Pantry & Preparation Lists: The Order the Venue Owns, Not One Person’s Memory
A pantry list is your venue’s regular order, written down — named lists like Monday Fruit & Veg or Grill Section, holding products from as many suppliers as you like, added to the cart in one tap. A preparation list does both jobs at once: say how many portions of each dish you are making, and it works out the ingredients that takes, what you still need to buy, and adds those ingredients straight to the cart.
- Named ordering lists that can span several suppliers at once
- Open a list, set quantities, add the lot to the cart
- Prep lists are recipes and ingredients: portions in, ingredients to buy out
- Every list belongs to the venue, so anyone on shift can run it
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The regular order exists — in somebody’s phone
The list lives with whoever usually orders, and leaves with them
Every week the same order is rebuilt from memory
A new starter has no idea what "the usual" is
Prep quantities are guessed, so you buy for the biggest possible night
Working out what to buy for Saturday is done on paper, badly
Sections order separately, so the same product arrives twice
Write the order down once, then run it
Build a list
Name it the way the kitchen talks — Monday Fruit & Veg, Grill Section, Alcohol — and add products to it from any of your suppliers. One list can hold several suppliers.
Run it when you order
Open the list, set the quantities for this week, and add it to the cart. The cart splits by supplier as normal, so one list can become three orders without you sorting them.
Prep in portions
A preparation list holds recipes as well as the products behind them. Pick the day, enter how many portions of each dish you are making, and it works out the ingredient requirement behind them.
Buy the difference
The prep list shows what you need to buy for those portions and adds it to the cart — a recipe at a time, or the whole list at once — with the projected cost, sales and profit shown alongside.
See how Open Pantry works for venues
Lists that cross suppliers, because kitchens do
A section does not order from one supplier — the grill needs meat, oil and paper. A pantry list holds products from as many suppliers as it needs, shows which suppliers are on it and how many items it carries, and still splits cleanly into one order per supplier when you send it.
- Several suppliers on a single list
- Item count and supplier logos on the list index
- Splits into a separate order per supplier at checkout
Prep lists are recipe planning and ingredient buying in one
A preparation list is built from your recipes, and it does not stop at the plan. Choose the day, say how many Steak Sandwiches and Caesar Salads you are making, and it turns that into the ingredients required, the quantity you still need to buy, and an order in the cart — so the same screen plans the service and buys for it.
- A tab per day across the week
- Portions to make against each recipe
- Ingredient requirement and need-to-buy worked out for you
- Add the ingredients to the cart from the same line
"Need to buy" is the number that matters
A prep list separates what the plan requires from what you actually have to order, and puts an add-to-cart against each recipe — or adds the whole list at once. It also carries the projected cost, sales and profit for what you are about to prep, so an expensive night is visible before it is bought.
- Need-to-buy shown per recipe
- Add one recipe or the entire list to the cart
- Projected cost, sales and profit for the day’s prep
The list belongs to the venue
Because the lists live in the venue’s account rather than a phone, the ordering stops depending on one person being rostered on. A sous chef can run Monday Fruit & Veg exactly as the head chef would, and the order that goes out looks the same either way.
- Anyone with access can run any list
- Lists survive staff turnover
- Exportable when someone wants it on paper
Fits how the kitchen already works
Venues that wrote the order down
Chefs Love Open Pantry
Thank you OPEN PANTRY, we used to have to use 6 apps to get access to ordering from our suppliers, the fact we can do it all in one has saved an incredible amount of time & effort! We love you!
We’ve been using Open Pantry for a few months now and it’s been an absolute lifesaver. We’re short staffed so being able to place all of our orders with all of our suppliers in the one spot is a massive help.
So glad this service exists. Has made it so easy for my manager & chefs to order & all payments are settled in one go. The recurring orders & pantry lists are amazing time savers!!
Why not just keep the list on the whiteboard?
A whiteboard cannot be ordered from, cannot be seen from home, and gets wiped. The list is the most valuable thing a kitchen has — it is the venue’s buying pattern — and it is usually the thing least written down. Putting it where the ordering happens means it survives a shift change.
Pantry and preparation lists — questions venues ask
What is a pantry list?＋
Can one pantry list include several suppliers?＋
What is the difference between a pantry list and a preparation list?＋
How does a prep list know what I need to buy?＋
Can I plan prep for the week ahead?＋
Does a prep list hold or reserve stock?＋
Can the whole team use the lists?＋
Do pantry lists cost anything?＋
Works even better with
Restaurant Ordering Platform
Every supplier in one place — where a list becomes an order.
Explore →Restaurant Inventory Management
On-hand balances and par levels, so the list starts from a number.
Explore →Recurring Orders
The third tab beside your lists — the same order, set to repeat on its own cycle.
Explore →Get the venue’s order out of one person’s head
Pantry lists come with ordering — free for restaurants and venues.
Free to order · Paid plans include a free trial · Cancel anytime