Cooking has been an integral part of our lifestyle since humanity’s existence. Incorporating this super important life skill in the gaming apps and consoles has been a crucial move by the developers and designers to let gamers indulge in the virtual activities of honing their culinary skills. Food preparation and presentation are the central gameplay mechanics in this format, and they are played on various platforms like game consoles and mobile devices. Cooking games can be categorized into serious games whose purpose is way beyond just the entertainment and time pass.

A cooking game has vast dimensions of engagement for users, such as simulation, puzzle, arcade, casual, etc. The basic mechanics of this gaming format revolves around preparing various dishes from the list of ingredients available, following the specified rules, and sticking to the timeliness and modularity of cooking tasks. The purpose of a serious cooking game is to promote food and nutrition literacy among the players, ways of preparing special dishes, and upgrading one’s skills from regular to ethnic food preparation. Let’s rundown these food games and the attributes that set them apart.

1. Some food games have the components like slicing meat, chopping vegetables, and frying ingredients to create unique dishes. Each meal preparation requires different short or mini-cooking tasks, and there are almost a hundred dishes to prepare on the menu. The game cooking mama was introduced with these features in early 2000 for the portable console Nintendo and later imported to iOS.

2. There is an enhanced sense of reality with more than 80 dishes to prepare in a cooking simulation food game. Players can become virtual chefs, trying their cooking skills in preparing various international and continental cuisines. For example, hearty tomato soup, salmon steak, seared shrimp, pork slashes with heated potatoes, pumpkin soup, etc.

3. There are several cooking games with the format of restaurant-style cooking where players have to adhere to time-specific and customer-desired dishes. These games expose their players to the challenges and stress of not disappointing their customers and serving them with their orders in the game’s virtual world.

4. Some games allow the players to upgrade their kitchen equipment and appliances for cooking and managing their time effectively. Players can learn the concept of resource management in this way.

5. Some games can help players master the art of decorating a cafe or a restaurant with the appropriate themes and interior design patterns to create a surreal ambiance of a food joint in the virtual world.

So, nowadays, in cooking or food games, integrating the latest features revolving around augmented reality apply to improve culinary skills. It emphasizes several dimensions of the food and hospitality business. It is highly immersive because of the challenges and competitive tasks involved in them, which helps the players have total control. They perceive the virtual cooking tools and objects as a real scenario with real ingredients, and they leave no stone unturned in gaining a competitive edge throughout the gameplay.