A 7-person joint family. Three diet types. Six days of Paryushan. One whiteboard that nobody updated.
That was our kitchen, every week.
The whiteboard problem
We tried a whiteboard. It worked for two weeks. Then someone wiped it accidentally. Then someone wrote in a different color. Then nobody trusted it.
We tried a Google Sheet. Worked better — but the cook didn't open Google Sheets on her phone. The grandparents didn't see it.
We tried a WhatsApp group. Predictably became a graveyard of "what for dinner?" messages.
The real problem wasn't the tool. It was that none of these tools understood our kitchen.
What we wanted
- Knows what "strict Jain" means
- Knows Aarav can't eat peanuts
- Knows Paryushan starts Friday
- Auto-scales the shopping list to actual headcount
- Shared across cook, family, and elders
- Doesn't lie about what we cooked last week
We couldn't find it. So we're building it.
What MealOrbit is today
Six modules, in production, free during beta:
1. Recipe library with Jain compliance levels + substitutions 2. Weekly schedule with frozen plan history 3. Kitchen day view for the cook, shared with everyone 4. Shopping list with CSV/DOCX/PDF exports 5. Members + restrictions for allergies and observances 6. Roles + permissions so the right people see the right pages
What's next
Specific + override entries (so Kid1 can have pasta when the family has khichdi). Tithi calendar overlay. Mobile apps. Hindi + Gujarati.
Try the beta. Tell us what's broken.