Skill library / Le Chat

Recipe Adapter skill for Le Chat

Recipes rarely fit the household you are actually cooking for. They serve four when you need six, use cups and Fahrenheit, or include nuts, dairy or meat that someone at your table cannot eat. This skill asks Le Chat to rework the recipe properly, with changed quantities, sensible swaps and adjusted method, rather than just substituting one ingredient and hoping.

What it's good for

• Turning an American recipe in cups, sticks of butter and Fahrenheit into grams, millilitres and fan oven Celsius.
• Making a Sunday roast or lasagne for four into one for nine, with realistic tin sizes and cooking times.
• Adapting a family favourite to be dairy-free and nut-free for a child's birthday while keeping it tasty.

How the skill works

1. 1. Ask the user to paste the full recipe, or describe the dish, and tell you the number of servings needed, any allergies or dislikes, and the equipment they have (oven type, hob, slow cooker, tin sizes).
2. 2. Restate the changes you are about to make in two or three lines, and ask one short question if anything vital is missing, such as whether an allergy is severe or only a preference.
3. 3. Rewrite the ingredients list in UK units (grams, millilitres, teaspoons and tablespoons), scaled to the new servings, with substitutions marked clearly in brackets next to the original ingredient.
4. 4. Rewrite the method in numbered steps, adjusting pan or tin sizes, cooking times and temperatures (give fan oven Celsius, with gas mark if useful), and note anything that behaves differently after the swap, such as a flatter bake or a thinner sauce.
5. 5. Finish with a short list of what changed and why, plus one or two things to watch while cooking, and offer to make a shopping list of just the items needed.

Built-in rules

• Never describe a substitution as safe for a serious allergy or medical diet. Remind the user to check packaging labels, and say when an ingredient commonly has hidden traces, such as stock cubes or chocolate.
• Do not invent precision. If scaling a recipe significantly affects baking, say so and give a cautious time range rather than an exact figure.
• Keep the original dish recognisable. Offer the closest sensible swap, say honestly when the result will taste or set differently, and do not quietly drop ingredients.

Example

You: “Here's a US banana bread recipe in cups for 12 slices. Can you make it dairy-free, in grams, and halve it for a 1lb loaf tin?”
Result: A halved recipe in grams with dairy-free butter and milk swaps, a fan oven temperature, an adjusted baking time for a 1lb tin, and a note that the crumb may be slightly denser.

SKILL.md template

Save as recipe-adapter/SKILL.md.

---
name: recipe-adapter
description: "Adapts a recipe to suit your household: swaps out allergens or disliked ingredients, scales servings up or down, and converts units to UK measures. Use it when a recipe is for the wrong number of people, includes something you can't eat, or comes in cups and Fahrenheit."
---

# Recipe Adapter

## Workflow
1. 1. Ask the user to paste the full recipe, or describe the dish, and tell you the number of servings needed, any allergies or dislikes, and the equipment they have (oven type, hob, slow cooker, tin sizes).
2. 2. Restate the changes you are about to make in two or three lines, and ask one short question if anything vital is missing, such as whether an allergy is severe or only a preference.
3. 3. Rewrite the ingredients list in UK units (grams, millilitres, teaspoons and tablespoons), scaled to the new servings, with substitutions marked clearly in brackets next to the original ingredient.
4. 4. Rewrite the method in numbered steps, adjusting pan or tin sizes, cooking times and temperatures (give fan oven Celsius, with gas mark if useful), and note anything that behaves differently after the swap, such as a flatter bake or a thinner sauce.
5. 5. Finish with a short list of what changed and why, plus one or two things to watch while cooking, and offer to make a shopping list of just the items needed.

## Rules
- Never describe a substitution as safe for a serious allergy or medical diet. Remind the user to check packaging labels, and say when an ingredient commonly has hidden traces, such as stock cubes or chocolate.
- Do not invent precision. If scaling a recipe significantly affects baking, say so and give a cautious time range rather than an exact figure.
- Keep the original dish recognisable. Offer the closest sensible swap, say honestly when the result will taste or set differently, and do not quietly drop ingredients.

How to install in Le Chat

Copy the template above, then open Le Chat. In the sidebar, go to Context, then Skills, and click New Skill. Call it "Recipe Adapter". Paste into the SKILL.md box and click Create Skill. It switches on when your request matches. Don't see Skills? Go to Agents, then Create Agent, and paste into Instructions instead.

Pro tip

Save your household's standing details, such as allergies, usual number of servings, oven type and favourite tin sizes, in the instructions of a custom Le Chat agent if your plan offers it, or paste them at the start of each chat, so you never have to retype them.

FAQ

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• Customer FAQ Builder skill for Le Chat