About Jose Agar & our editorial policy
Jose Agar is an independent New Zealand home-cooking and baking resource. Every recipe is written to be cooked in a home kitchen, with ingredients you can buy locally, and is tested before it is published.
What we do
We publish straightforward recipes for the food New Zealanders actually cook at home: everyday baking, weeknight dinners, the classics that turn up at every gathering, and a little entertaining. Our focus is clarity. We give real quantities, honest timings in NZ measures, and notes for the parts that commonly go wrong.
We are not chasing trends or chasing length. A recipe is here because it works, it is useful, and a home cook can finish it without specialist equipment.
Who writes the recipes
Our recipes are produced by the Jose Agar editorial team, working as an organisation rather than under any single named personality. We do not invent a fictional host or chef, and we do not use a stock photo to stand in for a person who does not exist.
How we use AI
We are open about our process. We use AI tools to help with drafting, structuring and proof-reading our recipes, in the same way a writer might use a research assistant. What AI does not do is replace the kitchen.
- A human editor reviews every recipe for accuracy and tone before it is published.
- Quantities, timings and methods are confirmed by our own kitchen testing.
- We do not present AI-generated text as the work of a fictional person.
Sourcing and accuracy
Where a recipe draws on a traditional method or a published reference, we say so in the sources note on the page. New Zealand classics in particular sit on a long shared tradition, and we credit the background reading we used while developing and checking each one. If we get something wrong, we would rather correct it than leave it standing.
Independent and unaffiliated
This site is independent. It is not affiliated with, endorsed by, sponsored by, or connected to any individual, chef, business, brand or organisation that may share a similar name.
The name "Jose Agar" refers only to this website and its recipes. Any resemblance to a real person's name is coincidental, and no association should be inferred.
Contact
If you have spotted an error in a recipe, or have a question about how something was made, we want to hear about it. You can reach the editorial team through the contact details published on the site. We read every message, even if it takes us a little time to reply.
Image credits
Most photographs on this site are released into the public domain (CC0 1.0 or Public Domain Mark) and require no attribution. The following image is used under a Creative Commons licence that requires credit: