What's In The Post?

How We Create Our Recipes

Every recipe on RecipeCookHub goes through the same process before it ever gets published. This page explains exactly what that process looks like — from the first idea to the finished article on your screen.

We think it’s worth being upfront about this. There are a lot of food sites on the internet, and not all of them work the same way. Here’s how we work.

Our Process, Step by Step

Step 1: The Idea

Recipe ideas come from a few different places. A lot of them come from our own kitchen — something Alex has been making for years and finally decided to write down properly, or a dessert Christina developed for a family occasion. Others come from reader questions and comments (if we keep getting asked “how do you make X,” that’s a sign X belongs on the site). And some come from what’s in season — especially for Christina, who checks Belgrade’s outdoor markets regularly and lets whatever’s freshest drive the recipe calendar.

We don’t chase trends for the sake of it. If a recipe idea doesn’t genuinely interest us, we don’t develop it.

Step 2: Research & Planning

Before we cook, we think. We look at how other people approach the same dish, what variations exist, what the common failure points are. We decide on our angle: what makes our version worth making? Is it simpler? More practical? Does it use better technique? We don’t start cooking until we can answer that question.

Alex and Christina approach this slightly differently — Alex tends to work from instinct and adjust on the fly, while Christina plans her ingredient ratios carefully before she measures anything. Both approaches work. Together they create a useful balance.

Step 3: First Kitchen Test

We cook the recipe. In our apartment kitchen in Belgrade, on our actual stove and in our actual oven, with ingredients from the grocery store around the corner. No staged kitchens, no professional equipment, no stand-in ingredients we’d never buy ourselves.

The first test is where we find the problems. Something takes longer than expected. An ingredient proportion is off. A step needs to be explained differently. We note everything as we go.

Step 4: Family Taste Test

Our daughter is the most honest food critic in the house. She has no interest in being polite about something she doesn’t like. Beyond her, we taste-test each other’s work — Alex eats Christina’s desserts, Christina eats Alex’s savory dishes. We give honest feedback, not encouraging vagueness. Extended family and friends occasionally weigh in too, especially for dishes that are meant to serve a crowd.

If the feedback reveals a real problem, the recipe doesn’t move forward until it’s fixed.

Step 5: Adjustments & Second Test

We make the changes from the first round and cook it again. This is the confirmation test — does the fix actually work? Did adjusting one thing break something else? The second test is where a recipe either gets approved or goes back for another round. Some recipes get a third test. We don’t publish until we’re confident.

Step 6: Writing & Photography

Once the recipe is solid, we document it. We write the instructions the way we’d explain them to a friend — step by step, without assuming knowledge, with the kind of detail that actually helps (what does it look like when it’s done? how do you know if it’s ready?). We photograph the dish, including process shots where they help.

We use AI tools to help with drafting and editing the written content — that’s part of our workflow and we think it’s worth being honest about. But every recipe is developed, tested, and refined by us in our home kitchen. The writing is a description of real food we actually cooked. The cooking is always human.

Step 7: Video Production (Select Recipes)

For many of our recipes, we film the full cooking process from start to finish. We cook the recipe on camera, in our kitchen, in real time. No script beyond the recipe itself. You can see the pan, the ingredients, the texture, the finished dish — everything you’d want to see before deciding whether to make it yourself.

We’ve published 10 cooking videos so far on our YouTube channel, including French Onion Ground Beef and Rice Casserole, Honey Soy Chicken Drumsticks, Beef Dorito Casserole, and more. We’re adding new videos regularly.

Step 8: Final Review Before Publishing

Before any recipe goes live, both Alex and Christina read through it. We check that the instructions are clear, the ingredient list is complete and accurate, the cook times are honest, and nothing is missing that a home cook would need. If something feels off, it gets fixed before publication — not after.

Our Kitchen Standards

These aren’t aspirational guidelines — they’re the actual rules we hold every recipe to before it gets published.

Every recipe is tested at least twice in our home kitchen before publishing. No exceptions. If we haven’t cooked it twice, it doesn’t go on the site.
Only everyday, grocery-store ingredients. If you’d have to make a special trip to a specialty store or order something online, we don’t call for it.
Honest cook times. We time our recipes when we make them and we report what actually happened — not an optimistic estimate. If it takes 50 minutes, we say 50 minutes.
Real portions for real families. “Serves 6” means 6 adults eating a normal amount. We don’t play games with serving sizes.
No specialty equipment required. Standard cookware. Standard baking pans. Nothing that needs to be purchased specifically for one recipe.

Why YouTube Matters

We film our recipes because we think seeing is worth more than reading when it comes to cooking. Written instructions can tell you what to do, but a video can show you what “golden brown” actually looks like, or how thick the sauce should be, or how to tell when a casserole is actually done versus technically finished.

But there’s another reason: the videos are proof. Proof that we’re real people in a real kitchen, actually cooking this food ourselves. You can see our hands, our pans, our oven. You can see what happens when something doesn’t go perfectly and how we handle it. There’s no editing that out — it’s real cooking, recorded as it happens.

We have 10 videos published so far and we’re adding more. You can find the full playlist on our YouTube channel.

Questions?

If you’ve tried one of our recipes and something didn’t work the way it should, we genuinely want to know. Leave a comment on the recipe, and either Alex or Christina will respond. We take that feedback seriously — it’s often how recipes get improved.

Learn more about Alex and about Christina.