Not entirely sure if any of this is a spoiler, so I've put parts of my post in 'invisible' text. *highlight to read*
You need to
place a villager on the cauldron to start to prepare the stew first.
Be sure the cauldron is on the fire!

Then (spoiler)
place a villager on each of the 3 herbs you want (end of spoiler)
Also, you'll need to get a villager to add water and food to it.
It can be done by several villagers, each villager on one task!
