How to play guide for Cook, Serve, Delicious

Please, describe for other players, how the games Cook, Serve, Delicious! and Cook, Serve, Delicious2! are started and how they're played. This can be a basic description about the controls and what to do first, but can also be a strategy guide about, what players should avoid for a successful restaurant carreer.

= Cook, Serve, Delicious! =

How to start the game

 * Press ENTER for keyboard controls
 * Press A for gamepad controls

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 * Cook, Serve, Delicious!

= Cook, Serve, Delicious2! =

How to start the game

 * Press ENTER for keyboard controls
 * Press A for gamepad controls

Game Basics
In order to progress in the game the player needs to complete days (or shifts) in different restaurants. During the shift the player has to cook and serve food to the customers, refill drinks and complete related chores. Each shift lasts for approximately seven minutes. Once the shift is over, all orders (including chores) stop.

During the shift as customers arrive, their orders appear on the Prep Stations in the left part of the screen. To cook and serve food you need to select an order.

After you select the order, a recipe appears in the bottom of the screen, and a list of available ingredients and actions appears on the right. You need to select the right ingredients or actions and serve the food to the customer.

Some foods are more complex than other. Some take multiple steps. Some foods take time to cook, others are ready instantly.

As in the first game, you can serve the food that does not require additional preparation even while you are busy with another task. These orders are marked with a blue tick.

Order Ratings
Depending on how accurate your ingredient placement and actions are you will receive a Perfect, Average, or Bad rating. This rating is seen right after you serve the dish. If a customer gets a perfect order and also orders a drink and side dish, you will earn a Delicious rating.

Perfect and delicious orders increase your buzz, and bad orders decrease it. Perfect and delicious orders also give more experience. Bad order gives no experience.

Customers pay the full price of their order if it is not bad. Delicious orders bring in more tips.

If you miss an order and it disappears from the screen, that order is counted as bad.

Holding Stations

 * For a list of recipes and their use of holding stations see the Recipes page.

Holding Stations are found on top of the screen. They are used to prepare certain foods and hold them until you are ready to serve. Some recipes require a holding station to be served, other can be prepped or cooked at the holding station and without it.

Holding stations are also used to cook and serve side dishes.

The food in the holding stations has a recipe you need to follow. If you make a mistake while cooking it you will need to clear the station and start cooking again. There is no rating for HS dishes, and making a mistake does not ruin your perfect day.

After you get the recipe right, holding station is fully automated. Once the food is finished cooking it will be ready to serve.

The food at the holding stations decreases in freshness as the day progresses. Food's freshness is determined by a circle with six sectors. If the last sector is flashing the food is about to spoil. Once the circle is empty, the food cannot be served anymore and needs to be trashed.

Every order for the food you have in the holding station uses up one serving from the respective station (even Hamburger recipe that uses two or three meat patties will use only one from the station).

Side Dishes

 * For a list of side dishes see the Recipes page.

Side dishes are necessary to get a Delicious rating on an order. They are also used to increase customer patience.

Every side dish needs to be cooked at the holding stations. Most of them have fairly easy recipes and take some time to cook (several are ready instantly).

One side dish is served automatically with every order as long as it is ready and fresh. If there are more than one unique sides a random one will be chosen.

Every unique side dish in your holding stations also adds 15 seconds to the customer patience meter (7.5 seconds during the rush hour). You can have up to three sides on the menu which will give the customer patience a 45 second boost. That time bonus is added after the side dish is ready. Then a side dish is depleted or spoils existing orders do not loose the patience bonus.

Drinks

 * For a list of drinks see the Recipes page.

Drinks are necessary to get a Delicious rating on an order. Every drink on the menu has a hidden serving value that determines how often its refill appears. A refill occupies one Prep Station. It is possible to get multiple refills for the same drink. Drink refills are not affected by the buzz and do not receive time bonuses from side dishes.

One drink is served automatically with every order. With an active chore, a drink can still be selected to make orders Delicious.

A drink is chosen randomly if more than one is on the menu.

Chores

 * For a list of chores see Chores page.

Chores, or Work Tickets, consist of tasks other than food preparation, like taking out trash, washing dishes, or trapping pests.

Most of the chores are fairly simple and require only a few keystrokes. A chore occupies one Prep Station, its timer is not affected by the buzz and does not receive time bonuses from side dishes.

A number of chores per day depends on the boosters and detractors of the foods you currently have on the menu.

Failing to do a chore or missing it results in a Sick rating which significantly decreases your buzz.

Buzz
Buzz is the game's way of measuring how popular your restaurant is. The higher the buzz is, the more customers you get and the less patient they become.

The lowest possible buzz is 0% with base customer patience of 37 seconds. Every additional 5% of buzz deducts 1.50 seconds of the customer patience, up to a minimum of 1 second at 115% buzz.

The buzz in CSD restaurant can be increased or decreased before starting the shift by using different foods with different boosters and detractors (in Classic mode) or by changing it in the menu (in Standard or Zen mode). The Stress mode always starts at 150% buzz. The buzz during the day can increase or decrease with perfect or bad orders respectively. Failing a chore also decreases the buzz. The buzz earned or lost in any mode (except Stress) by the end of a day affects the base buzz for the following day. It also raises or lowers the maximum buzz the player can set in Standard and Zen modes.

The shifts in C4H mode start with a set buzz. It can still increase or decrease during the shift based on your performance.

Rush Hour
There are two rush hours each shift, usually starting at 12:00pm and 6:00pm each. Each rush hour last for one in-game hour (or for one real time minute). During the rush hour new customers appear constantly, and the customer patience bonus from side dishes is halved.

Zen mode removes rush hours completely. Both CSD and C4H restaurants can be played in this mode.

Modes
There are two major modes in the game: Cook, Serve, Delicious! and Chef For Hire. CSD mode is similar to the player's restaurant in the first game and is highly customizable, while C4H offers a variety of challenges.

CSD mode has a different objectives the player can fulfill. C4H shifts can be completed to earn medals. You can learn more about each of the modes on their respective pages.

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 * Cook, Serve, Delicious!