Who writes the recipes
Every recipe and every guide on this site is written by Melissa, the person on the About page. There are no syndicated recipes, no syndicated guests, no AI-written content, and no auto-generated articles. If a recipe ever has a different author, the byline at the top of that page will say so by name, and the editor (still me) will be named at the bottom.
The three-cook rule
A recipe doesn't get a page until I've cooked it at least three separate times:
- Round one — for myself, with no recipe in front of me. Just to see if the idea works.
- Round two — on a normal Tuesday with no special prep, while writing down quantities and times as I go.
- Round three — for someone else (usually my family), reading from the draft. If they ask a question I haven't answered, I rewrite that step.
Some recipes get a fourth or fifth round before I'm ready to publish. The chickpea curry took six. I am not in a rush.
What ends up on the page
- A short intro that says why I cook this dish and what the trick is, in my own voice.
- A printable recipe card near the top so you can skip the prose if you want to.
- Ingredient notes that explain why each ingredient is there, and what to do if you don't have it.
- A "Melissa's kitchen note" with what I learned the hard way (over-salt, wrong pan, wrong heat).
- Substitutions I've actually tested.
- Storage and reheating notes specific to that dish.
- Three or four recipe-specific FAQs, not generic ones.
Photos
Photos on this site are mine, taken in my kitchen, with whatever light I had on the day I cooked. I do not use stock images of food and I do not use AI-generated images of food. If a recipe is brand-new and I haven't taken a real photo yet, the page uses an obvious placeholder graphic that says so. The placeholder is replaced as soon as I cook the dish again with the camera nearby.
Sources and inspiration
Most recipes on the site are dishes I've cooked for years. Some came from my family. Some I learned from cookbooks or restaurants and adapted over time. When a specific source materially shaped a recipe, I credit it in the recipe page itself ("adapted from..."). I do not copy text or photos from other recipe sites or cookbooks.
Editing and corrections
If a reader finds a mistake, I fix it. The fix gets a small note at the bottom of the page with the date so you can see something changed. Cosmetic edits (typos, punctuation, layout) don't get a note. Substantive changes (a wrong oven temperature, a missing ingredient, an updated method) always do.
Corrections go to hello@chefmelissa.shop. I read every email.
Independence from advertisers
Ads on this site are served by Google AdSense. They are programmatic; I don't choose which ad you see, and the ad system doesn't choose what I write. No advertiser pays for placement, mention, or favourable language inside a recipe or guide. If a sponsored arrangement ever exists in the future, it will be labelled at the top of the affected page and disclosed in the advertising policy first.
What I don't publish
- Recipes I haven't actually cooked.
- Health, weight-loss, or medical claims.
- Affiliate-driven content disguised as a normal recipe.
- Stock photos of someone else's food.
- Recipes that require equipment most home cooks don't own.
Update cadence
I add a new recipe roughly twice a month and a guide every month or so when I have something useful to say. Old recipes get re-tested when I notice something has shifted (a new pan, a discovery, a reader correction).