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Cooking in Gardenia RPG

This is an optional game inside Gardenia RPG. When you find food items in this game, they can be combined in recipe combinations. As your cooking skill increases, it becomes more and more likely that you will be able to cook the intended item. Cooking disasters also can have amusing and sometimes helpful results.

You are not required to cook in this game, but this action can be performed to gain special items. For those who have played Starocean 2, you are already familiar with the concept of mixing items to create new ones. Cooking is a special action that can be performed anywhere where cooking implements are present. To create a food item, all you need are special ingredients packages that can be found anywhere. They can be combined in any order, and mixed with any item. Results differ depending on your character's cooking talent and random factors like food and equipment quality.
Cooking in Gardenia is simpler than cooking in real life. Acquire packets of Meat, Vegetables, Seafood, Spices or Dairy, and combine them to create a delicious meal, or a complete disaster. Characters begin the game with hidden character stats related to cooking. When you get practiced enough, these stats go up and you can cook things you like, instead of making a mess.

Here is an example of how a typical cooking session would happen:

Gamer: "Fyrewolf goes to the stove and begins cooking. SP/SA+M+G+V."
Game Master: "Okay, you've just made a hamburger. I've subtracted the ingredients from your inventory. (Inventory: 5 SP/SA, 8 M, 3 G, 3 V)"
Gamer: "All right, now Fyrewolf is going to try something more ambitious. I'm going to use my special items now. Monster tentacle+SP/SA+M+G+V."
Game Master: "Congratulations! You've made a dog biscuit!"
Gamer: "Oh great. What am I going to do with that?"
Game Master: "Your character is a dog. You can eat it."
Gamer: "Oh yeah. That's right."

The Hit Point Pyramid

Aside from resting and using potions, you can heal yourself by eating. It's important to balance it out with other food items. In order to fully restore one's health, a character needs to eat the percentages of food recommended by the Hit Point Pyramid. Proteins (M) are highly recommended, but should be balanced with Fruits (F) and Grains (G). Junk food and nasty items (X) should only be used sparingly. There is no penalty for not following the Hit Point Pyramid except, perhaps, gas and other discomforts.

Cannibalism

Generally, you can't eat your own species. That always produces an allergic reaction (loss of HP), unless you ingest special items. For example, if your character is a bird, all eggs and poultry foods are bad for you. In these types of situations, substitutions must be made in order to accomidate for your character's health.

Ingredients

Cooking can be accomplished with anything from the familiar to bugs and sawdust. In order to simplify the process, the types of food have been classified according to type. Ingredients can be eaten on their own, but sometimes it will make you sick, and only one item is randomly produced when you use the product like this.

Ingredient Quality

Depending on price and location, the foods you acquire can be either cheap, diet, good or fine. Fine foods make different dishes than cheap ones, and the various degrees of food provide different results when cooking.

Spices/Sauces (SP/SA)

Diet: Lo Carb, Lo Cal, Fat Free, Sugar Free, Fine. Sugar substitutes, sugar free items, low carb, low cal sweeteners.
Fine: Super high quality condiments, cooking spices, powders, sauces and marinades, dressings, oils, special flavor additives, food colorings, candy bits, chocolates, sugars, etc.
Good: Average quality condiments, dressings, spices, powders, sauces and marinades, oils, good quality flavor additives, candy bits, chocolates, sugars, etc. Food coloring.
Cheap: Inexpensive condiments, cheap dressings, powders, alternative spices, sauces and marinades, oils, cheap candy bits, cheap sugar, bad food coloring, low end flavor additives.

Water

Water is not a required ingredient. In any normal cooking situation, tap or river water will be present. However, special water, when added to a mixture, can add to the item quality.

Fine: Purified mountain spring water bottled after rigorous purification process, fine tonic water, spring water.
Good: Bottled water, spring water, tonic water.

Dairy (D)

Diet: Lite butters, cheese, dairy free items.
Fine: High quality curds, milk, butters, sour cream, cream cheese, fine cheeses, buttermilk.
Good: 2% milk, sour cream, regular cheese, butter, cream cheese, mid quality curds, buttermilk.
Cheap: Margarine, skim or powdered milk, powdered cheese, sour cream, processed cheese, cream cheese, buttermilk.

Seafood (S)

Diet: Kosher fish items.
Fine: Lobster, calimari, oysters, crab, shrimp, crawdad, carp, trout, salmon, etc.
Good: Oysters, shrimp, trout, salmon.
Cheap: Canned tuna, canned salmon, frozen fish.

Meat (M)

Diet: Lean meat, no yolk eggs, egg substitute.
Fine: Quail, exotic birds, etc., special grade eggs, steaks, choice cuts, deer meat, monkey brains, etc.
Good: Fine hamburger meat, fine beef cuts, pork, bird meat, high quality eggs.
Cheap: Cheap hamburger meat, pork meat, entrails, lard, cheap eggs, canned bird meat.

Grain (G)

Diet: Low carb, low cal, and matzo bread.
Fine: Special quality rices, fine wheats and grains, flours, breads.
Good: Good quality rices, good wheat and grain, corn, flour, breads.
Cheap: Corn, white rice, bread, cheap flour.

Fruit (F)

Diet: Low carb fruit.
Fine: Exotic fruits, guava, etc.
Good: Fresh fruits.
Cheap: Canned fruits and tomatoes.

Tomato, Vegetable, Non Meat Proteins (V)

Fine: Exotic mushrooms, exotic vegetables, quality vegetables, nuts, fine tomatoes, tofu.
Good: Regular fresh mushrooms, fresh vegetables, nuts, fresh tomatoes.
Cheap: Canned vegetables and mushrooms, low quality vegetables, cheap nuts, rubbery or canned tomatoes.

Mystery Ingredients

If only one or two ingredients are combined, sometimes a mystery ingredient like sawdust or bugs will be tossed in, creating surprising results.

Monster Foods

Monster foods are unusual,and often are separated out to individual items, such as Monster Toejam and Eye of Newt. When combined with normal foods, the results can either be disasterous or surprisingly delicious. If you create something bad, it's okay. Monsters have cast iron stomach and often eat disgusting foods that make normal people's stomachs turn. There are actually monster themed cooking competitions in which you can even let your cooking ineptitude work to your advantage. For this reason, too, when you meet a monster, it's a good idea to make friends with him. Think of them as living garbage disposals.

Rotten Food

If perishables are carried in the field too long without refrigeration, they rot. Sometimes you can find them that way, too. Stores will generally give special items as refunds for rotten food. Rotten food includes rotten turkey, wilted lettuce, week old roast beef, among other things rotten. Sometimes food might even rot while you're cooking.

Kosher Food

With the exception of vegetables, Kosher ingredients always start with a K symbol. If you get something like Kosher Grain or Kosher Dairy, you can create foods Kosher for passover.

Vegan Food

If an item starts with the letter "V", it is a vegetarian meat substitute, usable for all Vegan recipes. This may come in handy for our feathered friends.