How to turn on Cook Mode on iPhone and keep the screen awake

Updated 26 October 2026

1. Open Plate & Page on your iPhone and open the recipe you want to cook.
2. Tap Cook, or ask Siri “Start cooking in Plate & Page”. Cooking Mode opens full screen.
3. Leave Cooking Mode open while you cook. Your iPhone won’t dim or lock until you close it.
4. Swipe, tap Next, or say “Next” to move through the steps, and tap Finish on the last one.

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.

Before you start: read it through once

Cooking Mode is most useful when the recipe holds no surprises. Before you tap Cook, scroll through the whole recipe once. Check the servings, look for steps that need time you might not have, such as marinating overnight or chilling dough, and get the ingredients out and measured. Cooks call this mise en place, and it is the single biggest difference between a calm dinner and a frantic one. Once everything is in front of you, Cooking Mode can do the rest: one step on screen, the ingredients it needs listed with it, and nothing else to scroll past with sticky fingers.

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-recognition permission the first time. 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.

The Live Activity

On iPhone, a Live Activity puts the current step and a running step timer on the Lock Screen and in the Dynamic Island. That matters more than it sounds: when the oven timer is running and you wander off to set the table, a glance at the locked phone tells you where you are in the recipe and how long is left, without unlocking it with wet hands.

Privacy of voice control

Hands-free cooking is optional. When you enable it, Plate & Page requests microphone and speech-recognition permission and requires Apple’s on-device speech recognition. Voice audio and recognized commands are not stored by Plate & Page or sent to a Plate & Page server. You can turn the microphone permission off at any time in your device’s Settings, and Cooking Mode keeps working by touch.

Substitutions while you cook

Out of buttermilk halfway through a recipe? Plate & Page offers practical substitutions with ratios and technique notes, so you know not just what to swap but how much and what changes. A few classic kitchen swaps worth knowing anyway:

• Buttermilk: stir about a tablespoon of lemon juice or white vinegar into a cup of milk and let it stand for a few minutes.
• Self-raising flour: plain flour with baking powder added, roughly two teaspoons per cup.
• Fresh herbs for dried: dried herbs are stronger, so use about a third as much.
• Wine in a sauce: stock with a small splash of vinegar or lemon juice for acidity.

Substitutions in baking change textures more than in a stew, so expect small differences and taste as you go.

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. It records 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.