Upload your recipes to Claude to scale ingredients and pack lists for each cooking class, and reframe your programs for each audience
Melanie Underwood, Westchester-based culinary educator and chef who runs her cooking company Nourish & Gather solo, in Business Insider
She uploads her recipes to Claude, tells it the number of participants, and has it multiply the ingredients and list the equipment she needs to bring. She asked Claude to reframe her nutrition program with a more data-driven lens for a corporate group of eight men, and double-checks any studies it cites. When an Instagram Reel brought 30 DMs in one day, she used AI to plan the framework for a new six-month virtual program for parents.
Claude $17/mo billed annually ($20 monthly) (Pro); the free plan also handles small uploads
Easy · or we set it up for $197
Claude
The problem
Running a solo cooking company means rewriting ingredient amounts and equipment lists for every class size, and adapting the same program for very different groups.
What happened
She says scaling recipes in Claude means she isn't sitting and writing all of it out, and the program she planned from the Reel has become a core part of her business, per Business Insider. No time figures. Self-reported.
Quoted in the source: Melanie Underwood, chef and founder, Nourish & Gather. Source: Business Insider: Two chefs running solo companies tap AI for operational help (2026-04-29) · Added 2026-10-27.
How to set it up yourself
- What Nourish & Gather uses: Claude, for scaling recipes and pack lists, reframing program materials for each audience and planning a new program.
- In Claude, create a project for your classes and upload your recipes as documents.
- Before each class, paste the prompt below with the headcount and any dietary notes, then check the quantities against one recipe you know well.
- For a new audience (a corporate group, kids, a parents' program), ask Claude to rewrite your standard materials for that group, and check any study or statistic it cites before you use it, as Underwood does.
Copy-paste prompt
I teach {CLASS TYPE} cooking classes. Using the attached recipes {RECIPE NAMES}, scale every ingredient for {NUMBER} participants working in {NUMBER} stations. Give me: 1) a shopping list grouped by store section with quantities rounded to what I can buy, 2) a pack list of equipment and tools per station plus what I bring for the demo, 3) any recipe step that changes at this size (pan sizes, cooking times). Dietary notes for this group: {NOTES}. Flag anything you had to assume.We set up one AI automation in your tools, live within 48 hours of getting access, for $197. No call needed. Founding price for our first 10 customers (regular $297).
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Tools used
Claude
AI assistant for writing, long documents, analysis and coding help.
From $17/mo billed annually ($20 monthly) (checked 2026-10-30)
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Checked prices: Claude: from $17/mo billed annually ($20 monthly) (verified 2026-10-30)
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