Numbers Come From the Cook

Numbers Come From the Cook

Produce ONE image, 3:4 portrait: an editorial recipe page. Follow every line. Replace only the FIELDS block; everything after it is fixed.

First — do you have the fields?

If any field below still has braces around it, stop and ask. Put all the questions in one short message, and show the example under each one so they can see the shape of a useful answer. Wait for the replies, then draw. Never fill a brace yourself: a value you invented is a value nobody asked for, and it will look exactly as considered as the ones they did give you.

Ask in whatever language they are writing to you in. Translate the questions and the examples; do not make someone read English to tell you what they want.

The examples are only examples. If someone answers a question, use their answer; never fall back to the example because you prefer it.

If the fields are already filled in, ignore this and carry on.

Fields — replace these six lines only

• The dish, and its moment: {what it is, and what it is doing} e.g. hand-pulled noodles lifted on chopsticks, chilli oil still running off them
• The name, and one line: {a title, and a sentence} e.g. OIL-SPLASH NOODLES — the plainest ingredients, the loudest result
• The ingredients, with quantities: {each with its amount} e.g. plain flour 300g · water 150ml · pak choi, a handful · garlic 4 cloves, minced · spring onion 2, sliced · chilli flakes 3 tbsp · light soy 2 tbsp · black vinegar 1 tbsp · salt ½ tsp · oil 3 tbsp
• The steps: {four to six, in order} e.g. mix and rest the dough · roll and cut into strips · boil with the greens · pile the aromatics on top · pour the smoking oil over · toss and serve
• The badges you actually know: {only what is given} e.g. 25 minutes · serves 2 — and no nutrition panel, because I have not measured it
• The ground: {a pale stock} e.g. warm off-white, with the dish's own colours doing the rest

The measurement law

A recipe page is used, not just looked at. Every number on it will be trusted by somebody standing at a hob, which makes invention here different in kind from invention on a poster.

Every number comes from the fields. Quantities, times, servings, temperatures. If it is not in the fields, it does not appear.

No nutrition panel unless the figures are supplied. A reference run of this template printed a calorie count, a protein weight, a fat weight and a carbohydrate weight, along with a cooking time and a difficulty rating. Nobody had supplied any of them. Calorie counts are a health claim, and a plausible one set in a neat badge on a beautiful card is exactly the kind of thing a reader acts on.

If the fields say there is no nutrition data, the panel is left off the page — not filled, not greyed out, not shown empty.

The hero

The finished dish, centre, filling the middle third of the page, caught in the middle of something: lifted, poured, torn, steaming, tipped. A bowl sitting still is a menu photograph.

One light source, real texture, and no colour cast over it. It may overlap the surrounding blocks; it never sits in a box.

The ingredient column

Down one side, each ingredient on its own line with:

• a small clean image or icon of that ingredient
• its name
• its quantity, beside the name — the number the fields gave

Never a bare list without amounts. This column is the part somebody cooks from.

The steps

Four to six, in order, across the foot of the page. Each is a small frame with a number and a caption in real, readable words.

If a caption cannot be rendered legibly, leave the captions off entirely and let the numbers and images carry the sequence. A strip of malformed text under photographs is the standard failure of this layout and it makes the whole page look unfinished.

The badges

Only the ones the fields name. Time and servings are usual; anything else must be given. Set them small, in a neat block at one corner, each with a plain icon.

The page

A pale warm ground, the dish's own colours doing the work. One clean serif or a modern sans for the title, small sans for everything else. Generous white space, no borders, no drop shadows, no textured background, no scattered decorative crumbs beyond what the dish itself sheds.

Never

• ✕ a nutrition panel with figures the fields did not supply
• ✕ any invented time, temperature, weight or serving count
• ✕ a difficulty rating nobody gave
• ✕ garbled or unreadable step captions
• ✕ an ingredient without its quantity
• ✕ a hero shot of a still, plated dish
• ✕ a coloured or textured background, or a tint over the food

The result

A page somebody could cook from: one dish caught moving, a column of amounts you can shop to, a sequence you can follow — and not one number on it that nobody measured.