Welcome to our test kitchen — the heart of everything we do here at The Novice Chef. Our test kitchen is built on real kitchens, real cooks, and real feedback. Our goal is simple: to save you time, effort, and money with recipes you can always count on.
Every recipe you see with a test kitchen approved badge has been carefully developed, tested, and perfected — and not just by one person. Each recipe is tested by at least three different home cooks before it ever reaches you. Because we never want you to waste your time or ingredients on a recipe that doesn’t work.
Our readers trust us to get it right, and we take that trust seriously. While a recipe may not always be your personal favorite, you can have full confidence that if you make it as written, it will turn out exactly as promised.
We’ve built a small network of friends, family, and home cooks from across the United States who are paid to test our recipes. That means they’re encouraged to be completely honest — not just rubber-stamping a recipe as approved. If something needs fixing, they tell us the truth, and we love them for it!
Our testers make each recipe exactly as it’s written and give us detailed feedback on their results, along with a photo and an honest review of how it turned out. They’re testing for clear instructions, easy-to-find ingredients, reliable results, and great taste.
If a recipe doesn’t earn consistent five-star feedback from our testers, we make adjustments and test it ourselves again. Then we send the updated recipe back to the test kitchen to be tested one more time. We continue this process until the recipe is foolproof.
We do all of this for you — because we believe you deserve recipes you can trust the very first time you make them!
Our test kitchen is a small but mighty team of home cooks who pour real care into every recipe they test. Here are a few of the people behind the work (some choose to remain anonymous on the internet). 😉
Hi, I’m Haley — Jessica’s sister, an Orlando-based busy mom of two, and a die-hard Disney and Universal fan. I’ve been part of The Novice Chef team since 2018, and I cook dinner for my family every single night, which means I’m always on the hunt for easy weeknight meals that actually work the first time (and don’t generate a sink full of dishes). When I’m not testing recipes, I love to travel and try new foods, and continue my lifelong search for the world’s best bagel — I have yet to meet one I didn’t like!
Hey, I’m Jorge — Jessica’s husband, a proud Puerto Rican, and a former IT guy who happily traded spreadsheets for sheet pans to be a full-time stay-at-home dad to our three kids. I grew up in a house where food was everything — my Abuela’s tostones, arroz con gandules and pernil — and these days, I get to bring those same family recipes into our test kitchen and share them with all of you. I took cooking and wine tasting classes back in my Syracuse days, so you’ll catch me geeking out over a good sauce, a fresh loaf of bread, or the right wine pairing for dinner.
Hi, I’m Brittany — Jessica’s cousin, a homeschooling, homesteading mom of one based just outside Houston, Texas. I’ve been testing recipes for The Novice Chef since 2019, and these days my husband Kenny and I run a little mini farm that includes a big garden, chickens, a goose, and one very opinionated turkey. A lot of my cooking is built around the seasonal fruits and vegetables we grow ourselves. I’m a sucker for anything spicy and a good margarita, and I bring a from-scratch, garden-to-table eye to every recipe I test!