Tell it what you actually like
Taste is specific. You like lemon and dislike sweet sauces. You want heat, but not so the children leave the table. A recipe that ignores that will be competent and still disappointing.
"Tasty" is not an instruction
Every recipe claims it. The useful version is a short list of what you reach for and what you push aside. Lemon, garlic, browned butter, vinegar. Not coriander. Not very sweet. Cheese is welcome. You can keep that list on the household so you are not performing your personality every time you ask for dinner.
A more careful recipe — the sort you might cook when someone is coming — is a setting, not a different product. It still has to pass the Tuesday test: would you eat the leftovers.
Balance is salt, fat, acid, and enough
If a dish tastes flat, it is usually under-salted or missing something sharp. Add the salt in the pan, taste, then lemon or vinegar at the end. Heat is a separate dial. So is richness. You do not need a theory. You need permission to taste before it hits the plate, and a recipe that leaves room for that instead of burying the food in a glaze.
If the generator keeps suggesting the same smoky-sweet profile, tell it you are bored of it. Taste changes. The saved preference can change with it.
Other people's mouths
A household is a compromise. One person wants chilli, one wants the food they grew up with, one is five. Cook the middle and put the extreme in a dish on the table: chilli oil, extra cheese, a plain extra portion of the starch. That is more reliable than asking for a recipe everyone will love, which is how you get something nobody quite does.
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