Stale prices

0

All fresh

This week

3

Events to cost

Last variance

+2%

Halibut night

Market savings

$124

Vs market median

Upcoming · 3

  • Sat · Heirloom tomato tasting$128/g
  • Sun · Halibut & morels$165/g
  • Thu · Cookout for 12$72/g

Branded proposals, in two taps

What your client sees on their phone.

Mint a public page with your logo and brand color. Multi-tier pricing. Client picks one, taps "I'm in", you're notified.

9:41100%

A proposal from Justin Williams · Denver

For Sarah.

October 14, 2026 · 8 guests

Sarah — so excited to cook for you. Two tier options below; either is a stunning night.

4 courses

8 guests

$125

6 courses

8 guests

$175

Tapping confirms interest. No payment yet.

Mise en place on prep day

AI builds your prep list. You tap through it.

The morning of, open the booking — Claude reads the menu and builds a tap-through checklist grouped by pickup / prep / cook / plate / cleanup.

9:41100%

Mise en place

Heirloom Summer Menu

Saturday · 8 guests

5 / 12 done~4h 20m total

Pickup · 1

  • ✓Halibut from Pacific Coast30m

Prep · 4

  • ✓Brunoise 2 shallots8m
  • ✓Chiffonade basil4m
  • ✓Marinate halibut, 1 hr5m
  • ✓Make tomato vinaigrette15m

Cook · 3

  • ✓Sear scallops12m
  • ✓Pan-roast halibut18m
Designed by chefs, for chefs
Live in 3 minutes — not 3 weeks
Your data, exportable forever
Free for SERVD chefs

The problem with every other tool

They were built for restaurants, not for how you actually shop.

Before Studio

Prices live in your head. Margin lives on a hunch.

  • Re-pricing every menu by hand
  • One spreadsheet per event, none of them current
  • Vendor invoices never reconciled with what you charged
  • Client quotes written in iMessage at 11pm
  • “I think we made money on that one”

After Studio

Every dish costed. Every margin known. Every quote signed.

  • Photo a menu → AI extracts every dish → costed in 20s
  • Pricebook follows you across every event, every vendor
  • Branded proposals to clients, with a tap-to-accept button
  • Mise en place generated for the day-of from your phone
  • Margin warned the moment a menu drops below your floor

~0s

From photo to costed menu

AI extract + match

0%

Average chef margin

Across 200+ costed events

0 mins

To your first costed menu

Onboarding wizard

$0

Forever, for SERVD chefs

Studio comes included

Chefs on Studio

Chefs say things they don’t say about other software.

Elena R.
“I priced a 6-course tasting menu in eight minutes that used to take me three hours of spreadsheet hell. I caught a margin leak on lamb the same night.”

Elena R.

Private chef · Denver

Marcus T.
“Studio paid for itself the day I sent my first proposal. The client picked the higher tier — and the brand color on the page sealed it.”

Marcus T.

Catering chef · Brooklyn

Priya S.
“Shopping list on my phone at the farmers market, offline. That alone made me cancel my old food cost software the same week.”

Priya S.

Chef-owner · Austin

The landscape

Cheaper than every alternative. And built for the way you actually work.

Most tools in this category are built for restaurants and charge per location. We’re built for the chef walking between kitchens — and we’re a fraction of the price.

Read the full competitive teardown →

SERVD StudioUs

$0–29 / mo

Free for SERVD chefs

  • Ingredient costing + pricebook✓
  • AI menu extract from a photo✓
  • Client-facing proposal pages✓
  • Multi-tier pricing per proposal✓
  • AI-generated mise en place✓
  • Market-price intelligence✓
  • Chat-with-your-numbers Q&A✓
  • Built for private chefs✓
  • Mobile-first / works in pocket✓

Meez

~$199 / mo

Recipe + costing for restaurants

  • Ingredient costing + pricebook✓
  • AI menu extract from a photo—
  • Client-facing proposal pages—
  • Multi-tier pricing per proposal—
  • AI-generated mise en place—
  • Market-price intelligence—
  • Chat-with-your-numbers Q&A—
  • Built for private chefs—
  • Mobile-first / works in pocket~

Restaurant365

~$469 / mo / loc

Full-stack restaurant ops

  • Ingredient costing + pricebook✓
  • AI menu extract from a photo—
  • Client-facing proposal pages—
  • Multi-tier pricing per proposal—
  • AI-generated mise en place—
  • Market-price intelligence—
  • Chat-with-your-numbers Q&A—
  • Built for private chefs—
  • Mobile-first / works in pocket—

