The Test Chef

Since publishing her first cookbook for online cooking subscription service Plated last spring, Suzanne Lehrer Dumaine ’09, the company’s director of culinary operations, has gotten the same question a lot: “Why did this innovative tech company decide to publish a cookbook?”

N.Y.C.-based Plated, co-foundedby Nick Taranto ’06, sends pre-portioned ingredients and “chef-designed” recipes to customers’ doors in 48 U.S. states, using metrics from customer recipe feedback and ordering patterns to guide its offerings and help reduce food waste. But Dumaine, who graduated from the French Culinary Institute and got her start creating recipes at the Food Network, also sees lasting value in recipes compiled the old-fashioned way. “There’s something really irreplaceable about the feeling of a cookbook, the presence of a cookbook on your shelf, turning a page open to a recipe and seeing it splattered with oil from the last time you used it,” she says. “It really feels a part of your kitchen.”

The cookbook, called Plated: Weeknight Dinners, Weekend Feasts, and Everything in Between and written with a Plated colleague, is both traditional and innovative in its design. It emphasizes relatively short ingredient lists and clear, succinct instructions, something home chefs don’t always get from food blog recipes. “Cheffy Nugget” tips—named after the Plated test kitchen’s nickname for leftovers staff can nosh on—give details on techniques, ingredients and flavors. And many recipes have suggested substitutions that allow cooks to swap in seasonal ingredients.

“Cooking should just be accessible,” Dumaine says. “It’s about mastering the basics, and once you do, you start to really feel comfortable in the kitchen and surprise yourself with what you can do.”

Kaitlin Bell Barnett ’05