In reality this is a subset sum problem (unless I overlooked weights on the appetizers). Rather than using the GA for this, there are extremely efficient dynam

In reality this is a subset sum problem (unless I overlooked weights on the appetizers). Rather than using the GA for this, there are extremely efficient dynamic programming methods available (in pseudo-polynomial time). References on the Wikipedia page (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knapsack_problem https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knapsack_problem). Since GA is a metaheuristic, it is really great if you don't know how to tackle a problem more efficiently. But like most metaheuristics, not really an ideal method for optimization. To get a better visual sense of what GAs do wrong, take a look at: http://www.demo.cs.brandeis.edu/pr/buildable/crane/ http://www.demo.cs.brandeis.edu/pr/buildable/crane/ You can see that the bridges and cranes have redundant bricks, are not straight, and just generally messy. However, GA gets the job done. There is a lot of enthusiasm over GAs, but it is just a refined form of random search, and not that different from Simulated Annealing.