Menu website a recipe for start-up success

Coles recently came under fire for promoting meal ideas that the company claimed would “feed your family for under $10”.

The campaign proved to be highly misleading, with key ingredients not included in the cost, earning Coles a Choice Shonky Award.

In this day and age, it can be hard to find food ideas to suit your family, budget and timeframe.

Imagine finding a recipe tailored to satisfy your taste buds that also takes into account any allergies and dislikes. It’s a novel concept, and it shouldn’t require your mum doing the cooking. An online recipe search site, Yummly, allows users to customise searches based on ingredients, dietary restrictions, allergies, price, cooking time and cuisine.

What makes Yummly so useful is its ability to intuit users’ tastes based on previous searches – it’s like having your very own chef who knows what you want.

The more details you provide, the more knowledge Yummly gains of your food preferences. Sure, you could enter ingredients into Google to search for a recipe, but Google isn’t going to know about that peanut allergy.

This is a perfect start-up idea for someone who loves food and values stress-free cooking. You could take the concept to various venues – such as schools, daycare centres and retirement homes – and do the work for them for a competitive price.