Tap a producer for ingredients. Merge and prepare them, discover recipes, then serve the finished dishes.
Start at Home with Papa
Home is your practice kitchen. Supplies are unlimited, Papa’s order never expires, and cooked food won’t burn. Use Help, Papa for a next step, or his portrait in a discovered recipe for a guided cook. Practice points stay at Home.
Start with Papa’s Potato Salad: merge two onions into a potato, slice and dice it, then put the pieces in your inherited stockpot. Prepare a diced onion while the potatoes boil, lift the cooked pieces, combine them with the onion, and serve Papa. Crafting the salad opens Town: choose Neighborhood Lunch in your own truck, or try Bun Voyage in Uncle Lou’s supplied burger truck.
Take your skills into Town
Review Menu → Equipment → Stock before starting. Choose known recipes, equip their appliances, and pack compatible groceries. Town shifts have a cooking-turn budget, limited producer stock, and customer patience. Read the event’s goals and quoted costs first. Use Continue shift in the main Menu, or Resume Event in Town, to return to a saved shift.
01 / MERGE & DISCOVER
Bring the right food together.
Drag one ingredient onto another, or tap an ingredient and then its destination. Matching ingredients with a next stage merge into one upgraded item. Recipe ingredients combine into a preparation or finished dish.
+→
Onion + Onion → Potato
Each successful merge or combination takes one cooking turn and uses both inputs. Ingredients that don’t form a merge or recipe simply swap places.
As lessons open more ingredients and equipment, making a new normal or secret recipe teaches it permanently. Special recipes come from their event rewards. Open Recipes to see what you know and what you can explore next.
02 / MANAGE YOUR TURNS
Your actions move the clock.
Timers advance with cooking turns, rather than real-world seconds. Producing food, merging, combining, cutting, portioning, and moving food onto or off heat each take a turn.
Ordinary board moves and swaps, reading recipes, taking orders, and serving are free. A refused action or cancelled drag spends nothing.
Use Step to advance one cooking turn when a refill, cooking timer, or other preparation needs to advance. In Town, each cooking turn also reduces every accepted ticket’s patience. In your own truck, you need an active ticket to spend cooking turns. Bun Voyage also lets you prepare before accepting orders.
03 / PRODUCER CAPACITY & REFILLS
Pack the stock you want to draw.
In Town, each occupied cell in a producer’s grocery storage supplies one ingredient per refill. The ingredients come out in a shuffled order, without replacement. Empty storage cells don’t add stock; the grocery packs themselves are reusable.
4 filled cells = 4 taps. Even a nine-cell fridge only gives four onions per cycle if you pack four onion cells.
After its final item, a producer refills over five subsequent cooking turns. Cook something else or use Step. Tapping an empty, refilling, or blocked producer doesn’t advance its timer. Leave a free board cell for the next ingredient. A producer with no packed groceries stays empty.
How upgrades affect capacity
Standard storage grows from 2 × 2 at level 1 to 3 × 3 at level 2 and 4 × 4 at level 3: room for up to 4, 9, and 16 ingredient cells. More space only means more taps when you fill it with groceries. Storage size is separate from the appliance’s footprint on the cooking board; upgrades don’t shorten the five-turn refill.
Home’s unlimited practice supplies don’t use these Town stock limits.
Returning frozen food
Still-frozen food can go back into a Freezer with room in its stock capacity. Returning it takes one turn and restores one stock. That exact item comes out first when you tap again; the return doesn’t change your reusable grocery packs. Thawed food cannot be returned this way.
04 / THE KNIFE
Slice, dice, and portion.
Tap the knife, then tap an ingredient. Each successful cut takes one turn. Some ingredients need more than one cut to reach the form you want: Onion → Sliced Onion → Diced Onion.
The knife stays ready until you tap it again. It is reusable and has no durability or cooldown. Put it down when you want to select food normally.
A regular cut replaces the ingredient in its own cell, even on a full board. Bulk ingredients, such as a Side of Beef or Whole Chicken, release one portion per tap into an empty cell, so make room before portioning. Cut and combine food off the heat.
Make room with Trash
Some cuts leave byproducts. Matching waste, such as Peelings or Bones, can merge to compact it. Drag unwanted food to Trash, or tap Trash and then tap the chosen food twice to confirm.
A normal discard costs up to 25 points and resets the serving streak. Discarding food away from heat takes no turn; removing food from heat takes one.
Your first dish: merge two onions into a potato, then slice and dice it. Boil the pieces in a stockpot while you dice another onion. Lift the cooked pieces and combine Boiled Potato Pieces + Diced Onion; Papa’s house dressing is included. You can also boil a whole potato first, then cut it.
05 / COOKING
Watch the heat.
You inherit a Cooktop with two cooking bays and Papa’s Stockpot. A griddle plate browns, crisps or toasts food; a stockpot boils or simmers it. Drag food to the bay you want. Placement takes a turn, and each bay has its own timer. Prepare other ingredients while food cooks, or use +1 step when the remaining prep is ready.
