�Cook, Serve, Delicious�: a game on Casual Cooking

Noirit Mustapha

The words ‘intense’ and ‘casual’ being used to describe the same thing might sound like a contradiction, but it works too well for cooking simulator Cook, Serve, Delicious. Initially released in 2013 by the small Texan group Vertigo Games, CSD takes a more simplistic spin on cooking when compared to more known games like Cooking Mama. Whereas one is tasked to imitate the exact cooking methods when making a dish in Cooking Mama, CSD asks for a simple series of button presses to mimic the certain steps required in a recipe. As a result, you’re making each dish in a few seconds as opposed to a minute or two.
The real challenge from the game, however, comes in needing to make several of such dishes in a continuous string. The plot is basic enough, where your character comes into ownership of a place in the newly constructed SherriSoda Tower, where you decide to make a profit through a restaurant. Thus, you have to buy more recipes, upgrade them and your facilities, and serve a menu of items selected by the player to earn more money to continue on. Each day of service lasts several minutes, and while the first few days can be rather boring and sparse, the pace quickly picks up as you’ll find yourself eventually struggling to serve as many steaks as possible without overcooking the fried rice.
Other than the typical career mode, there are also certain challenges that test one’s memory of the dish recipes, time attack weekly challenges with leaderboards, and even an offline cooperative mode and controller support. There’s a lot of variety in the simply drawn food, and the music perfectly fits during the calm and rush hour segments. Ultimately, this is not the game for everyone, especially for someone looking for some quick and active play. However, for those who are patient enough to stick to this game for an hour or so at a time, they’ll find themselves coming back to this underrated gem for weeks to come.

 

�Cook, Serve, Delicious�: a game on Casual Cooking

Noirit Mustapha The words intense and casual being used to describe the same thing might sound like a contradiction, but it works too well for cooking simulator Cook, Serve, Delicious. Initially released in 2013 by the small Texan group Vertigo Games, CSD takes a more simplistic spin on cooking when compared to more known games like Cooking Mama. Whereas one is tasked to imitate the exact cooking methods when making a dish in Cooking Mama, CSD asks for a simple series of button presses to mimic the certain steps required in a recipe. As a result, youre making each dish in a few seconds as opposed to a minute or two. The real challenge from the game, however, comes in needing to make several of such dishes in a continuous string. The plot is basic enough, where your character comes into ownership of a place in the newly constructed SherriSoda Tower, where you decide to make a profit through a restaurant. Thus, you have to buy more recipes, upgrade them and your facilities, and serve a menu of items selected by the player to earn more money to continue on. Each day of service lasts several minutes, and while the first few days can be rather boring and sparse, the pace quickly picks up as youll find yourself eventually struggling to serve as many steaks as possible without overcooking the fried rice. Other than the typical career mode, there are also certain challenges that test ones memory of the dish recipes, time attack weekly challenges with leaderboards, and even an offline cooperative mode and controller support. Theres a lot of variety in the simply drawn food, and the music perfectly fits during the calm and rush hour segments. Ultimately, this is not the game for everyone, especially for someone looking for some quick and active play. However, for those who are patient enough to stick to this game for an hour or so at a time, theyll find themselves coming back to this underrated gem for weeks to come.