Recipe testing is something that many Guild members take very seriously, so it is unfortunate that fees and advances rarely do more nowadays than cover the basics. Based on an idea generated by a ‘Nuts and Bolts of Recipe Writing’ workshop, this is is a simple peer-helps-peer scheme, based entirely on goodwill – no money changes hands.
Please note, this simple peer-helps-peer scheme is based on goodwill – no money changes hands. It is only open to Guild members.
How it works
If you would like to volunteer as a recipe tester, send your name and phone number to the Administrator, Kim Furnell at admin@gfw.co.uk. If you have recipes to test, email our Administrator brief details about your project, and she will send you an up-to-date list of members willing to help out.
As someone who is offering recipes for testing, the system works best if you start by emailing out a list of recipes you’d like tested (or the recipes themselves) to members of the Recipe Testing Network. Ask members to email you back saying which recipes they’d like to test, then confirm who’s testing what, either by picking names out of a hat, or on a first-come-first-served basis. If you end up with recipes that haven’t been selected, you can always email again.
Make sure your testers understand what you’re asking them to do – what level of detail you require. You might just want the recipe to be given a dummy run, to make sure it hangs together, rather than detailed feedback. If you’re worried about something in particular about it, say so. If you have a deadline, please be very clear about this from the outset. If it’s for a book, feel free to thank your testers (and the Guild of Food Writers Recipe Testing Network, if you wish) in your acknowledgements.
If you wish your name to be removed from the Recipe Testing Network, please let our Administrator know immediately.
If you’re volunteering to be an occasional recipe tester…
A reminder that there is no fee involved, either for time or reimbursement of ingredients – you are testing recipes out of goodwill, and for the fun of cooking something new to serve yourself or your family.
When a list of recipes comes through, you are not obliged to offer to test if it is inconvenient. If you’re not sure about any aspect of a recipe you have been asked to test, check with the writer before ploughing ahead.
When returning your comments, be sensitive to the level of detail that has been requested. It can be daunting for a writer to receive a blow-by-blow account of everything that’s wrong with a recipe, when all they were hoping for was the all-clear.
The recipe(s) you are testing belong to the writer, and have not yet been published, so please do not share them without permission.