On a standard level-1 Cooktop in Town, ordinary griddled food gets six further turns before burning. Cooktop upgrades shorten cooking time and extend that allowance; follow each item’s Burn in counter and lift it when ready. Boiled food stays safe in its pot. Each pot holds one batch: lift that batch before adding another. Removing uncooked food early resets its cooking progress.
Moving onto, off, or between cooking bays takes a turn. Putting cooked food back on heat doesn’t reset its remaining burn allowance. Burnt Food can’t be used in a dish. At Home, you can learn cooking times without food burning.
Some ingredients prepare by waiting: frozen food thaws, and dairy can transform. Their counters advance with cooking turns too. Read the ingredient and recipe instructions before cutting, combining, or collecting it.
06 / CUSTOMER ORDERS
Accept, prepare, serve.
In Town, tap Take order to accept the next customer. You can hold up to six tickets. Patience starts when you accept an order; people still waiting in line have no countdown.
Drag a finished dish onto the ticket row to serve the highlighted matching order. Hover over a specific matching ticket to choose it. You can also tap a ticket and use Serve. Serving takes no turn.
A ticket expires at zero patience, even if that turn just finished its dish. In current Town events, the missed dish returns to the queue and is still part of the job. Prepare carefully before accepting more orders. In your own truck, cooking and refill timers pause when no accepted ticket remains. Bun Voyage lets you prepare before taking an order; that preparation still uses its finite cooking-step budget.
07 / POINTS, STREAKS & DOLLARS
Serve well. Make every turn count.
Each dish has a base point value. Remaining customer patience adds up to 50% of that value. Consecutive serves multiply both parts: ×1 → ×2 → ×3 → ×4, staying at ×4 for further serves.
Serve points = (base + patience bonus) × streak
Cooking turns normally reset your streak, so having several dishes ready to serve together can pay off. Free board moves, taking orders, and reading recipes preserve it.
Potato Salad example: 700 base + 350 at full patience, with no cooking turns between serves.
Serve
Multiplier
Points
First
×1
1,050
Second
×2
2,100
Third
×3
3,150
Fourth onward
×4
4,200
Losses and quick finishes
Trashing one board object normally costs 25 points and resets the streak. An expired ticket loses its base points. The current score never falls below zero.
Complete a Town shift successfully with at least 25% of its turn budget left to earn a ×1.5 quick-finish score. Failed shifts and Home practice don’t receive it.
What reaches your wallet?
Results from your own truck convert 100 final points into $1.00, then subtract the event’s quoted hosting and provisions costs. The receipt shows your profit or loss. Uncovered costs carry forward and are paid by later earnings.
Starting a replacement for an unfinished Town shift settles that attempt and its costs. Returning Home keeps it available to resume. Home practice points never turn into Dollars. Bun Voyage pays $5 per order served. Finish all six orders for $40 base pay, plus $20 on your first clear and $1 per 2,000 final points. The points bonus requires a completed shift; an unfinished shift still pays for the orders served. There is no hosting or provisions bill.
Dollars buy groceries, appliances, and storage upgrades. The Town store offers Golden Egg purchases when available and a one-way exchange from Eggs to Dollars; review the displayed price or exchange amount before confirming.
These are the normal rules. Optional Golden Egg boosts can change a specific action; read the offered effect before spending Eggs.
How to use Golden Egg boosts
Drag the Golden Egg from the header over the kitchen. A supported situation reveals an offer; release to review its effect and cost, then choose Use. Tapping, hovering, or cancelling the offer spends nothing.
Offers depend on what is happening in your kitchen. Read the revealed effect before applying it; applying a cooking boost does not spend a cooking turn. You can also discover a roomier shopping bags offer before checkout.
08 / RECIPES & LESSONS
Learn a dish, then build on it.
Tap the recipe paper in the kitchen to open Recipes and browse your cookbook. A known recipe shows its ingredients and preparation. At Home, Papa’s portrait in a known recipe starts a guided cook when its lesson and equipment are available.
Introduced normal recipes appear as grey cards until you make them. Secret recipes appear as ? until discovered. Special recipes come from the event rewards shown in Town; experimenting cannot substitute for earning them.
Short illustrated introductions explain new concepts. You can dismiss them immediately and keep exploring; the next-goal guidance follows your actual progress and does not require a sequence of tutorial taps.
Cooking lessons and named event completions open later ingredients, dishes, appliances, and venues. Knowing a recipe and actually crafting it are different milestones. Read a locked card’s explanation to see the next requirement. The current recipe book and map show which content is available in your game.
09 / TRUCK PREPARATION
Plan for every guest.
Menu: choose known dishes allowed at the event. Meet its dish or family requirements and cover the advertised guests’ likes and dislikes. A menu of expensive favorites can still leave another guest without anything to order.
