Could "cookbook" mean "usual"?

Solution 1:

It's jargon for standard or "tried and true".

From Mirriam-Webster.com:

cookbook adjective

Definition of cookbook (Entry 2 of 2) : involving or using step-by-step procedures whose rationale is usually not explained

//a cookbook approach

The sort of cookbook method the first investor is supposed to have wanted is described as analogous to a certain, apparently rather dull if functional, cookbook (from serc.carleton.edu/eet/cookbooks.html:

This cookbook is very straightforward and prescriptive: the ingredients, procedures, and expected outcome for each dish are well defined. Though someone using this cookbook could prepare the specific dishes in the book, they wouldn't learn any alternative preparations or information about the ingredients. This is not the type of cookbook that the EET is modeled after...

Further down on the same page, a more artistic and educational cookbook is described:

This cookbook offers specific recipes, but it also provides opportunities to learn about ingredients and cooking techniques along the way. The book's "About" sections offer valuable advice on choosing and using ingredients, and recipes have suggestions for customizing dishes or making alternate presentations...

Sometimes the term carries negative implications, as in the title of this (quite ethereal) essay: Why No “Cookbook” Approach? Jung on Dream-work

Sometimes it means, as Old Brixtonian said, "the recipe: step-by-step instructions; the precise method.", with a connotation of failproof, or at least low risk. Here is an example in a math book (A First Course in Optimization Theory):

In these last two examples, "cookbook" is an adjective, as is the second instance in your clipping ("non-cookbook opportunities").

Solution 2:

Yep, Yosef Baskin got it right in his comment:

In this use, cookbook means standardized, like boilerplate. Not specifically a recipe, procedure, or formula, but formulaic to the extent it's textbook.

"Cookbook" is often used in programming, eg, to mean a technique or formula that is out of a textbook or otherwise largely standardized. And sometimes it's used in a somewhat derogatory sense to imply that the technique was copied without customizing it appropriately to the current context.