Desktop Food Cost

A professional cross-platform recipe costing and menu management application for restaurants, built with Avalonia UI and .NET 8.

Download

Platform	Download	Notes
Windows (Installer)	Download .exe	Recommended - includes auto VC++ runtime
Windows (Portable)	Download .zip	No install required - extract and run
macOS (Intel)	Download .zip	Untested - should work*
macOS (Apple Silicon)	Download .zip	Untested - should work*
Linux (x64)	Download .zip	Untested - should work*

*macOS and Linux builds are generated automatically but have not been tested as we don't have access to those platforms. The code is cross-platform Avalonia UI and should work. Please report any issues!

Overview

Desktop Food Cost helps restaurant owners, chefs, and kitchen managers calculate accurate food costs, manage recipes, and make data-driven menu pricing decisions. The application runs entirely locally with multi-location support, making it ideal for managing multiple restaurants or kitchen operations.

Key Features

Recipe & Menu Management

• Recipe Builder: Create recipes with ingredients, sub-recipes, portions, and step-by-step instructions
• Entree Costing: Build complete menu items from recipes and ingredients with automatic cost rollup
• Photo Gallery: Attach photos to recipes and entrees for visual reference
• Version Control: Track recipe changes over time with full version history

Cost Analysis

• Real-Time Costing: Automatic cost calculation as you build recipes
• Price History: Track ingredient price changes over time
• Cost Trends: Visualize cost fluctuations with trend analysis charts
• Profit Margins: Set target margins and get pricing recommendations

Multi-Location Support

• Location Management: Create and manage multiple restaurant locations
• Location Switching: Quick switch between locations from the header
• Isolated Data: Each location maintains its own ingredients, recipes, and pricing
• Bulk Operations: Import/export data between locations

Data Management

• Excel Import: Bulk import ingredients from Excel spreadsheets
• Excel Export: Export recipes, entrees, and cost reports
• Backup & Restore: Automatic and manual database backups
• Recycle Bin: Recover accidentally deleted items

Additional Features

• Nutritional Data: USDA FoodData Central integration for automatic nutritional info
• Allergen Tracking: Comprehensive allergen management and warnings
• Unit Conversions: Intelligent unit conversion system (weight, volume, each)
• Shopping Lists: Generate shopping lists from recipes and entrees
• Portion Calculator: Scale recipes up or down with automatic recalculation

Screenshots

Screenshots coming soon

Technology Stack

Component	Technology
Framework	.NET 8
UI	Avalonia UI 11.x (cross-platform XAML)
Database	SQLite with Entity Framework Core
Architecture	MVVM with CommunityToolkit.Mvvm
DI Container	Microsoft.Extensions.DependencyInjection
Image Processing	SkiaSharp

Project Structure

dfc/
├── dfc.core/           # Core business logic, services, and interfaces
│   ├── Constants/      # Application constants
│   ├── Enums/          # Enumeration types
│   ├── Helpers/        # Utility classes
│   ├── Interfaces/     # Service interfaces
│   ├── Models/         # Domain models
│   └── Services/       # Business logic services
│
├── dfc.data/           # Data access layer
│   ├── LocalDatabase/  # SQLite DbContext and configuration
│   ├── Migrations/     # EF Core migrations
│   ├── Repositories/   # Repository implementations
│   └── Services/       # Data-specific services
│
├── dfc.desktop/        # Avalonia desktop application
│   ├── Assets/         # Images, icons, and resources
│   ├── Controls/       # Custom UI controls
│   ├── Converters/     # XAML value converters
│   ├── Models/         # View-specific models
│   ├── Services/       # Desktop-specific services
│   ├── ViewModels/     # MVVM ViewModels
│   └── Views/          # AXAML views and windows
│
├── dfc.tests/          # Unit and integration tests
└── installer/          # Inno Setup installer scripts

Getting Started

Prerequisites

• .NET 8 SDK
• Visual Studio 2022, JetBrains Rider, or VS Code with C# extension

Build

# Clone the repository
git clone https://github.com/brobata/desktop-foodcost.git
cd desktop-foodcost

# Restore dependencies
dotnet restore

# Build the solution
dotnet build

Run

dotnet run --project dfc.desktop

Publish

# Windows (self-contained)
dotnet publish dfc.desktop -c Release -r win-x64 --self-contained -o ./publish/win-x64

# macOS (self-contained)
dotnet publish dfc.desktop -c Release -r osx-x64 --self-contained -o ./publish/osx-x64

# Linux (self-contained)
dotnet publish dfc.desktop -c Release -r linux-x64 --self-contained -o ./publish/linux-x64

Configuration

Optional: USDA API Key

For automatic nutritional data lookup, obtain a free API key from USDA FoodData Central.

Set the environment variable:

export USDA_API_KEY=your_api_key_here

Or add it to your .env file in the application directory.

Database

Desktop Food Cost uses SQLite for local data storage. The database is created automatically on first run at:

• Windows: %APPDATA%\Desktop Food Cost\dfc.db
• macOS: ~/Library/Application Support/Desktop Food Cost/dfc.db
• Linux: ~/.local/share/Desktop Food Cost/dfc.db

Backups

Automatic backups are created daily in the Backups subdirectory. You can also create manual backups from Settings > Backup & Restore.

Contributing

Contributions are welcome! Please see CONTRIBUTING.md for guidelines.

Roadmap

• Cloud sync option (Supabase backend)
• Mobile companion app
• Menu engineering analytics
• Vendor price comparison
• Inventory management integration
• Multi-language support

License

This project is licensed under the MIT License - see the LICENSE file for details.

Author

Brobata - brobata.com

Acknowledgments

• Avalonia UI - Cross-platform .NET UI framework
• USDA FoodData Central - Nutritional data API
• CommunityToolkit.Mvvm - MVVM toolkit