Caterease

~$129 / mo

Catering CRM + BEOs

  • Ingredient costing + pricebook~
  • AI menu extract from a photo—
  • Client-facing proposal pages✓
  • Multi-tier pricing per proposal—
  • AI-generated mise en place—
  • Market-price intelligence—
  • Chat-with-your-numbers Q&A—
  • Built for private chefs~
  • Mobile-first / works in pocket~

Total Party Planner

~$99 / mo

Catering management

  • Ingredient costing + pricebook~
  • AI menu extract from a photo—
  • Client-facing proposal pages✓
  • Multi-tier pricing per proposal~
  • AI-generated mise en place—
  • Market-price intelligence—
  • Chat-with-your-numbers Q&A—
  • Built for private chefs~
  • Mobile-first / works in pocket~

7shifts

$0–35 / mo / loc

Scheduling + payroll (no costing)

  • Ingredient costing + pricebook—
  • AI menu extract from a photo—
  • Client-facing proposal pages—
  • Multi-tier pricing per proposal—
  • AI-generated mise en place—
  • Market-price intelligence—
  • Chat-with-your-numbers Q&A—
  • Built for private chefs—
  • Mobile-first / works in pocket✓

Reciprofity

~$99 / mo

Recipe costing for production

  • Ingredient costing + pricebook✓
  • AI menu extract from a photo—
  • Client-facing proposal pages—
  • Multi-tier pricing per proposal—
  • AI-generated mise en place—
  • Market-price intelligence—
  • Chat-with-your-numbers Q&A—
  • Built for private chefs~
  • Mobile-first / works in pocket~

Prices reflect public listings or commonly reported starting tiers as of 2025. Many of these tools have per-location minimums or feature-gated upgrades that raise the all-in cost. SERVD Studio is free forever for SERVD chefs; external pricing starts at $29/month with no per-location minimums.

Pricing

Start free. Scale honestly.

Solo

$29/mo

1 chef. Unlimited menus. Pricebook + costing.

KitchenPOPULAR

$79/mo

Up to 5 users. 1 location. Integrations.

Pro

$149/mo

Unlimited users + locations. Public API. Analytics.

Enterprise

Custom

White-label, custom integrations, data warehouse sync.

Already a SERVD chef? Studio is free for you forever. See the full breakdown →

Questions chefs ask

The answers, before you ask.

Is Studio actually free for SERVD chefs?
Yes. Every chef on the SERVD marketplace gets Studio at no cost, forever. We make our money on the marketplace side, not on chefs. If you're not on SERVD yet, you can still try Studio free for 14 days with no card.
How long does setup take?
About three minutes. Tell us your kitchen name, your primary market (Kroger / specialty / wholesale), your zip, and the vendors you actually shop at. You'll be costing a menu inside the same session.
I already use spreadsheets. Why switch?
Spreadsheets don't update when a vendor changes a price. Studio does. Spreadsheets don't catch stale ingredients, flag margin leaks, or mint a branded client proposal in 30 seconds. Studio does all three.
Can I import my existing recipes?
Yes. Paste a recipe, upload a PDF, or snap a photo — our AI extracts ingredients, quantities, and the most likely match in your pricebook. You confirm. Costing happens automatically.
Does it work offline at the farmers market?
Yes. Studio installs as a real app on your phone (no App Store). Shopping lists, prep checklists, and your pricebook all cache offline. You can update prices in the field and sync the second you're back on Wi-Fi.
Can my sous chef and team use it too?
Yes — team management is included on every paid tier. Invite by email, pick a role (Manager / Chef / Viewer), they accept and they're in. Solo chefs can ignore this entirely.
What happens to my data if I leave?
You export everything in CSV — pricebook, recipes, proposals, audit log — and walk. We don't trap your data. Read-only API access is on the Enterprise tier if you want a live integration.
Why are you cheaper than Meez?
Because we built this for one chef working out of one (or three) kitchens — not a restaurant chain with a corporate procurement team. Different product, different overhead, different price. See the comparison table above.

One more thing

Stop pricing menus by feel. Start pricing them by what they cost.

Three minutes of setup. No credit card. Studio is free forever for SERVD chefs and free to try for everyone else.

Start free — no credit cardSee pricing →