A full-stack culinary workspace for a working chef, combining recipe operations, exact food costing, print-ready kitchen sheets, SQLite persistence, LAN access, and a portable Windows release.
Machetamache is a complete local-first product built for a real chef. It centralizes recipes, ingredient prices, portion scaling, production notes, profitability, photos, printing, and backups without requiring a cloud subscription. I engineered the React interface, Express API, SQLite data model, network-safety controls, automated tests, legacy-phone fallbacks, and branded Windows packaging from end to end.
Culinary product for a working chef02 /Product experience
What the product does.
01Culinary Workflow2 capabilities
Recipe Library
Photos, search, filters, categories, favorites, archive, duplication, ordered steps, and production notes.
Portion Scaling
Non-destructive quantity scaling with the option to preserve the result as a recipe variation.
02Cost & Profit2 capabilities
Exact Food Costing
Ingredient price normalization, extra expenses, per-portion cost, revenue, profit, and margin calculations.
Sub-Recipes & Versions
Reusable preparations and version history support practical kitchen iteration.
03Kitchen Delivery2 capabilities
Print-Ready Sheets
Kitchen and price-free print modes produce useful handoff documents instead of browser screenshots.
Private Wi-Fi Access
The same cookbook opens on the Windows host and phones connected to its private network.
04Reliability2 capabilities
Backup & Restore
Full JSON export and restore protects the cookbook independently from the application package.
Portable Windows Package
A branded launcher, bundled runtime, visible control panel, and external app-data storage make deployment approachable.
03 /System design
How the pieces connect.
System workflow
Local-first cookbook ecosystem
Desktop and phone clients share one private-network application, one exact costing model, and one portable data store.
Kitchen product flow
Client devices
Windows browserDesktop recipe and costing workspace
Phone browserTouch workflow over private Wi-Fi
Private LAN
Application
React interfaceRecipes, ingredients, costing and print views
Express APIValidation, security and lifecycle controls
Read / write
Local data
SQLite cookbookRecipes, prices, versions and settings
JSON backupsPortable export and restore path
01One Cookbook, Two Device Classes
A React client on the Windows PC and private-network phones talks to one Express server. The server owns the SQLite database, static production bundle, security checks, and controlled shutdown behavior.
Browser clients
Responsive desktop and touch interfaces share the same culinary workflows.
Express server
Validates private hosts, same-origin mutations, API input, and lifecycle controls.
SQLite file
Lives under Windows app data so replacing the portable package does not remove recipes.
02Practical Local-First Distribution
The launcher discovers the current private IP, starts the server, opens the local browser, and shows the phone URL. Modern and legacy bundles, UUID fallback behavior, and an early preflight screen cover real private-HTTP phone constraints.
04 /In action
A closer look at the build.
Actual project screens and documented visuals. Open any image for the full view.
Windows browserDesktop recipe and costing workspace
Phone browserTouch workflow over private Wi-Fi
React interfaceRecipes, ingredients, costing and print views