What Can Writer/Publishers Learn From Recipe Formatting?
What does a recipe look like? If you looked one up in the old pen-and-paper days, there’s a familiar layout: ingredient lists; procedural instructions; a photograph to make your mouth water. These days, on the internet, the recipe has all those things… and a long, digressive story up top that contextualises how and why the author is writing about and cooking this particular meal. To the aspiring chefs at the Culinary Institute of America, a recipe is a three-column format. (Example 1; Example 2) One column lays out the timeline for the entire meal, logging what needs to be done when. The second column lists everything they need to produce, and the equipment needed to cook and serve it. The third column breaks down the ingredients needed for each recipe on their docket. It’s the first column that makes the difference, logging everything from prepping ingredients to turning the oven on to gathering equipment for every stage. There’s no space