Spoon and Simmer exists to answer one question: how do you actually get a good, honest meal on the table? I'm Mari Bennett — recipe developer, former sous chef, and the person tes…
Spoon and Simmer exists to answer one question: how do you actually get a good, honest meal on the table? I'm Mari Bennett — recipe developer, former sous chef, and the person testing every pot of gnocchi pot pie and mac and cheese in this kitchen before it ever reaches yours. This page lays out exactly how I decide what to cook, how I check my own work, and what you can expect from me as a reader. If you want the longer story of how I got here, that's over on About Us.
My goal is simple: real recipes that work in real kitchens, on real weeknights, without pretending that food is more complicated — or more virtuous — than it needs to be. I studied nutrition and dietetics, then spent six years on restaurant lines learning that almost every kitchen disaster is fixable if you know why it happened. That combination shapes everything I publish: the science has to check out, and the recipe has to actually get dinner done.
Every recipe on this site — whether it's a slow cooker beef stew or a weekend baking project — goes through the same process:
I write and test every recipe myself. There's no ghostwriting team behind this site — when a post says "I," it means me, standing in my 1920s bungalow kitchen in Portland.
Everything I publish falls inside the categories you see on the site — Dinner, Breakfast, Desserts, Appetizers, Salads, Soups, Baking, Drinks, and Seasonal — because I'd rather go deep on food I actually cook than spread thin across trends I don't understand. Topic ideas come from three places: questions readers send to [email protected], seasonal ingredients showing up at my Saturday farmers market, and genuine gaps I notice — like needing one more reliable one-pot dinner for a Tuesday in February.
When a recipe leans on food science (why a béchamel breaks, why gnocchi turns gummy) or a technique I didn't grow up with, I research it properly — culinary references, trusted technique guides, or my own notes from culinary training and restaurant work. I'm honest about where a dish comes from, including the bicultural Texan kitchen I learned in. I don't chase viral trends just to chase them; if a trend shows up here, it's because I tested it and think it earns a spot on your table.
I only recommend tools, pans, or ingredients I've actually used and would buy again — no exceptions. If I mention a Dutch oven or a specific brand of masa harina, it's because it made a real difference in that recipe, not because someone paid for placement. My full philosophy on outside partnerships and how they might intersect with recommendations is spelled out in the Disclosure and Affiliate Disclaimer pages, and I'd encourage you to read them if you're curious how any of this works financially.
Spoon and Simmer runs on a mix of advertising and, occasionally, affiliate links, which help keep the recipes free and ad-supported rather than behind a paywall. Any sponsored content or brand collaboration is clearly labeled as such, and I only work with partners whose products I'd genuinely use in my own kitchen. Details on how collaborations are handled live on the Collaboration page, and broader questions about data, cookies, and site behavior are covered in the Privacy Policy and Cookie Policy.
I test thoroughly, but I'm human, and kitchens are unpredictable. If you try a recipe and something's off — a missing step, a timing issue, an ingredient amount that doesn't add up — please tell me at [email protected]. I read every message myself. Confirmed errors get corrected promptly, and for anything significant, I'll note the update directly in the post so returning readers can see what changed and when.
The comments section is part of this kitchen too, and I want it to feel like one — helpful, encouraging, and useful to the next person making the recipe. Comments that are abusive, spammy, or wildly off-topic get removed. Full details on what's welcome and what isn't are in the Community Guidelines, and general site usage terms are covered in the Terms of Use.
If anything here is unclear, or you just want to tell me a recipe worked beautifully (or didn't), reach out through Contact or drop me a line directly at [email protected]. You can also find more of my cooking over on Pinterest. Thanks for trusting me with your dinner table — I don't take that lightly.