SISD Family Table

A table worth sitting at.

SISD Family Table plans your family's week of meals, turns it into one tidy shopping list, gets everybody into the kitchen, and then gives you something to talk about once the food is on the table.

It was made for the community of the Swiss International Scientific School in Dubai, and it takes both halves of that name seriously. Rösti, älplermagronen and birchermüesli sit alongside machboos, harees and luqaimat, each with a note on where the dish comes from and, for many, when families eat it. Every recipe is halal, and where a Swiss classic is normally made with alcohol or pork, the recipe says so and explains how this version does without it.

JOBS FOR EVERY AGE Tell the app how old your children are and every step of a recipe shows what each of them can take on: whisking the luqaimat batter, tearing herbs, folding samboosa. A younger child's job is never the hot part. From about 11, a child can take a supervised turn at the hob or the oven, with a grown-up beside them. Deep-frying is never a child's job.

THE TABLE When the meal is ready, the app deals three conversation cards: one about tonight's dish or the place it comes from, one about your family, one just for fun. Why is raclette scraped? What is Hag Al Laila? Would you rather have a snowball fight in the Alps, or build a sandcastle on a UAE beach? Written as much for a table of two as a table of eight, and it works whether you cooked or not.

A WEEK THAT FITS YOUR FAMILY Say who is eating on which nights. The plan works around your food rules, allergies, equipment, the time you actually have on a Tuesday, and what is still in the cupboard. Set a budget and it stays inside it. Longer weekend recipes are there for when you have an afternoon.

ONE TIDY SHOPPING LIST Rounded to real pack sizes, costed in dirhams, grouped by aisle or meal by meal, and shareable to WhatsApp so whoever is passing the shop can pick it up. It uses up what you already have, so less goes in the bin.

COOK IN FOUR LANGUAGES Set the whole app, recipes and all, to English, French, German or Arabic, with proper right-to-left layout. A recipe turns out to be a very good short text to read together in another language.

NOTHING LEAVES YOUR PHONE No account. No sign-in. No server. No analytics, no advertising, no tracking of any kind. Everything your family enters stays on the device. The app holds no student information and is not connected to any school system.

Free, with nothing to buy.

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