Panic, Stress, Disaster! My First Day as a Chef

Being a writer for GameGrin, it goes without saying that I love playing games, but another passion of mine is cooking; you just can’t beat the feeling of preparing a delicious meal to share with friends and family.

For the longest time I've wanted to play a game that combined these two hobbies. Cooking Mama gave it a good go, but I ultimately found it too childish to have any longevity. The next closest was Diner Dash, but that was more focused on the table-waiting side of the restaurant business.

A few weeks ago I finally found the restaurant simulator I've been waiting for: Cook, Serve, Delicious! The following log details my (decidedly eventful) first day as a chef.

09:00 - Time to open up! I'm allowed to choose four menu items to start off with and I've gone with fries, salad, sopaipillas (sort of like doughnuts) and to drink, pints of beer. Who needs haute cuisine?

10:00 - Things have been pretty quiet so far. Only a few punters have been through the door, and they’ve all been getting their morning lager. Not quite the sophisticated crowd I had hoped for.

11:00 - Finally had my first food orders. I forgot to salt some people's fries, but no major screw-ups thus far. I’m pretty good at this restaurant malarkey, if I do say so myself.

12:00 - Rush hour time! Customers are flooding in now and I can barely keep up. I manage to string together a few perfect orders, but then the dishes start piling up and the rubbish needs taking out, causing me to lose my rhythm.

13:00 - Phew, lunchtime is over. That was rough. I messed up several orders, but at least everyone got served.

14:00 - The flow of customers has changed from a tidal wave to a trickle, but the slow pace is appreciated after the stress of lunch.

15:00 - I'm getting pretty confident now. Beginning to get a rhythm going with my orders and the food is going out perfect. Lots of satisfied customers.

16:00 - I’m pretty much the king of cooking at this point. I'm whipping up fries and beer like nobody’s business. Gordon Ramsay eat your heart out!

17:00 - Still on a roll, I’ve delivered nothing but perfect orders since lunch. Somehow I doubt I’ll be able to keep that up over dinner though.

18:00 - Time for the dinner rush hour! This is even tougher than lunch. Orders are coming in three or four at a time, but I’m just about managing. Unfortunately, the toilet suddenly needs seeing to, and I forget to wash my hands. Don’t worry, I didn’t actually prepare any food with crap on my hands, but it delays me enough to miss a couple of orders.

19:00 - Dinner rush over. That could have gone better, but I’m pretty happy with the number of perfect orders I produced. I’m not sure how I’ll be able to pull off a complicated gourmet menu though; fries and doughnuts were stressful enough!

20:00 - Since the dinner rush I’ve mostly been sorting out the mess caused by the stampede of customers - scrubbing dishes, cleaning the toilets and taking the bins out. Maybe one day I’ll be able to hire people to do this stuff for me.

21:00 - Someone just shared a picture of their salad online. I normally hate it when people do that, but I need all the help I can get to attract new customers!

22:00 - Just a few sad-looking beer-drinkers to serve and... we’re closed!

Cook, Serve, Delicious! is the cooking game I’ve always wanted to play. The food preparation mini-games, while basic, are tactile and nicely presented - and having briefly worked in a kitchen, it definitely captures the stressful atmosphere!

A quick look through the game’s menus made it seem like there’s plenty of longevity here too, with restaurant, kitchen and menu upgrades all available to make an eatery that even Jamie Oliver would be proud of. Even if I didn’t earn any repeat customers today, I’ll definitely be returning to Cook, Serve, Delicious!.