However, it was soon clear that “Cooking Simulator” was just as focused on perfectionism as the “Papa’s” games: The game’s campaign is all about delivering perfectly cooked dishes to your customer as fast as possible. I learned a few things from the recipes as well, like what goes into a borscht and what herbs pair well with a broccoli soup. For the first hour or so it was fun to mess around with the game’s physics and throw around tomatoes and sausages. I had a virtual environment where I could experiment as much as I wanted without having to worry about going shopping or doing the dishes. At first, this seemed like the game I had been waiting for. You can chop, pour, fry and blend a full suite of ingredients and create all sorts of dishes. To try to figure out what really bothered me about all of these cooking games, I picked up “ Cooking Simulator,” which gives you a virtual kitchen with real-life physics. There are some enjoyable elements to these games, but they don’t quite give me what I’m looking for in a cooking game. There’s some charm to this approach, and it does attempt to teach some basic kitchen skills in a fun way. Another popular cooking game series, “ Cooking Mama,” varies the formula a bit by making you complete timed mini-games for each step of a recipe. This can - and has - led to some great shouting matches that end in controllers being thrown and friendships being jeopardized. One of the most popular examples is the “ Overcooked” series, which adds an extra layer of multiplayer chaos to the equation. But the formula of the “Papa’s” games carries over to a lot of other games in the genre. I’ll admit, it’s a bit silly to get worked up about a Flash game ruining my love of cooking. While I understand that some people like playing games with that kind of pressure, the “Papa’s” series helps to define the genre of cooking games as stressful and competitive. They become glorified McDonald’s simulators that prioritize speed and perfection, just like “MasterChef” or the litany of Food Network cooking competitions. Each game boils down to you preparing customers’ meals exactly as they ordered them as quickly as possible. Not that there’s much difference between any of the titles. Not just “Papa’s Pizzeria,” but his “Freezeria,” his “Burgeria” and his “Wingeria” too. There’s something that I’ve always been afraid to confess because of its potential to paint me in a negative light. I have to give a fair warning to anyone who played Flash games as a kid on sites like “ Coolmath Games” or “ Addicting Games.” There’s a chance that I’m about to bruise your nostalgia. I love immersing myself in the world of cooking, but there’s one genre of food content that I can’t stand: cooking games. Kenji López-Alt and Adam Ragusea are some of my favorite creators on the platform, and sometimes I even find myself watching reviews of microwave TV dinners. It’s a creative outlet in which my only limits are my own tastes and my grocery budget.ĭuring my free time, I usually find myself scrolling through recipes in the New York Times Cooking app or watching old episodes of Anthony Bourdain’s “ Parts Unknown.” YouTube chefs like J. I often use it as a way to blow off steam or procrastinate working on a project due the next day. I personally find cooking to be a fun hobby that also happens to help keep me from starving. As college students trying to find time to feed ourselves between homework, hangouts and hangovers, our relationship with food and cooking is always changing.
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