I thought part of what Kenji was going for was that the recipes would work in a home kitchen. I guess simultaneous work might not be out of the question--there are a few things we make here where it's ... more practicable to make them, if we have more than one person working in the kitchen.
Some of it was my mistake. I didn't have my red sauce prepared ahead of time, which I normally would -- since developing mine, I keep a jar of it in the fridge to use in different recipes, because I'm apparently turning into an Italian grandmother -- but last night, it meant cooking sauce, meat, constantly stirring the bechemel (whatever it's called in Italian, sorry), monitoring the noodles, etc., all at the same time.
If I had the meat and red sauce done beforehand, it would have been much less hectic.
The longer I own the Food Lab, the more I love it, though. During the pandemic, my kids and I developed our own stovetop mac and cheese recipe, because I would be damned if I was going to let them go out in the world thinking Kraft was the height of what mac and cheese it could be. Last night, I discovered a four-page spread of how different cheeses work in mac and cheese, which would have simplified our weeks of experimentation learning the same thing.
And, of course, his viral matrix on how different ingredients and amounts change chocolate chip cookies is going to inform some holiday baking this year, as we use that to create a "family" chocolate chip cookie recipe.
Such a good cookbook.