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Cook tests — the dish's evolution journal

The chef cooks a new dish ten times before it ships. Nine of those are tests, not service. This makes those nine visible.

The rule

Cook tests never move stock. A test is a memory aid, not a production batch. Real stock only starts moving once the dish is promoted and cooked in service — so a botched experiment can’t pollute your numbers.

How it works

  1. Open Cook tests under the brainstorm panel and click + Add cook test.
  2. Fill what matters: a label (skip it and it auto-numbers — Test 1, Test 2), a star rating, what you changed, how it tasted, and the actual yield.
  3. Save. It slides into the journal in order.

Nothing is required except the thing you learned.

What a good journal reads like

Test 1 — made the AI’s first draft as written, Roman style with guanciale. ★★★ Test 2 — swapped guanciale for pancetta, halved the salt. ★★★★ Test 3 — kept Test 2’s salt, added smoked black pepper. ★★★★★ This is it.

Three entries, and anyone can see why the final recipe is the way it is.

Good to know

  • The real value shows up months later. A sous-chef revisiting the candidate reads the history and knows what was already tried, instead of repeating it.
  • Yield is worth recording even roughly — it’s the number you’ll want when you cost the dish for real.
  • Tests stay on the candidate after promotion, so the finished recipe keeps its origin story.