Using PHP 5.4 on Ubuntu 12.04.

default.rb

# Can force this into php/recipes/package.rb
# Or if you're like me and use a cookbook to provision with chef-solo...
# add this near the top of your file before you update apt

# Use PHP 5.4
apt_repository "php54" do
  uri "http://ppa.launchpad.net/ondrej/php5-oldstable/ubuntu"
  distribution node['lsb']['codename']
  components ["main"]
  keyserver "keyserver.ubuntu.com"
  key "E5267A6C"
end

include_recipe "apt"