Whether you're looking for easy weeknight dinners, quick breakfast ideas, or planning an extravagant holiday feast, you want recipes that are simultaneously stunning, delicious and reliable. (No one wants to spend time and money on a recipe that won't work!) That's where the Good Housekeeping Test Kitchen comes in.
Our team of food and culinary experts — including chefs, cooks, bakers, recipe editors, culinary producers, registered dietitians, and food stylists — work together to create the thousands of tested-til-perfect recipes you find in our magazines, cookbooks, and online. We aim to make sure that every recipe that comes from our kitchen will work in yours, with whatever tools, equipment and ingredients you have.
Why you should trust us
In our mission to create dishes that are both tasty and achievable for the average home cook, we actually make each recipe at least three times in our professional test kitchen. Located in the heart of the Good Housekeeping Institute, the Good Housekeeping Test Kitchen consists of four complete kitchens, each equipped with different appliances and cookware — think gas, electric and induction ranges; nonstick, cast-iron and stainless steel pans. Led by Senior Kitchen & Cooking Lab Director Nicole Papantoniou, the team works to test each recipe until perfect (more on that below), as well as conduct blind side-by-side taste tests and evaluate new grocery store products plus wine and spirits.
How we develop recipes
Our team of culinary pros get inspiration from everywhere. The Good Housekeeping Test Kitchen team is constantly thinking — and talking! — about food. You will find at least one of us at the grocery store almost every single day. We lean into comfort and familiarity, sharing dishes from our childhoods and recipes from our own weekly rotations. We also love to experiment and learn. We’re always tasting new cuisines and embracing a range of flavor combinations and ingredients, whether we’re on vacation, diving into new cookbooks or out to dinner with friends. Our recipe developers leverage what they learned while attending culinary school and working in restaurants. We’re also constantly asking ourselves: Is there a better (easier, tastier, simpler) way of making this?
We consider what we learned in our kitchen product tests to come up with buzzy recipes, and work with our registered dietitian in our Good Housekeeping Institute Nutrition Lab, who provides insights on how to create the healthiest options without sacrificing flavor. We put our heads and stomachs together to come up with recipes that are delicious, innovative, smart and that resonate with our audiences.
How we test recipes
After a recipe developer creates a brand-new recipe, it is tasted by the entire team, then adjusted based on tasting notes and technique fixes (sometimes it takes multiple times to get the formula exactly right). The recipe is then written and edited as it will appear in the magazine. Then, a recipe tester follows and cooks the recipe, while using a different set of appliances and ingredients. Recipe testers will flag if there’s an easier way to make the dish, whether that’s introducing a shortcut or identifying a way to eliminate using an extra pan. The recipe is then sometimes adjusted even further and cooked another time. At last, it’s cooked again by a food stylist for a photo shoot.
Dozens of people taste each dish along the way and we’ll make adjustments based on feedback, whether that’s adding more salt or acid or dialing down the spice level. Throughout the entire process, a recipe editor tweaks the language of the recipe along the way — to make sure it’s easy to read (and follow along!).
Meet our experts
Everyone on the team brings a unique set of experiences and taste buds to the table. Some attended culinary school, while others studied food science, nutrition and food policy, and/or spent time working in cafes and restaurants. One thing unites us all: a love of eating, drinking, cooking, and thinking about food.
Nicole Papantoniou
Kitchen & Cooking Lab Senior Director
Nicole (she/her) is the senior director of the Good Housekeeping Institute Kitchen & Cooking Lab. She oversees all content and testing related to kitchen products, food, and recipes. She has worked at GH since 2019, and is a trained cook, published recipe developer, and seasoned product tester with nearly 15 years of experience. She has worked in test kitchens for national magazines and kitchen appliances brands, where she also helped develop products for the home cook. She earned a degree in journalism from SUNY New Paltz, graduated with a Grand Diplome in Classic Culinary Arts from the French Culinary Institute, and studied culinary nutrition at the Natural Gourmet Institute (both now part of the Institute of Culinary Education in New York City.)
Susan Choung
Susan (she/her) is the Senior Food Editor at Good Housekeeping, where she leads wine, spirits, and drinks coverage and helps shape food content across platforms. In the Kitchen & Cooking Lab, she develops and rigorously tests recipes, drawing on experience that spans Food & Wine, Food Network, three meal kit companies, a Brooklyn wine shop, and Chez Panisse in Berkeley, California. A graduate of Brown University, she has also collaborated on several cookbooks.
Tina Martinez
Tina Martinez (she/her) is the food producer for the Hearst Lifestyle Group. Her work for Good Housekeeping includes recipe development and testing as well as food styling. She also brings the Kitchen & Cooking Lab’s expertise to GH’s popular “I Tried It” series, where she tests viral recipes and food trends. She has worked in the food industry since 2007, with experience as a restaurant line cook, culinary educator, and food stylist for editorial, digital, and television platforms. Tina now lives in Westchester with her husband after leaving Brooklyn for a little more suburban greenery. When she’s not cooking, she enjoys discovering local breweries, hiking in national parks, and digging for treasures at thrift stores.