For those of you who also watch the Food Network on a far too regular basis, you probably will have noticed an ad crawler on the bottom of the screen this week for "Cook or Be Cooked," the newest video game from the Food Network. For those of you who watch "Down Home with the Neelys," you got to see a cooking competition between Pat and Gina on last Saturday's episode. Pat and his daughter Shelby made a tomato salad in the game, while Gina made the same dish in the kitchen to see who was faster, the gamers or the cook — Gina won. While this is all great cross-promotion for "Cook or Be Cooked," which was released on Nov. 3, it really got me thinking about whether or not food has a place in the gaming world.
A disclaimer before you continue reading: I know absolutely nothing about video games. The extent of my recent gaming experience is limited to a few rounds of "Mario Kart" and a miserable attempt at "Halo" when I backed myself into a corner and blew myself up with grenades. For all I know, food games could be masterpieces of the gaming world, but there's something about the idea behind the genre that feels forced and inauthentic.
After doing a bit of research, I was shocked to find that food games were among the first set of games made for Atari, an early home video game console. In "Burgertime," which came out in 1982, the gamer is a chef trying to assemble hamburgers; but as the hilarious commercial for the game available on Youtube.com explains, "the food is trying to make hamburger out of you." You, the gamer, are chased by rogue pickles and murderous sausages as you try to assemble your burgers. Food games in the '90s took action-packed, gun-filled games and just put a foodie spin on them. In "PO'ed," released in 1995 for PlayStation, you are a cook on a star cruiser who uses knives and pans to attack invading aliens. Next came food-industry games like "Last Call" and "Diner Dash," released as computer games in 2000 and 2003, respectively; the gamers must wait on tables and satisfy their demanding customers.
And then Wii came along. The interactive nature of the Wii console took cooking simulation games to new levels, because gamers could use their Wii remote to replicate the physical motions of cooking; you can chop, stir, peel and sauté as if the ingredients were actually in front of you. "Order Up!," released in July 2008, combines food simulation with industry games: Gamers are restaurant owners racing to cook food, manage their staff and promote other cooks to help them get the work done.
TV and simulation games first merged together with "Iron Chef America: Supreme Cuisine," released in November 2008. I actually tried to play "Supreme Cuisine" last year when it first came out. The coolest part of the game is that Iron Chefs Mario Batali, Masaharu Morimoto and Cat Cora, as well as commentator Alton Brown, lent their voices to the game (and I'm still wondering why Bobby Flay is inexplicably absent). Brown's floating head is always at the top of the screen, citing fun facts about the ingredients you are using.
Other food competition shows such as "Hell's Kitchen" and "Top Chef" have also ventured into video game territory, but with mixed results. The "Hell's Kitchen" game is even complete with bleeped-out rants from Chef Gordon Ramsay. Personally, if I'm playing a video game, I don't want to be cursed out by one of the characters.
"Cook or Be Cooked" has not been reviewed yet by any major gaming Web sites since it was just released, but it seems to take simulation games to a new level. The game posits itself not so much as a competition, but as an instructional experience in cooking technique. The user can choose between over 30 different recipes to prepare in a state-of-the-art kitchen. The object of the game is to complete all of your meal's components at the same time. The recipes are all from the Food Network test kitchens, and the instructions are very detailed so that users can recreate the meals in their own kitchens.
If I'm going to take the time to cook Food Network quality dishes on a video game, I just don't understand why I shouldn't physically cook Food Network dishes in my own kitchen. The simulation games are so detailed that users really feel like they can cook a gourmet meal just with a Wii remote, but the games are also just that — remote cooking. The sensory experience of cooking is completely lost. You can't taste or smell what you're preparing, and the dubbed sounds of ingredients sizzling in a pan aren't close to the real thing. The simulation games also make cooking a very sterile process. When you slice a tomato or truss a chicken, for example, your cutting board gets messy, or if your soup boils over the stove gets covered in liquid. In the games, everything remains completely clean.
I recently had a conversation with a professor of mine about how food has become a spectator sport, and food simulation games seem to prove this. If gamers really do try to recreate the recipes in the game and use "Cook or Be Cooked" as a sort of trial-run, the game might have merit, but it still takes the fun out of experimenting in the kitchen.
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Caryn Horowitz is a senior majoring in history. She can be reached at Caryn.Horowitz@tufts.edu.
