TL:DR – Throwing random content on a plate doesn’t create a meal. And throwing random assets into a module doesn’t create learning.

A video is not a course. A slide deck is not a meal.

We love to romanticize great chefs, and for good reason. They don’t just throw ingredients into a pan and hope for the best. They plan. They prep. They know how to combine flavors to create a delicacy, how heat and timing affect taste and texture, and how to plate it all so it doesn’t just taste good, it works.

Good chefs follow a recipe. The best chefs create recipes to follow.

The same is true for instructional designers.

Ingredients Make a Meal, But Are Not the Meal

An egg isn’t a frittata.

Butter isn’t a croissant.

And a video isn’t a training course.

In our corporate training world, stakeholders and SMEs often come to us with a single “ingredient” and call it a solution:

“Can you make a quick video?”

“Just give me a PowerPoint deck.”

“We already have a PDF, can you turn that into something?”

But here’s the truth:

Modes of training – video, slides, PDFs, games – alone are not training.

They’re ingredients. They need the right recipe, flow, and timing to work.

Instructional Design Is Like Menu Planning

A well-designed learning experience is like a multi-course meal:

• The appetizer grabs attention and sets the tone.
• The main course is the core content—delivered in the right mode, at the right depth.
• The sides reinforce and support the learning.
• The dessert is the application, reflection, or reward that wraps it all up.

Each element needs to pair with the others. Throwing random content on a plate doesn’t create a meal. And throwing random assets into a module doesn’t create learning.

The Recipe Is the Learning Plan

Chefs don’t wing it.

Neither should we.

Behind every seamless dining experience is a recipe, a process, and a plan. The same goes for training.

The Learner Is the Diner

They don’t care how fancy the new tool is.

They care about how the experience tastes; how it lands, how it helps, how it moves them forward. (WII-FM!)

Your job as an instructional designer isn’t to show off the newest platform or to throw a dozen ingredients on a plate.

Your job is to craft a satisfying, structured, and purposeful learning experience from start to finish.

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Hungry for Better Training?

If your learning initiatives feel scattered, undercooked, or missing the mark… Let’s fix that.

👩‍🍳 I’m Simon, co-founder of The ID Department, a boutique instructional design agency that brings Fortune 500-quality training to teams of every size.

We build complete meals, not just serve random ingredients.

✅ Unlimited projects

✅ Unlimited revisions

✅ Predictable monthly cost

Let’s build your next training menu—together.

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