Cook hands-free, one step at a time
A recipe page is built for reading, not cooking. With flour on your hands you want one instruction, in large type, and a way to move on without touching the screen.
Start Cooking Mode
Open a recipe and tap Cook, or ask Siri “Start cooking in Plate & Page”. Tonight’s planned dinner also has a Cook button at the top of your library. On iPhone and iPad Cooking Mode fills the screen; on Mac it opens as a large sheet.
One step at a time
- Each step is shown in large type with Step X of Y and a progress bar, plus a “For this step” list of the ingredients it uses, already scaled.
- Swipe, or tap Next and Previous. On Mac, use the arrow keys; Esc closes Cooking Mode.
- The full ingredient list is one tap away under Ingredients.
Control it with your voice (iPhone and iPad)
Tap the microphone and say:
- “Next” or “next step”
- “Back”, “go back” or “previous”
- “Repeat” or “read it” — the step is read aloud
- “Timer” or “start timer”
Voice control uses Apple’s on-device speech recognition and asks for microphone and speech permission the first time. Audio is not stored or sent anywhere. It needs a device that supports on-device recognition, and it’s optional — Cooking Mode works fully without it.
The screen stays on
While Cooking Mode is open, your iPhone or iPad won’t dim and lock mid-recipe. On Mac, Plate & Page keeps the computer from going to sleep.
Timers that follow you
Cooking times in the steps are detected automatically, so a step that says “bake for 50 minutes” offers a Start button for that timer. New Timer starts any other timer with your own label. Running timers stay visible across the whole app, survive relaunching it, and alert you when they finish — using Apple’s alarm system on the newest iOS versions, or a notification.
On iPhone, a Live Activity puts the current step and a running step timer on the Lock Screen and in the Dynamic Island.
Interrupted? Pick up where you left off
Plate & Page remembers the step you were on for each recipe. Close Cooking Mode to answer the door, reopen it, and you’re back on the same step.
When you’re done
Tap Finish on the last step. The recipe records that you cooked it, and Save Leftovers lets you note the leftover dish as a grocery reminder or on your pantry list — the cooked dish, not its raw ingredients, so it never restocks your shopping list by accident.
What’s free
Cooking Mode, voice control, keeping the screen on, resuming and the Live Activity are all free. Cooking timers are part of Premium, a one-time purchase with Family Sharing.