What steps should be taken to ensure safe food preparation?

To ensure safe food preparation, following recipes precisely, monitoring cooking times, and checking temperatures is essential. This approach helps maintain consistency in the food's flavor and quality while also ensuring safety standards are met. Recipes often include specific guidelines for ingredient amounts, cooking temperatures, and times to prevent foodborne illnesses, as undercooked food can harbor harmful bacteria.

Monitoring cooking times is critical because foods need to be cooked for a specific duration to ensure harmful pathogens are eliminated. Regularly checking temperatures helps verify that food reaches safe cooking temperatures, minimizing the risk of illness caused by undercooked or improperly handled food.

In contrast to the other options, prioritizing speed without regard for safety can lead to serious health risks. Checking temperatures only occasionally does not provide a reliable method of ensuring food safety. Additionally, cooking time is indeed critical; disregarding it can lead to improper cooking and unsafe food, which is unacceptable in any food service setting. Thus, the correct answer highlights the key practices necessary to ensure food safety effectively.