Dish Wheel
Dishes on a wheel — who brings which.
For the kitchen table and the office lunch
Type the names, pick the dishes that are in play, and spin. The wheel deals people out as evenly as it can — no leftover pile of pies.
The wheel
Add guests, keep the dishes you want, then spin. The assignment is made in this browser — nothing is sent anywhere.
Dish Wheel is a free browser tool for deciding who cooks or brings which part of a shared meal. You enter names, pick the dish categories that matter for tonight — appetizer, main, side, dessert, drinks — and spin. The wheel hands out categories with an even spread in mind so the kitchen table does not end up with three mains and no sides. No account, no server upload of your list for the assignment, no install. Everything runs in the browser on this visit.
It is aimed at kitchen-table planning and meal-train style coordination: weeknight dinners where friends each take a course, office lunch rotations, “who cooks what” for a small gathering, and the group chat that keeps asking the same question. Practical, calm, and built for hosts who want a plan before the grocery run.
On the setup panel, type guest or household names one per line (commas work too). Watch the guest counter update. If one person is covering two courses, list them twice.
Choose Categories in play. Keep the full set for a complete meal, or trim to mains and sides for a simpler night. Optional targets gently steer how many people land in each category; leftover people still get distributed instead of all landing on dessert by accident.
Hit Spin the wheel. After the spin, results group by dish type. Copy the list for the chat, Print for the fridge, or Copy share link so everyone opens the same assignment. The link stores state in the URL hash — the assignment travels with the URL. Need a redo? Spin again.
A typical flow looks like this: someone hosts a kitchen-table dinner for eight. They paste the eight names, leave appetizer/main/side/dessert checked, set a soft target of two people on mains if they want, and spin. The list comes back with courses labeled. They hit copy share link, drop it in the household thread, and shoppers know which aisle to haunt. If two people prefer to swap sides and dessert, they swap in the chat — the wheel gave them a starting map, not a court order.
The assignment is computed in your browser with Math.random. Dish Wheel does not use crypto.getRandomValues, and it does not ship your names to a remote service to choose courses. Each person gets a category; the design goal is a fair category spread so “who cooks what” feels even enough for the table.
When you are coordinating a meal train night or a shared kitchen, you can spin on a laptop in the room and show that the split happened locally — no mysterious backend reordering the mains.
Because randomness is local and ordinary (Math.random), Dish Wheel is honest about what “fair” means here: an even-enough category spread for this list on this visit. It is not a certified lottery draw and does not pretend to be. For a shared meal, that is the right bar — transparent, equal chance at each category lane, no account watching over your shoulder.
Reach for Dish Wheel when a meal needs clear course owners:
Utility framing only: organizing dishes for a shared meal, not wagering or prize draws.
Hosts who already use spreadsheets can keep doing that; Dish Wheel is the lighter option when you want a visual spin and a link that reconstitutes the same assignment without emailing a file. It pairs well with a grocery list app: once categories are set, each person knows whether they are buying produce for a side or flour for dessert.
Dish Wheel is not a lottery operator, casino, or betting product. It does not collect stakes, sell tickets, or pay out prizes. The spin assigns cooking or bringing roles for a meal you already intend to share. Treat it as a local planning utility — not a game of chance for money.
If your gathering involves dietary needs, use the category plan as a scaffold and note allergies in the chat afterward. The wheel assigns lanes; your group still chooses the actual recipes that fit the people at the table.
No. Assignment runs in the browser. We do not keep a server-side guest book. If you share a link, the hash in the URL carries the assignment for whoever opens it.
Paper still works. Dish Wheel is for when you want a quick even spread across categories, a shareable link for the group chat, and a printout — without arguing about who “called” dessert first.
Yes. Adjust the checkboxes, then spin again for a new deal. The previous share link stays valid until you replace it with a new copy.
Each spin is independent. If you need historical fairness across many weeks, keep a note outside the tool; each visit only balances the current list.
Yes. Phones and tablets work. Spin from the couch, paste the share link into the household chat.
None. dishwheel.com is open; use it and leave.
Optional. The tool is free. Tips via the footer go through Ko-fi under their policies.
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