Today's release: Aim for a Michelin Star! Chef Life Restaurant Simulator" Review: Become a restaurant owner-chef and master the art of cooking.

Starting March 9, 2023, Chef Life Restaurant Simulator, a cooking + restaurant management simulation, will be released by 3goo for Switch (PS5/PS4 on April 13). We had the opportunity to play the PS4 version of the game, and here is our review of it.

On March 9, 2023, 3goo will release "Chef Life Restaurant Simulator," a cooking + restaurant management simulation for Switch (PS5/PS4 on April 13). We had the opportunity to play the PS4 version of the game, and here is our review of it.

This is a restaurant management simulation developed in partnership with the Michelin Guide. Players take on the role of a "chef" and make various adjustments to the restaurant, from purchasing ingredients to cooking, staffing, and the restaurant's interior design. It is up to the player to decide whether the restaurant will be a Michelin-starred restaurant or a personalized restaurant of his or her choice.

An authentic restaurant management simulator?

The general flow of the game is as follows: "Decide on the menu to be served at the restaurant," "Order ingredients according to the menu," "Transfer ingredients to the kitchen shelves," "Prepare food," and "When the restaurant opens, cook food according to orders.

Other tasks include: since the restaurant opens at night, you can use your free time from morning to afternoon to change the interior of the restaurant in design mode, use the serving editor to arrange the food, or try new recipes to increase the restaurant's menu.

Anyway, you can experience almost everything you need to run a restaurant, so that by the time you complete the game, you may think that you can really run a restaurant.

[There's a lot to do in running a restaurant anyway!

I have written a general description of the overall flow of the game, but in reality there is even more detailed work to be done.

When you start the game, the first step is character making, which is the creation of your alter ego. After setting the gender, appearance, body type, etc., and finally deciding on a name, your character is complete.

Together with your co-owner "Qasim," who will give you advice on restaurant management, you will make your restaurant thrive.

There are three turns in the game: 8:00 am to 12:00 pm, 12:00 pm to 7:00 pm, and 7:00 pm to 10:00 pm, the restaurant's business hours. The morning and afternoon turns pass in real time, while the hours of operation depend on the number of customers and the digestion of their orders.

The owner and chef of the restaurant goes to work in the morning, decides on the menu for the day, and orders ingredients accordingly. He then moves the ingredients for the day to the kitchen and prepares them.

In the extra time, they review the food preparation, spend KP (Knowledge Points) earned from cooking, and learn new recipes, which is also important for a reputable restaurant. Furthermore, there is a lot to do in the beginning, such as using earnings to change the layout of the restaurant, purchasing plates and kitchen equipment to put food on, and checking the reputation of the customers the day before to find areas for improvement.

The customer is God?

The cooking scene is reproduced in great detail. From chopping and prepping ingredients, to temperature control of pans and fryers, you need to flip them over to prevent burning, seasoning with seasonings needs to be adjusted from a pinch of salt, keeping food warm during cooking to prevent it from getting cold, and utensils that have been finished cooking need to be The cooking utensils must be washed after cooking.

It is interesting to note that actions such as "cutting ingredients with a knife" and "mixing the contents of a pot" are performed with the analog stick on the controller, giving the player the feeling of actually cooking.

And let's not forget "the customer. Customers have their stress set by the time it takes from when they place their order to when their food arrives, so if you cook leisurely and serve food late and cold, your restaurant's reputation will suffer. Therefore, it is also important to study how efficiently you can cook, the layout of the kitchen, the selection of ingredients to be prepped, the temperature of the fryer to be turned up, and other advance preparations so that you can serve food quickly and to the customer's satisfaction.

[Cooking simulator? Management simulator?

For a while after you start the game, you aim to cook food well and in a short time, just like in a normal cooking simulation, but as the game progresses, you can hire new staff and your co-owner Qasim will join you in cooking. The game is interesting in that it gradually shifts from a cooking simulation to a management simulation.

For example, in choosing the ingredients to use for cooking, there are more factors to choose from in order to "run" the restaurant, such as whether to buy cheap foreign ingredients or expensive organic, domestic, or locally grown ingredients that are well received by customers, whether to spend money on the interior design, or whether to have influencers advertise by offering their food free of charge. Of course, you need to take care of your customers' reputation.

Of course, the objective is to manage the restaurant well by taking care of the customer's reputation, but it may be interesting to aim for a creative restaurant where "you only make the food you want to make".

If you are not good at the cooking part because there is too much to do, don't worry, you can set the "Cooking Assist" in the "Preferences" menu so that you will not make cooking mistakes and your reputation will not be damaged even if it takes a long time to serve the food.

Aim! Michelin Chef (Real)

More than 180 authentic French and Italian recipes appear in the game, and these recipes can be experienced as if they were prepared in real life, from seasoning to baking and boiling times, and even serving times. If you have the right ingredients and equipment, you can even recreate it in real life.

So, I played "Chef Life: Restaurant Simulator" for about 10 hours.

As one would expect from a game developed in partnership with the Michelin Guide, the cooking part of the game is very particular about the food and recipes, so much so that if you have the right ingredients, you can actually recreate the dishes. In addition, the restaurant management part of the game offers a variety of options, from purchasing ingredients to choosing the interior design, both of which are realistic and well balanced.

Whether your goal is to create a cozy restaurant loved by the locals or a Michelin-starred restaurant, Chef Life Restaurant Simulator will allow you to create your own restaurant.

• Title Information
• Chef Life Restaurant Simulator (3goo)
• Genre: Restaurant management simulation
• Compatibility: Switch /PS5/PS4
• Release date: Switch 2023/3/9 (Thu) PS5/PS4 2023/4/13 (Thu)
• Price: 5,280 yen (tax included)

Chef Life: A Restaurant Simulator ©2023 Published by Nacon and developed by Cyanide Studio. Michelin trademarks, designs, copyrights and/or other Michelin trademarks, designs, copyrights and/or other intellectual property rights are used under license.