Chef Notepad began with a problem founder Guillaume Zika knew firsthand. After working in Michelin-starred restaurants across Europe, New York and Australia, he had spent years using spreadsheets to calculate food costs, store recipes and keep track of the information a kitchen depended on. He couldn’t find software that matched the way chefs actually worked, so he began creating it himself.
We worked with Guillaume across the full expression of the idea: brand strategy and identity, the product experience, the public website, investor materials and marketing campaigns. The challenge was to turn one chef’s practical solution into a coherent product and proposition without losing the industry knowledge that made it useful.
Food costs, recipes, stocktake and menu pricing are closely connected, but they were often managed through separate spreadsheets and manual processes. That made everyday administration slower, increased the chance of errors and made it harder to see what each dish was really costing.
We developed a product that could calculate recipes, manage food costs, simplify stocktake and support collaboration, but a list of features did not explain why any of it mattered. The stronger story was about helping chefs protect thin margins, reduce avoidable administration and make better decisions without taking them away from the kitchen.
We treated Guillaume’s firsthand experience as the organising principle for both the product and the brand. Chef Notepad would speak in the language of working kitchens and follow the relationships chefs already understood: ingredients shape recipes, recipes shape costs and costs shape menu decisions.
That thinking guided the product UI/UX. We worked on making complex information easier to enter, understand and use across recipe calculation, food-cost management and stocktake. The aim was to give chefs greater accuracy and visibility while keeping the experience grounded in the pace and practical demands of hospitality.
The identity, website and campaigns positioned Chef Notepad as a tool made from real kitchen experience rather than generic business software adapted for restaurants.
The product had to feel like it belonged in a working kitchen, not in a software sales deck.
The work brought the different parts of Chef Notepad into one coherent proposition. The software experience, identity, website, campaigns and investor story could now explain the same idea from different angles: helping chefs understand their numbers and manage essential kitchen information with less friction.
Across the engagement, we helped build, launch and develop the product. We supported its user and subscription journey, created campaigns to attract sign-ups, prepared materials for investor conversations and helped communicate the platform to chefs, hospitality businesses and groups in Australia and overseas.
Services
Brand Strategy, Brand Identity, Product UI/UX, Web Design and Development
Industry
Hospitality Technology, SaaS
Year
2019
Website
Visit siteIn their words
“I had a good idea of what I wanted to create but Adam brought it to the next level. He’s always willing to help and offer advice to help your business grow organically and efficiently.”
