Behind The Plate at daveynutrition
At daveynutrition, our recipes are more than just a collection of ingredients and cooking instructions; they’re a labour of love, creativity, and dedication. Have you ever wondered about the process that goes into bringing a new recipe to your screen? Keep reading to see the journey behind the plate as we unveil the time, energy, and passion invested in developing each recipe.
The Creative Spark & Brainstorming: 1-2 hours
It all starts with a spark of inspiration. Our team consists of a number of food and nutrition enthusiasts. I find inspiration for recipes in many ways (e.g. eating out in restaurants, cooking with family and friends or simply watching cooking shows and jotting down notes). I’m not saying you have to do the same, but rather encouraging you to open up your mind to the endless possibilities of what you can cook. We stay up to date with what’s in season and mindful of what’s affordable and practical. Ever looked up a recipe and ended up spending a ton on ingredients you’ll probably never touch again? We get that, and make sure our recipes mainly revolve around everyday kitchen essentials. Whether it’s a nutrient-packed pasta dish or a comforting, guilt-free dessert, every recipe begins as a concept on the drawing board. And you best believe, we’re factoring in all these things – seasonality, budget – friendliness, and kitchen practicality – because we’re about making cooking an enjoyable experience for everyone.
Recipe Development: 4-5 hours
Next comes the shopping list, physically going to the shop to get the ingredients, preparing the ingredients and cooking the recipe. This can take up to 4 hours in total for some of our more complex recipes. Once the concept is born and the ingredients are bought, hours are spent experimenting with flavors and nutritional components. We fine-tune each recipe to ensure it not only tastes great, but also aligns with our commitment to balanced nutrition. Behind every successful recipe is a series of trials and taste tests. Our team goes through multiple takes, gathering feedback and making adjustments until each dish reaches perfection Once the recipe is perfected and cooked, the dreaded clean up must take place, which can take up to an hour (depending on how messy you are in the kitchen!!).
Photography & Editing: 2-3 hours
Once the recipe has passed the taste test, it’s time for its visual debut. Styling plays a crucial role, ensuring that the images and videos are as inviting as the recipes themselves. Many factors need to be considered when photographing food (e.g lighting, angles and timing (in case some food melts)). We try to capture the essence of each dish in a way that makes the dish look as good as it tastes! Once the pictures and videos have been taken and we are happy with the footage, they must be edited. Creating reels, instagram stories, social media posts and recipe images for the website are all things to be considered and require a lot of focus and attention to detail.
Nutritional Analysis: 1 hour
Although important, our recipes aren’t only about taste; they’re about making informed and health-conscious choices. This is why, after the recipe is developed, our nutritionists analyse the ingredients to provide accurate and insightful nutritional information. The key macronutrients we analyse are CHO (carbohydrate), protein and fat. Protein is crucial for muscle repair and growth. Carbohydrates are the primary energy source and play a crucial role in sustaining energy during physical activity. We also focus on promoting the inclusion of healthy fats as fat is vital for nutrient absorption and cognitive function. Our nutritional analysis is a crucial step to ensure our recipes align with your dietary goals. We have designed our website to make it as easy as possible to find the recipes you need with the click of a button. You can choose from a list of drop down boxes to refine the recipe search to your dietary needs. You can choose from Activity Type, Meal Type, and the Type of Nutrition (i.e carb loading, pescatarian, high protein, low calorie etc).
Formatting The Recipe: 2 hours
This involves rewriting the recipe to include nutrition benefits, performance benefits, serving suggestions and health benefits. This is different for each recipe and ingredient, and must be formatted correctly for our website and be written in a way that our members will find it beneficial and easy to understand.
Getting Updated Photos: 2 hours
Certain occasions arise where the original photographs or videos are not up to our standards here at daveynutrition. If this is the case, then the process of making the recipe to get updated footage may begin again.
Uploading & Posting: 1 hour
Once we have all the nutritional information, step-by-step instructions and photographs ready to go, we have to upload all of this to the daveynutrition website. Although not a demanding task, it still requires time and energy to make sure each part of the recipe is easy for our members to read, understand and be able to recreate our recipe themselves.
The entire process, from concept to final photograph, demands significant time and energy. On average, a single recipe may take days to develop, refine, and document. From the daveynutrition kitchen to your home, each recipe is presented on our website with intent. As you can now see, the process of making a new recipe can take at least 15 hours, often times requiring even more hours than that.
We believe in transparency, and this article aims to give you a glimpse into the passion that is behind our recipes. Next time you savour a mouthwatering daveynutrition dish, know that it’s not just food on a plate; it’s a culmination of creativity, dedication, and love for wholesome, delicious nutrition. Our commitment to providing you with the best goes beyond the ingredients – it’s incorporated into each stage of a recipe we share. We hope you enjoyed this journey behind the plate.
We have over 400 delicious recipes available on our website, alongside a selection of some free ones too. To gain access to all of our recipes, check out our Memberships For The Performance & Health Hub on our website! If you have any questions, please reach out to us at expertsupport@daveynutrition.com.
