The culinary team behind meal delivery startup Plated shares their best advice for people who are too busy to cook

As the head of culinary at meal kit delivery startup Plated, Elana Karp knows a thing or two about making cooking as approachable as possible.

She and culinary manager Suzanne Dumaine head up the five-person team who carefully plans out the recipes that Plated subscribers can make with the ingredient kits they get in the mail. The emphasis is on creating locally-sourced, pre-portioned meals that even the newest of cooks can make at home, without sacrificing time or nutrition.

And now Karp and Dumaine are about to release a brand-new cookbook based on the techniques they've used in their work for Plated.

"The book is anchored on Plated-style recipes with respect to key techniques and very detailed instruction, but it enabled us to elaborate on those with different types of recipes, from Thanksgiving dinner to brunch to desserts and side dishes," Karp told Business Insider. "We were also able to make the recipes more flexible, allowing you to take each recipe and customize it by season, occasion, and the amount of time you have in the kitchen, whether it's 30 minutes or 2 days."

That means the recipes cover a lot of ground, from a simple pan-roasted salmon with seasonal vegetables to a somewhat more complicated roast Peking duck. The authors also include some beginner's tips, like how to wield a chef's knife and how to make basic sauces.

Karp and Dumaine shared some of their best advice for those who are just getting started in the kitchen. Their book, "Plated: Weeknight Dinners, Weekend Feasts, and Everything in Between", will be released May 17, though it is currently available for pre-order.