Professor: “I’m struggling with measurements; that is the hardest part of a recipe.” Chef Alex: “Using measurements in recipes is crucial to ensure accuracy and produce food of high quality. It also provides consistent results so that the recipe will turn out the same way every time it is made. Professor: “I think that all […]

Recipe Testing Sheet       Date:           Recipe Title:                         Ingredients  Amount      Unit                                 Direction                                                                           […]

How to Fix a Recipe Professor: “I’m new to cooking and using recipes, but I have already had several dishes that didn’t come out as I had hoped. Is there any way to fix or correct a recipe?” Chef Alex: “No matter how experienced you are in the kitchen, mistakes happen. In a kitchen, it […]

Professor: “One thing is to write down an existing recipe, but how do you create one from scratch?” Alex: “Several years ago, a woman submitted a recipe to one of the leading food magazines and wrote: “Here is a recipe that my husband, the doctor, invented one weekend at our summer home.” The recipe was […]

                                                                                                                                                                            Previous Blog Recipe Writing Basics Professor: “Do you have a formula or template for writing a recipe?” Alex: “Writing a recipe uses the same recipe structure we talked about in ‘How to read a recipe’” Professor: “I know you have written hundreds of recipes for others, but do you also write for […]

Culinary Cooking Terms A well written recipe should be easily understood, but some recipes sometimes use words and terminology not understood by all. Learning a few cooking terms, you might encounter can make the difference between a failed or successful outcome. If the instruction to a recipe says: “Sauté the blanched, julienne carrots.” It is […]

  Recipe Rec-i-pe (res-ĭ-pee) n. directions for preparing a dish etc., in cookery. Content A recipe is a communication tool, a formula, or a written set of instructions for preparing food and can range from simple to highly complex. It is a way for one person to remember or to pass information to another. The […]

Hi, my name is Christian. Over the last five decades, I have worked as a Cook’s apprentice, Cook, Sous Chef, Food Production Manager, Executive Chef, Food and Beverage Manager, Restaurant Consultant, Recipe Tester, and Cookbook Author. So, recipes have played a significant role in most of my life.

Recipe history Since the early beginnings of writing, humans have been recording recipes, but as expected, there is some confusion about who wrote the very first one. Supposedly, the earliest recipe known was for beer or ale, which was recorded on cuneiform tablets in Sumeria (modern-day Iraq). (Courtesy Yale Babylonian Collection) CLAY TABLET. FOUND: Possibly […]

Professor: “Lately, I have been on the internet looking for recipes and have quickly found some good recipes, but there are also many awful ones. Some are hard to read and difficult to follow, especially for a person like me, who is not expedient in cooking. Is there any way you can cast a light […]