WordPress Plugin for Restaurants

What do you get when you cross a chef with a computer-guy?

"A menu of only app-etizers."

But, if you whisk in a Kitchen and Business Manager; carefully fold in an AI agent, and you get...

Salamander Restaurant Costing.

Built by people who've worked the line, managed the books, and coded the backend. Not another app from someone who thinks a salamander is just a broiler.

Salamander Restaurant Costing is a true Salamander. Salamanders:

are 🦎 Regenerative — Salamander Restaurant Costing catches cost leaks before they bleed you dry
are 🦎 Amphibious — Salamander Restaurant Costing works on the kitchen floor and in the office
have 🦎 Keen eyesight — Salamander Restaurant Costing spots low stock and bad margins before they hurt
are 🦎 Resilient — Salamander Restaurant Costing handles errors gracefully, never loses your data
are an 🦎 Indicator species — Salamander Restaurant Costing tells you the true health of your restaurant

Why Choose Salamander

Most costing apps are built by developers who've never washed a dish. They make assumptions. They guess at workflows. They think "86" is just a number. Salamander Restaurant Costing was not.

We didn't guess.

Salamander Restaurant Costing was born in a real kitchen, by someone who's done the math on a napkin at 11 PM on a Friday. Every feature comes from a real problem — the kind you only know if you've been there.

Then we added a Generous Amount of IT know-how, decades of Business Management and an AI agent that never forgets a food cost formula.

The Difference

Built For Restaurants,
Not Just Written About Them

Other Apps

Salamander Restaurant Costing

✗ Salamander = just a broiler. Single-use tool.

✓ Salamander = adaptable, resilient, regenerative. Like the lizard.

✗ One-size-fits-none pricing tiers

✓ One plugin, full feature set, no upselling

✗ Assumes you use imperial or metric

✓ Handles grams, millilitres, each — same as your walk-in

✗ Nutrition? Maybe. If you pay extra.

✓ 15 built-in nutrition fields. Included.

✗ No supplier workflow

✓ Supplier directory + email orders from one screen

✗ Inventory is an afterthought

✓ Inventory that works as supplier orders + prep lists

✗ You adapt to their workflow

✓ Adapts to yours. Because we've done yours.

The Promise

Why Salamander Restaurant Costing

The way software used to be — before everything became a subscription.

🔑

Buy It. Own It.

No subscription. No monthly fee. You buy it, you own it — just like the old days. Support and update services available separately.

🔒

Your Data. Your Server.

Runs on your own WordPress site. No datacenter scraping your recipes to train AI models or adjust prices against you.

🤖

Built With AI, Not By AI

AI was a tool in the build process, not the architect. Your data never leaves your server to train someone else's model.

🛡️

Lock Down Your WP Admin

RC accounts keep users in Salamander Restaurant Costing only — they can't wander into your WordPress admin and break things. Non-IT friendly.

📋

Inventory = Prep List

Your inventory doubles as your prep list. Printable and emailable — send it to the kitchen or your supplier in seconds.

🏷️

Brand Your Docs

Add your restaurant logo to printed recipes, prep lists, and order sheets. Professional documentation that looks like you.

Everything You Need

Built for Kitchens & Spreadsheets

From ingredient library to supplier order — one plugin replaces your costing spreadsheets and notebooks.

📦

Ingredient Library

700+ pre-loaded ingredients with cost, weight, package size, and full nutrition data. Add, edit, import, and export with ease.

📝

Recipe Builder

Two-column layout with autocomplete ingredient search, live cost and nutrition per portion. Scale recipes and print with one click.

💰

Costing & Margins

Real-time food cost %, gross margin, and prep labour cost per portion. Know your profitability before the plate hits the table.

🥗

Full Nutrition Data

15 nutrition fields per ingredient — calories, protein, fat, carbs, fiber, sodium, cholesterol, vitamins, minerals, and more.

📋

Inventory Management

Two interfaces: mobile-friendly Working Environment for floor counts, plus full Administrative dashboard. Doubles as a supplier order system and a prep list generator — printable and emailable.

🖨️

Print & Order

Supplier-grouped print layouts, per-supplier email orders, prep lists, and recipe sheets. Low stock highlighting keeps you ahead.

Deep Dive

More Than A Costing Tool

Designed for real restaurant workflows — from back-of-house to back office.

Sub-Recipes & Prep Labour

Turn any recipe into a sub-ingredient with auto-mirrored cost and weight. Track prep labour with stacked task cards, minute-level timing, and labour rates.

Sub-recipe mirroring — create, update, rename, delete automatically
Prep labour cost per portion calculated in real-time
Works with any labour rate per recipe

👨‍🍳

Supplier Directory

Manage your full supplier list with contact info, email orders toggle, and inline add/edit from ingredient modals.

Full CRUD — add, edit, delete suppliers
Email orders directly from the order modal
CSV export for your records
Group inventory items by supplier for easy ordering

📇

Data You Control

Full CSV import/export, database backup and restore, and a searchable, filterable interface across every module.

Upload foodmaster.csv to replace the ingredient library
Export ingredients with or without sub-recipes
One-click database backup as .sql.gz
Restore from backup with automatic table prefix rewriting

💾

Flexible User Access

Three built-in roles so everyone sees what they need.

👑

Admin

Full control — settings, users, data deletion, backups. Everything.

⚙️

Manager

View and edit ingredients, recipes, inventory. Run reports and print orders.

👤

User

Read-only access to recipes and ingredients. Limited inventory entry.

⚙️ Settings You'll Actually Use

Restaurant info & logo via WP Media Library
Light / Dark theme toggle
Hide nutrition globally
Manage Areas, Menu Types, Users — all from one Settings page
Demo mode for testing (50 ingredient / 10 recipe cap)

🔒 Security Built In

Three-tier capability-based permissions
All handlers wrapped in try/catch error handling
Role self-escalation prevention
Strict type checking throughout
Defense-in-depth across all admin pages

See How We're Different

Frequently Asked Questions

Who is this plugin for?

Restaurant owners, chefs, kitchen managers, and food business operators who want to track food costs, build standardized recipes, manage inventory, and order supplies — all in one place.

Does it work with my existing WordPress theme?

Yes. Salamander Restaurant Costing runs inside your WP admin area with its own full interface — it doesn't change your public-facing site at all. Works with any theme including Divi, Astra, GeneratePress, and more.

Can I import my existing ingredient data?

Absolutely. You can upload a foodmaster.csv to replace the default library, re-import with skip-existing mode, or download a template CSV for bulk additions. You can also export all ingredient data at any time.

How does nutrition data work?

Each ingredient stores 15 nutrition fields. When you build a recipe, nutrition is calculated live per portion. If any ingredient is missing nutrition data, a bold red warning appears so you know the numbers may not be accurate.

Is there a demo or trial?

Yes — the plugin includes a demo mode with limits (50 ingredients / 10 recipes) so you can test-drive every feature before committing. Contact us for a full demo walkthrough.

What about multi-location or POS integration?

The core plugin handles single-location costing today. POS import tables are already in the schema for a future add-on module that will connect sales data to your costing pipeline.