Extreme Cooking

How would you apply XP in the kitchen? It can be done - see IronChef.

I wouldn't. But I have seen "plan to throw one away" (from Brooks' MythicalManMonth) applied with some success. When cooking something new, follow the recipe exactly the first time. Then, the 2nd through Nth times, customize.

I like to do this in the standard XP way - small changes for each iteration (this is how I created my pancake and soup recipes).

This I understand for soup, but pancakes? C'mon :)

I notice that much of this page assumes that the result of ExtremeCooking is minimalist cooking. But also consider your requirements. Do you just want to keep yourself alive, or do you want to have fun and/or enjoy what you eat? Are you cooking for yourself, or friends and family, or customers? Are you cooking for someone you'd like to impress, or see naked, or get out of the house as soon as possible? Or all three? What works for one situation might be inadequate or excessive for another. --NickBensema

Well, the principle of DoTheSimplestThingThatCouldPossiblyWork would seem to indicate that we should just go to various restaurants instead of bothering to cook. Or maybe skip real food and just take our nutrients in the form on pills and tasteless sludge.

Only if you apply it to eating, not cooking. It's the simplest way to eat.

If you apply it to cooking, you could make it work on the level of buying prepared ingredients at the store instead of fashioning your own, i.e. buying curry powder and seasoning packets instead of grinding and drying your own spices and making your own seasoning mixes.

See "stir-fried random" in the JargonFile -- a case of DoTheSimplestThingThatCouldPossiblyWok?? (See also WeaknessForBadPuns?.)

UnitTests would mean that we should eat our food while cooking it. No. It means you should taste it while cooking it.

PairProgramming means always cook with a friend. A sous-chef. Yes.

YouArentGonnaNeedIt means skip cooking altogether and starve. No. It means don't cook so much that you have to throw some away. Also, don't buy kitchen utensils or tools just because they look neat. Make sure you have the basics, and that they're all high-quality. Only buy utensils when you've demonstrated a need for them.

Perhaps YouArentGonnaNeedIt means you should only eat the number of calories your body needs. Then you won't have to RefactorMercilessly (diet) later

Perhaps it refers to ingredients or courses, not portions.

RefactorMercilessly: If the resulting food tastes bad, alter or trash the recipe.

My Mom does this: She keeps only those recipes that everybody likes (to various extents), and if she tries a recipe that people don't like, she immediately throws it away. There are too many recipes that taste good, and everybody likes, to waste time with tons of recipes of marginal value. -- BrentNewhall

TestDrivenDesign: Make sure all your ingredients are ready before you start to cook. It's so frustrating to be halfway through preparing a meal and realize that you don't have enough of one ingredient. Also, try out a recipe for yourself before trying it out with guests.

ContinuousIntegration: Keep a database of recipes, physical or otherwise, and keep it up-to-date. Why lose a good recipe?

SmallReleases: ???

FortyHourWeek: Be willing to go out to eat once in awhile, especially if you have very little time to cook yourself.

OnsiteCustomer: There's a lot of motivation to cook well when you're cooking for somebody else.

ThereMustBeFood: Self-evident. :-)

OnceAndOnlyOnce: As cooking doesn't have digital properties, does this rule apply?

Sure -- if different dishes in your menu require chopped onions, it's a lot easier to chop up all the onions you'll need at once, instead of chopping one onion when you start cooking and chopping a couple more later.

How about ExtremeProgrammingOnIce?