Chef constraints adaptation

Chef Constraints & Adaptation (the default layer)

Recipes are written for an imaginary kitchen: four strong burners, a calibrated oven, a cook who knows what "sauté until done" means. Real kitchens have one tired burner and a human who's never jointed a chicken. This skill closes that gap — and its rules apply BY DEFAULT to every recipe this skillset writes, not only when asked.

Read references/doneness-cues.md for the full food-by-food sensory doneness table.

Law 1 — Doneness by cues, timers as backup (NEVER timer-only)

A timer measures time; the food experiences heat — and heat varies by pan, stove, starting temperature, piece size, and altitude. Timers in recipes are estimates from someone else's kitchen. Therefore every instruction gets THREE layers:

1. The cue (primary): what to see/hear/smell/feel/probe. "Onions: translucent, edges gold, sweet smell replaces sharp."
2. The timer (orientation): "~8–10 min on medium" — a rough map, honestly ranged.
3. The check (verification): the decisive test — thermometer temp, knife-tip resistance, jiggle pattern, tear test.

Write them together: "Simmer until a knife slides into the potato with no resistance — usually 15–20 min; if the knife catches, give it 5 more and re-check." The re-check instruction matters: it teaches iteration instead of anxiety.

Sound and smell are underused senses: sizzle quieting = moisture gone = browning begins; nutty smell = butter ready; sharp smell = garlic 10 seconds from burnt. Include them — they work even when the cook can't judge color.

Law 2 — Equipment adaptation

Diagnose first (ask or infer): how many burners? How strong? Oven — exists, trustworthy? Key tools? Then adapt by mechanism (chain chef-equipment-gastrophysics for appliance swaps):

Constraint	Strategy
One burner	SEQUENCE, don't juggle: cook starch first (grains/pasta hold fine under a towel 20+ min; potatoes hold in their water), then protein (rests anyway — that's free time), sauce in the same pan after. Or choose one-pot architectures: plov, pasta-in-sauce, stews, fried rice. Write the ORDER into the recipe.
Weak burner	It can't sear — stop pretending: longer preheat (5+ min, empty pan), smaller batches (half of normal), thinner cuts, lid tricks (trap heat to compensate), or pivot the method — braise/steam/poach excel on weak heat. A weak burner is a GREAT gentle-methods burner (chef-gentle-methods-guide).
Uneven/unknown oven	Cheap oven thermometer (the single best ₽300 upgrade); rotate at 2/3 time; trust the food's cues over the dial always; know your hot corner and use it deliberately.
No oven	Lid = oven: skillet-breads (flatbread, skillet pizza), pot-"baked" dishes, steaming (improvised: foil balls + plate + lid), dutch-oven cakes on lowest heat + diffuser (or a dry pan under the pot).
Dorm/office (kettle+microwave)	Kettle: couscous, instant grains, blanching, softening noodles. Microwave: legit steamer & mug-baking (equipment guide §5). Combined they cover honest full meals — write recipes for the venue, don't apologize for it.
Camping/single pot	One-pot + no-cook composition; cue-based everything (no clocks in the wild anyway).
No scale/thermometer	Volume approximations with honesty about error bars; cue-checks become PRIMARY (they already are); hand-tests (steak firmness vs palm), spoon-coat tests, visual dough cues (baking guide's windowpane etc.).

Law 3 — Skill-level calibration

Diagnose the cook (from context or one question: "how comfortable are you with a knife / have you made X before?") and write to their level:

Level	How to write for them
Beginner / "криворукий"	Full three-layer cues; define every verb ONCE inline ("deglaze — pour liquid into the hot pan and scrape the brown bits"); explicit pan sizes and heat numbers ("medium = 5/9 on the dial"); mise en place mandated (cut everything BEFORE the stove goes on — beginners lose to simultaneity, not difficulty); rescue notes at known failure points ("if it starts sticking — splash water, lower heat, nothing is lost"); fewer simultaneous tracks (max 2). NEVER condescend — detailed ≠ dumbed-down; the tone is co-pilot, not kindergarten.
Intermediate	Standard three-layer cues; technique names used with a one-line refresher on the rare ones; parallel tracks OK with a timeline; 'why' notes at decision points (they're building mental models — feed them).
Confident	Compact: ratios, temps, cues in shorthand ("anglaise to 83°C", "onions blond"); trust their judgment, flag only the non-obvious traps; offer variations and levers to play with.
Unknown (default)	Write intermediate + beginner safety-rails at the 2–3 genuinely risky steps. Better slightly over-explained than a ruined dinner.

Failure-tolerance framing (all levels): state which steps are forgiving ("onions can go 5 extra minutes — relax") and which are cliff-edges ("caramel goes from amber to burnt in 20 seconds — stay"). Cooks calibrate attention when told where the cliffs are; this single habit prevents more disasters than any technique tip.

The default output contract (for the whole skillset)

Every recipe produced by any skill here should: (1) use cue+timer+check for every cook-step; (2) state equipment assumptions up front and offer the one-burner/weak-stove path when relevant; (3) match detail level to the known skill level; (4) mark cliff-edge steps; (5) end with the benchmark — how to know it came out RIGHT (chef-world-classics style). This is what separates a recipe that works in YOUR kitchen from one that worked in someone else's.