A system and apparatus for translating cooking time and temperatures from arrays of pictures of foods cooked to different degrees of doneness or other type of result. The system enables users to select a desired doneness from pictures of food and optionally add additional modifiers it based on the size, weight, shape, and fat content of the meat with additional pictures indexed to different modification parameters. The system enables users to adjust a setting if the user has modified the food he or she intends to cook, such as by cutting in half, or if the food was frozen, allowing additional cook time and parameter modifications. A program of instructions pertaining to the system can be located on a sous vide cooking device or on a device external to the a sous vide device, such as on a personal computing device.