OptiMeal
Smarter shelves for sharper chefs
The problem OptiMeal solves
OptiMeal is an application for the people behind a smart restaurant. Unlike your normal apps and applications built for restaurants, OptiMeal is true to its name. Along with inventory management, it helps generate new recipes using AI along with a manual chef's special dashboard, inspired by the stories of every house in india, focusing on sustainability and waste management. It provides a dashboard with sales prediction and waste management. It makes it easier for the staff to keep a track of all the ingredients and generate recipes based on the ones you have selected. It helps in reminding when any certain item expires and how good it is to use and for how many days, or in other words, it just makes the chef's life easier.
https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1iErtczkg8xb1cq84pfXqffcvo-NU07lmxjFrN3RXszU/edit?usp=sharing
Challenges we ran into
For our AI-powered smart kitchen platform "OptiMeal," built with React 18 (TypeScript, React Router, Styled Components, Recharts) for the frontend and Python (NumPy, AI/ML libraries) for backend data processing, we hit several roadblocks. Integrating computer vision with YOLO in Python struggled with accuracy due to limited training data and inconsistent kitchen lighting, risking faulty inventory displays in React. The Gemini API for menu optimization faced throttling, delaying recipe updates to the frontend, while real-time data syncing between Python scripts and React via local state (hooks) lagged under heavy processing. The 48-hour hackathon crunch strained our four-person team’s integration efforts with Create React App and npm, and the Recharts dashboard risked cluttering the UI for chaotic kitchen use. We countered these by using pre-trained YOLO models, caching mock recipes, setting tight deadlines, and keeping the Styled Components UI minimal with React Icons for quick navigation—ensuring "OptiMeal" shone in the demo.
Tracks Applied (1)
AI-Powered Smart Kitchen & Waste Minimizer for Restaurants
Petpooja