How a non-CS student approaches the topic of "A menu translator for a local restaurant that handles their specific dishes better than a generic tool"

A non-CS student built a specialized menu translator for a local restaurant that handles dish-specific context better than generic tools like Google Translate. The web app uses a JSON structure to encode how each dish is prepared, which animal parts it contains, and allergy flags, with minimal HTML, CSS, and JS, and can be expanded to server-client hosting. It also includes restaurant-facing publishing workflows and dietary filters for allergens such as shellfish, peanuts, gluten, and dairy.

This is a submission for the Hacktoberfest Open-Source AI Challenge Week 2: Side Hustle https://dev.to/challenges/hacktoberfest-week2-2026-10-12 Topic: A menu translator for a local restaurant that handles their specific dishes better than a generic tool. 【A. Pain Points / Why Generic Translators Fall Short】 Literal Naming: Tools like Google Translate convert regional slang, or speciality cooking methods word-by-word, leaving you with confusing names like "husband and wife lung slices" or parts that make no sense. No Preparation Info: Generic apps rarely explain how a dish is cooked e.g., braised, stir-fried, clay-pot or what flavour profile to expect sour, numbing-spicy, sweet-and-sour . 【B. What Specialised Menu Tools Do Differently】 Users and owners have UX concerns. Dish-Level Context: Apps built for food translation explain the actual ingredients, regional background, and flavour profiles. Allergy and Dietary Filters: Dedicated tools let you flag common allergens shellfish, peanuts, gluten, dairy or dietary restrictions to warn you or fade out unsafe options. Restaurant-Facing Publishing Tools: If you are a restaurant owner looking to publish your own custom menu, specialised workflows. Applied some JSON structure to structure it to indicate how the dish is prepared, what animal +parts is in it, actual allergy flags, etc other concerns. Used minimal HTML, CSS, and JS as local web-based apps; can be expanded into Server-Client hosting by exporting into HTML and JSON structure storage. Topic : Example Topic A menu translator for a local restaurant that handles their specific dishes better than a generic tool. 【Why Generic Translators Fall Short】 Literal Naming: Tools like Google Translate convert regional slang, local protein cuts, or speciality cooking methods word-by-word, leaving you with confusing names like "husband and wife lung slices" or literal animal parts that make no sense. 【What Specialised Menu Tools Do Differently】 Restaurant-Facing Publishing Tools: If you are a restaurant owner looking to publish your own custom… https://nelsonlan01.github.io/Hacktoberfest-2026-Project-Menu/ https://nelsonlan01.github.io/Hacktoberfest-2026-Project-Menu/