Abstract: Control unit (110) and method (400) for assisting a user in orchestrating preparation of a meal comprising a plurality of dishes, based on recipes (160, 170) stored in a database (120) on a common recipe format, by independent recipe authors (130, 140). The method (400) comprises offering (401) dishes to a user, which correspond to a respective recipe (160, 170) in the database (120); receiving (402) a selection of dishes from the user; determining (403) a required work intensity of the user, for each recipe step; determining (404) a maximum time limit of each step of the respective recipes (160, 170); composing (406) a time interval structure of the steps of the respective recipes (160, 170), based on the required work intensity and the maximum time limit of each step; and outputting (409) the composed (406) time interval structure to the user.