How do I discuss cooking smells without making my neighbour feel her food is unwelcome?

My neighbour read my note and asked, “Do you mean the smell, or do you mean what I cook?”

I had written, “Could you avoid strong cooking after six?” Looking at it in her hand, I could see why it sounded like a judgement about her dinner.

She cooks after getting home from work. Some evenings the smell reaches my bedroom on our shared landing, and I close the bedroom door while it fades. I haven't established exactly how it enters. I assumed her front door was being left open, but she says it stays shut.

I want to apologise for suggesting a cooking deadline that would cover most of her evenings. I also want to explain the actual effect and ask the building manager to look into how smells are travelling between flats. She has said she would help with that, but she doesn't want to negotiate a list of permitted meals.

Neither do I. How can I reset this around the room and the route of the smell, without pretending my original note was better worded than it was?