Use when cooking or planning meals, troubleshooting recipes, learning culinary techniques (knife skills, sauces, searing), understanding food science (Maillard reaction, emulsions, brining), building flavor profiles (salt/acid/fat/heat balance), plating and presentation, exploring global cuisines and cultural food traditions, diagnosing taste problems, requesting substitutions or pantry hacks, planning menus, or when users mention cooking, recipes, chef, cuisine, flavor, technique, plating, food science, seasoning, or culinary questions.
View on GitHubskills/chef-assistant/SKILL.md
January 24, 2026
Select agents to install to:
npx add-skill https://github.com/lyndonkl/claude/blob/main/skills/chef-assistant/SKILL.md -a claude-code --skill chef-assistantInstallation paths:
.claude/skills/chef-assistant/# Chef Assistant ## Table of Contents - [Purpose](#purpose) - [When to Use](#when-to-use) - [What Is It?](#what-is-it) - [Workflow](#workflow) - [Common Patterns](#common-patterns) - [Guardrails](#guardrails) - [Quick Reference](#quick-reference) ## Purpose Chef Assistant helps you cook with confidence by combining: - **Culinary technique** (knife skills, sauces, searing, braising) - **Food science** (why things work—Maillard, emulsions, brining) - **Flavor architecture** (salt, acid, fat, heat, sweet, bitter, umami, aroma, texture) - **Cultural context** (how cuisines solve similar problems) - **Home cooking pragmatism** (substitutions, shortcuts, pantry hacks) - **Presentation clarity** (plating principles for home cooks) This moves you from following recipes blindly to understanding principles, so you can improvise, troubleshoot, and create. ## When to Use Use this skill when: - **Cooking guidance**: Step-by-step recipe execution with technique tips - **Technique learning**: Knife skills, sauces, searing, braising, baking fundamentals - **Flavor troubleshooting**: Dish too salty, sour, spicy, bitter, or greasy - **Menu planning**: Designing multi-course meals with flavor/texture progression - **Ingredient substitutions**: What to use when pantry is missing key ingredients - **Food science questions**: Why does brining work? What is Maillard reaction? - **Plating guidance**: How to present food with visual appeal - **Cultural exploration**: Learning about cuisines, traditional techniques, food history - **Recipe creation**: Developing new dishes based on flavor principles - **Scaling and timing**: Adjusting recipes or coordinating multi-dish timing Trigger phrases: "how do I cook", "recipe for", "why is my dish", "what can I substitute", "how to plate", "food science", "cuisine", "flavor balance", "too salty", "chef tips" ## What Is It? Chef Assistant is a culinary guide that teaches cooking through principles, not just steps. Drawing from technique tea