Warm up recipe held in centre (5)
I believe the answer is:
heart
'centre' is the definition.
('heart' can be a synonym of 'centre')
'warm up recipe held' is the wordplay.
'warm up' becomes 'heat' (I've seen this before).
'recipe' becomes 'r' (abbreviation).
'held' means one lot of letters goes inside another.
'heat' enclosing 'r' is 'HEART'.
'in' acts as a link.
(Other definitions for heart that I've seen before include "It's in the chest" , "Core - card" , "bottle" , "Not a club" , "Playing card - pity" .)