CentralChef connects your ingredients, recipes, prep tasks, timers, and analytics into a single integrated system. Everything talks to everything else. Stop losing money to guesswork.
Lock in 30% off your first 12 months — founder pre-order pricing available now.
CentralChef runs on any browser or tablet you already own. But the real value kicks in when the hardware goes on the wall. Start with one screen. Add more as you grow. Every device syncs to the same system in real time — no limits, no extra config. Once it’s mounted and part of the daily routine, it stops being software and starts being infrastructure.
A commercial-grade wall-mounted display that replaces the whiteboard permanently. Pre-configured for your venue before it ships. Plug it into your Wi-Fi and it’s live. Nothing to install, nothing to set up on site.
A separate wall-mounted device that lives near the kitchen pass. Every timer has a name. Every alert is distinct. Staff know what finished without having to look up from what they’re doing. No shared phones, no guessing, no missed alarms. Got a big kitchen with multiple stations? Add a console to each one. They all run from the same system.
Most cafes run a POS for sales, a whiteboard for prep, a clipboard for temp checks, timers on every metal surface, and a spreadsheet for costing. None of it connects. You can’t see whether your recipe cost has changed, whether the task was actually completed, whether the right amount was made, or who made it. CentralChef replaces all of that with one integrated system where every layer talks to the one above and below it.
This isn’t a bundle of separate tools. Each layer of CentralChef is designed to make the others more useful. The data flows in one direction and compounds over time.
The foundation. Every ingredient lives in the system with its current supplier cost, unit, and category. Upload a supplier invoice as a photo or PDF and the system pulls the details automatically, tracks price changes over time, and alerts you when something has moved.
Recipes pull their costs directly from ingredients. Change a supplier price and every recipe that uses that ingredient updates immediately. Staff can pull up the full recipe on the PrepBoard screen with a single tap while they’re working. No printing, no laminating, no hunting for the folder.
Staff log prep tasks on a wall-mounted touchscreen. They record who made it, how many units, and how long it took. Timers track idle time within a task — so you can see the difference between active prep time and waiting-around time. That task-level time data averages across every run to give you real labour benchmarks per dish.
Because prep tasks are tracked with time, quantity, and staff attribution, the analytics layer can answer questions no whiteboard ever could. How long does the Satay Tofu Bowl actually take? Is one staff member consistently faster or slower? Are we making more on Tuesdays or less? What did wastage cost us this month versus last?
This isn’t a report you generate once a month. It updates in real time, from wherever you are, on any device.
A kitchen that gets measurably better over time. Not because you worked harder, but because you finally have the data to see what’s actually happening.
Getting ingredients and recipes into the system is usually the friction point. Chef Intelligence removes it. Upload a supplier invoice as a photo or PDF and it extracts the product details automatically. Upload a recipe the same way and it recognises the ingredients, matches them to what’s already in your system, and converts everything to grams for accurate costing.
Send invoices over time and it tracks price changes for you, alerting you when something has moved. Your recipe costs update automatically. You’re never caught repricing a menu item two months after the ingredient got more expensive.
No per-seat fees. No lock-in. Cancel anytime. Pre-order now to lock in 30% off your first 12 months — no charge until your hardware ships.
The software gives you the system. The Performance Program gives you a strategist who reads what that system is telling you and helps you act on it every week.
The core software gives you operational control. The Performance Program layers sales data, interpretation, and ongoing advisory on top. The result is a kitchen that doesn’t just run better, it makes better margin decisions.
This system is optimised for operations. Advanced profitability modelling is part of our Performance Program.
No. CentralChef runs in any modern browser, so any iPad, Android tablet, or touchscreen you already own will work. We offer hardware bundles for venues that want a turnkey wall-mounted setup — but the software works without it.
That’s the whole design philosophy. Big buttons, one-tap actions, no passwords to remember, no training videos to watch. Buttons are large enough to tap with flour-covered fingers. Sounds cut through kitchen noise. If your staff can use a phone, they can use CentralChef.
Less than an hour for a single venue. We include a 30-minute video call with every plan to walk you through initial configuration. Most kitchens are fully running on day one.
PrepBoard caches everything locally and syncs back when the connection returns. Staff can keep logging through an outage and nothing gets lost. The kitchen doesn’t stop because the internet does.
A POS handles transactions. CentralChef handles the operations behind the transactions — the prep, the timers, the checklists, the accountability. The two complement each other. CentralChef is for what happens before the customer walks in.
Your data belongs to you. We don’t sell it, share it, or use it to train anything. Stored on Australian-region servers. Export anytime.
Anytime, no penalty. If you’re on a hardware plan, the display is yours to keep after 24 months of subscription.