How to give cooking instructions to a helper who doesn't read English well

6 min read · Updated 30 September 2026

You wrote the recipe out carefully, and dinner still came out different from what you pictured. That is rarely about skill. It's usually about how the instructions were written.

Why written English recipes go wrong

Recipes are full of phrases that only make sense if you already know how to cook the dish. "Cook until golden", "a pinch of salt", "season to taste", "fold in gently". For a helper who reads little English, and who may have learned cooking in a different kitchen, each of these is a guess.

Seven changes that help

1. One action per line. "Slice the onion. Heat the oil. Add the onion." is easier to follow than one long sentence.
2. Use pictures. A photo of the finished dish, and a photo of anything that's hard to describe, like the size of the chopped vegetables.
3. Use numbers instead of feelings. "5 minutes on medium heat" instead of "until soft". If colour matters, say it: "until light brown".
4. Measure with the tools in your kitchen. Agree on one set of cups and spoons and use only that. Tell your helper if a recipe uses a different set.
5. Use the names your helper uses. The vegetable at the shop may have a different name from the one in the recipe. Ask what your helper calls it.
6. Cook it together once. The first time you make a new dish, do it side by side. You'll learn what needs explaining and your helper will learn what you expect.
7. Say how to know it's done. Colour, smell, thickness or time. One clear sign is enough.

If you use a translation tool

Machine translation is good for everyday sentences and weaker with food. Cooking words often have several meanings, and a wrong choice can change the dish. Keep sentences short, avoid idioms, and ask your helper to read the translation back to you or tell you what feels wrong. When they correct it, keep the correction so you don't fix the same word every week.

Ask your helper to teach you something

The best recipes in many households come from the person who cooks every day. Ask for a dish from your helper's home, watch how it's made, and add it to your weekly plan. It's a good way to learn what your helper already does well, and it makes it easier for them to tell you when a recipe isn't working.