This is where you design your menu and define how each dish is prepared.
Task Zone Guide
🥣 Food Prep: Tasks that can be done whenever there is a quiet moment. The system slots these into gaps in your schedule.
🎛️ Pre-Cook: Instant actions performed a set number of minutes before a dish starts cooking.
👨🍳 Mid-Cook: Actions required while the food is on the heat.
🔪 Post-Cook: Tasks performed one after another once the cooking ends, such as resting or carving.
This tab provides the chronological list of every action required to get your meal to the table.
Manage your kitchen's capacity and your saved data.
ThymeTable Full Instruction Manual
1. Meal Setup
This is where you design your menu and define how each dish is prepared.
- Meal Name: The title of your session (e.g. Sunday Roast). This appears at the top of your final plan.
- Serving Time: The exact time you want to eat, using the 24-hour clock.
- Serving Window: How many minutes you need to plate up and get food to the table. The system calculates the 'Ready to Serve' alert based on this number.
- Wait For (Dependencies): Use this to link dishes together. If the Gravy 'waits for' the Meat, the system ensures the gravy only starts after the meat has finished cooking.
- Jump To & Reset: Use the Jump To menu to quickly find a specific dish card. Use the Reset button to clear the current session and start again.
- Recall Meal & Dish Library: You can reload a previously saved full meal or add individual dishes from your library to the current setup.
2. Your ThymeTable (The Action Plan)
This tab provides the chronological list of every action required to get your meal to the table.
- ⏱️ Start Now: If you are ready to begin immediately, this button compares the current time to your plan and shifts your eating time so you can start the first task right now.
- Next Action Highlight: To keep you on track, the very next task you need to do is automatically highlighted with a teal border and a soft background.
- Completing Tasks: When you tick a checkbox, the task becomes grey and italicised. This allows you to track progress without hiding important information.
- Automated Oven Tasks: The system automatically tells you when to turn the oven on 10 minutes before it is needed. It also manages pre-heating if the oven has been idle for a while.
- Printing: Use the Print button to create a paper copy. The system automatically removes the navigation tabs and buttons to provide a clean, kitchen-friendly layout.
3. Settings & Equipment
Manage your kitchen's capacity and your saved data.
- Available Appliances: Define your kitchen's limits, such as how many oven shelves or hob rings you have available.
- Capacity Warnings: If you schedule too many items to cook at once, the plan will display a red ⚠️ warning to let you know you have exceeded your kitchen's limits.
- Saved Meals & Dishes: View and manage your permanent library. You can delete old recipes or export a single meal to share with others.
- Backup & Restore: You can save your entire library of dishes and meals to a single file on your computer for safekeeping. Use the Restore function to load this data back in at any time.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
Q: How do I save my current meal for another time?
A: Any meal you give a name to is automatically saved as a "Meal". You can find these in the Settings tab or use the Recall Meal dropdown on the Setup tab.
Q: I have updated a dish in my library, will it update in my current meal?
A: No. Once a dish is added to a meal, it becomes a unique copy. To use the updated version, delete the old card and re-add it from your "Saved Dishes" menu.
Q: What happens if I click "Start Now" but I'm already halfway through?
A: The system looks for the first uncompleted task and moves that to the current time, shifting the rest of the meal (and your eating time) forward accordingly.
Q: Can I share a specific meal with a friend without sending my whole library?
A: Yes. In the Settings tab, find your meal under "Saved Meals" and click the "Export" button to create a single-meal file.
Q: Why did my plan disappear when I refreshed?
A: The system is designed to remember which tab you were on and keep your items in order, but ensure you have "Meal Setup" data entered for the "Your ThymeTable" to generate.