Jump to content
  • Welcome to the eG Forums, a service of the eGullet Society for Culinary Arts & Letters. The Society is a 501(c)3 not-for-profit organization dedicated to the advancement of the culinary arts. These advertising-free forums are provided free of charge through donations from Society members. Anyone may read the forums, but to post you must create a free account.

Testing Recipes for Home Cooks


Recommended Posts

Ms. Reichl,

Judging by the success I have had using Gourmet recipes, I'm sure they are tested thoroughly. I am curious, however, about how you ensure the recipes will work well for average home cooks with varying equipment and skill levels.

Also, I wonder if the testing process has changed over the years, particularly if there were any changed you have made.

Tammy Olson aka "TPO"

The Practical Pantry

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Ms. Reichl,

Judging by the success I have had using Gourmet recipes, I'm sure they are tested thoroughly. I am curious, however, about how you ensure the recipes will work well for average home cooks with varying equipment and skill levels.

Also, I wonder if the testing process has changed over the years, particularly if there were any changed you have made.

WE've got 8 test kitchens, but none of them has professional equipment; they're all basic home kitchens, with GE stoves, regular blenders, mixers, etc. Visitors are always surprised by this. We buy our food at regular markets.

When I got to Gourmet and went around and asked editors what their wish lists were Zanne said, without hesitation, "I wish we could cross-test all the recipes."

"Done!" I said naively, not understanding that I was adding a person to the staff, and a major expense. But it's been worth it. We hired a passionate cook, a non-professional, and he takes the finished recipes and does one last run-through. If there's a problem, he finds it.

The other change I've made is to hire cooks of differing ethnicities as vacancies opened up. So that everyone wasn't French or American trained.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I'd like to extend the question to whether this decision making process is also extended to cooks with limited ability to procure a wide array of ingredients.

Disclosure: this is from my experience growing up and living in a "flyover" a.k.a. food-producing state.

Further disclosure: I was displeased with Gourmet before Ms. Reichl's tenure at Gourmet and never renewed my subscription :sad:

I always attempt to have the ratio of my intelligence to weight ratio be greater than one. But, I am from the midwest. I am sure you can now understand my life's conundrum.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

×
×
  • Create New...