I figured it was obvious enough that it's already been thought of, but while we wait, let's post more specific food related suggestions.
-Like pitch and tone that instruments produce, ingredients can produce one or more of the five flavors: sweet, salty, bitter, sour, umami, plus spicy. Full dishes could generate a flavor profile generated from the combination and dwarves can have different tastes.
-Components (syrups, sauces, grilled chops, etc.) could be automatically produced and eaten as is. Then, recipes could be queued to be "assembled" like instruments to produce the happy thought while eating.
-Simpler recipes could be made from generalized components, like a sauce made from any sauce-producing fruit. Then, more complex recipes could call for more specified components, like a sauce that must be made from apples and seasoned with ginger.
Just to give a real-life example to explain the third point: you could make a "pasta" for dinner, which means you're combining cooked noodles with soy sauce and rice wine, or you're combining cooked macaroni with a tomato and meat sauce, or any variety of things. Otherwise, you could make a "spaghetti and meatballs" for dinner, which calls for very specific ingredients. This way, dwarves could make recipes from any available ingredients in the fort, but simultaneously have their traditional recipes as well.