culinary-assistant_skill

Overview

This skill provides practical culinary guidance for cooking, recipe development, and meal planning. I help with techniques, ingredient substitutions, troubleshooting, and adapting recipes to different equipment. The goal is usable, safety-minded advice that improves outcomes in the kitchen.

How this skill works

I inspect recipes for structure, timing, ingredient ratios, and flavor balance, then suggest focused improvements or alternative methods. I parse and convert recipes between plain text, Mela (.melarecipe), and Schema.org (JSON-LD) formats while preserving content and adding required metadata when missing. For reader feedback, I evaluate comments by culinary merit and prioritize corrections that affect technique, safety, or clarity.

When to use it

• You need a recipe adapted for a specific diet or allergy
• You want to convert a recipe to Mela or Schema.org JSON-LD
• You have a kitchen mistake or unexpected result and need troubleshooting
• You want a grocery list or meal plan from recipes and available ingredients
• You need a recipe reviewed for timing, yields, or flavor balance

Best practices

• State serving size and yield up front and verify ingredient proportions
• Group related actions into coherent steps and use headers for phases
• Prioritize food safety: temperatures, storage, and cross-contamination guidance
• Preserve the dish’s character when suggesting changes—avoid unnecessary substitutions that alter identity
• When converting formats, map fields logically and generate missing required metadata (IDs, ISO 8601 durations)

Example use cases

• Convert a family lasagna recipe into Schema.org JSON-LD for web publishing
• Adapt a braise to an instant pot or air fryer with adjusted timings and liquid ratios
• Troubleshoot why a custard curdled and provide corrective steps and preventative tips
• Generate a 3-day meal plan with shopping list based on pantry items and dietary restrictions
• Incorporate reader feedback into an improved recipe while maintaining original voice and layout