Equipment: arrange the appliances you own, leaving room to work. Fit pots during Setup: each pot replaces one griddle plate, so choose how much boiling and griddling capacity your menu needs. Cookware stays fixed during the shift. Stock: move compatible grocery packs from storage into the producers you will bring. The packed ingredients and equipped cooking stations must be able to make every selected dish.
MENU / M marks useful source groceries, not a requirement to pack every marked item. Valid alternate preparation paths count. Food in home storage or an unequipped producer cannot supply the shift. Follow the readiness message if Start is blocked.
Changing your plans
Back keeps your preparation draft as you review its steps. Leaving preparation discards the draft; starting saves the reviewed packing. Buy groceries returns to that draft, but completed shopping purchases and sales stay saved even if you later cancel preparation.
10 / GROCERIES & STORAGE
Shop, check out, unpack.
Visit the Produce market for Refrigerator supplies or the Pantry market for Freezer, Baker’s Pantry, and Coffee Machine supplies. Drag shelf packs into either shopping bag. Each fixed shape must fit wholly inside one bag; packs cannot rotate, split, or overlap.
Use Checkout and confirm the total, then drag paid packs into compatible empty storage cells. Each trip starts with two 2 × 3 bags. Shelves refresh at local midnight; leaving and re-entering does not restock them.
Paid groceries still in the bags can be returned for their full purchase price. Leaving the store returns the remaining bag contents automatically. Once a pack is stored, selling it pays 25% of its store price. Owned packs are reusable across refills and shifts.
Roomier bags for one trip
Before checkout, drag the header Golden Egg over the bags and review Roomier shopping bags. Choosing Use spends 1 Egg to expand both bags to 3 × 4 for that trip. The expansion ends when the bags are emptied or you leave, and returning groceries does not refund the Egg.
11 / APPLIANCES & UPGRADES
Give your kitchen room to grow.
Lessons unlock appliance access. Buy available appliances and upgrades with Dollars at the Appliance store, then place them through Setup at Home or Equipment during Town preparation. Unlocking an appliance does not buy or equip it.
Producer upgrades add grocery storage; fill the added cells to get more ingredients per refill. Cooktop upgrades improve both cooking methods and add safe griddle turns before burning. Additional Stockpots increase how many batches you can boil at once, using one cooktop bay each; you can own up to four. The store shows the current price, level, and benefit.
The Commercial Cooktop has four bays; the standard Cooktop has two. Larger appliances have their own access requirements and take more board space. Plan their placement before starting. A shift already in progress keeps the equipment, stock, and rules it started with; prepare a new shift to use your new setup.
12 / EVENTS, REWARDS & REPLAYS
Choose your next service.
Read the Town event card for its serving target, turn budget, guests, access requirements, and rewards. Serve the target before the budget runs out. Successful events can open new venues, recipe rewards, and appliance access; the results receipt shows your score and costs.
Each new Town attempt, including Bun Voyage, requires a completed rewarded ad. Use the START button’s ad icon to begin. Cancelling or an ad that cannot load leaves your preparation intact, so you can retry or return to Town. For events in your own truck, ad entry does not remove the quoted hosting and provisions costs.
Prepare again on results lets you review your menu, equipment, and stock for another attempt. A new attempt needs its own entry; resuming your saved shift continues the existing one.
Bun Voyage is a replayable guest shift available after you make the first salad. Uncle Lou lends his burger truck’s upgraded appliances and stocked supplies. There is no cash entry fee; review his kitchen, then complete the ad to start. Serve two Burgers, two Cheeseburgers and two Double Burgers, and experiment with the other ingredients. You keep earned wages and recipes you actually make; the kitchen and supplies stay with Uncle Lou. Guest shifts do not replace Lunch or other named story events.
Weekly events and recipe workshops
Weekly events are unranked and rotate at Monday 00:00 UTC. A shift already started can finish after that week closes. Follow the event card’s recipe-win target and workshop opening date. Your best partial progress from a closed featured week can carry into its permanent recipe workshop, so a missed week need not mean a missed recipe.
13 / SAVING, NEWS & SETTINGS
Know what you can come back to.
Sign-in is optional. Guest progress stays on the device. Use Account in the main Menu to sign in for account backup of your wallet, recipes, event progress, owned appliances, groceries, and personal settings.
Cooking boards stay on the device. Account backup does not transfer board food, active tickets, timers, or unfinished shifts. On a fresh install without the local shift, recovery settles its saved earnings and costs instead of recreating the board or granting completion rewards.
Reset at Home clears food, timers, Papa’s current request, and practice points. Applying a Home Setup layout also starts fresh practice. Learned recipes, lesson progress, owned equipment, groceries, wallet balances, and Town progress remain; your saved Town shift is unaffected.
Open News from the Menu for game announcements. Settings has effects, ambience, music, mute, and game-update status, plus ad privacy choices when available. The Menu’s Reduced motion control changes animation preferences.
