Managing meals and menus.

• Author: Beck, Cathie
• Position: Hightech Coloradobiz

BOULDER'S CULINARY SOFTWARE

Services, Inc. -- a software company directly responsible for telling Whole Foods Market whether it is out of melons or macadamia nuts -- didn't plan to marry technology to taste buds, but that's the way its story goes.

"My experience has always been in the software industry," says CSS's president, Brian Bennett. "Early in 1990 I was approached by a chef who trained at Johnson & Wales and he asked if it was possible to create software for chefs.

"After several months of initial research," he says, "we saw the perfect fit, and founded CSS in order to create state-of-the art software for the professional chef.

At the time there were one or two companies that had created some food-service software, but it was difficult to use and lacked functionality."

CSS's ChefTec[TM], CorTec[TM] and BevTec[TM] software assumes many of the gargantuan and sometimes tedious responsibilities of inventory control, recipe and menu costing, and nutritional analysis for the food-service industry.

Marriott International Hotels, Charlie Trotter's, Dean & Deluca, and The Art Institute of New York City are a few of CSS's clients. "We started with the premise that the software had to be very powerful yet very easy to use," says Bennett. "And all the feedback we have is that it is."

CSS's most recent foray into food services involves up-and-coming gourmands. "We just paired up ChefTec Tutor, a CD-ROM supplement of ChefTec, with the educational publisher, John Wiley & Sons Inc.'s 'Professional Cooking,'" says CSS's marketing manager, Katie Palmer. 'Professional Cooking' is a big fat book full of...