A simpler approach to this

At the beginning of column B, type

=UNIQUE(A:A)

Then in column C, use

=COUNTIF(A:A, B1)

and copy them in all row column C.

Edit: If that doesn't work for you, try using semicolon instead of comma:

=COUNTIF(A:A; B1)

COUNTIF & FILTER

• The COUNTIF function returns a conditional count across a range;
  =COUNTIF(range, criterion)
   
• The FILTER function returns a filtered version of the source range, returning only rows or columns that meet the specified conditions.
  =FILTER(range, condition1, [condition2, ...])
   
• By combining COUNTIF & FILTER one can FILTER the data across all days based on a menu item, then use COUNTIF to count occurrences of a name in the filtered data.

Named Ranges in Formulas

The formula can be adapted for a LAMBDA function

First Formula

Formula uses named ranges to make the code easier to manage.

=COUNTIF(FILTER(_namedata, _mealdata=BA2)

LAMBDA Function

=BYROW(_namelist, LAMBDA(n, MAP(_meallist, LAMBDA(m, COUNTIF(FILTER(_namedata,_mealdata=m),n)))))

You can select your whole range in a query like this (change A2:F with your desired range)

=QUERY(FLATTEN(A2:F),"SELECT Col1,COUNT(Col1) where Col1 is not null group by Col1")

You may try this to auto-populate both the columns:

=let(Σ,unique(tocol(A2:A,1)),
     index({Σ,countif(A:A,Σ)}))