It’s always the same.
An armful of ingredients.
Chuck them all in and the ingredients jump around for a bit, and then?
I always watch these videos a couple of times, revelling in the pure joy of it.
And that’s the thing: cooking in Breath of the Wild really is distilled joy.
The animation lasts for maybe a few seconds, but it’s often my favourite part of the game.
It can be all about climbing mountains.
All about Moblin combat.
Or, it can be all about cooking.
And, really, I’m starting to think it might be one of the best cooking games ever.
For something so streamlined, its cooking feels remarkable real for starters.
But Breath of the Wild gets at some of the deeper truths of cooking.
The mystery of it, for one thing.
But there’s no prompt to cook.
No button suggests itself as being the way to get things moving.
I remember my first time at this spot in the game.
I was stumped and then annoyed.
And then I realised I had to think for myself a bit.
Suddenly I had the prompt to cook - because Link was holding the stuff to cook with!
In other words, I had to experiment and fumble my way through it.
You know, like cooking.
This experimentation gets to the heart of it, I think.
In The Flavour Thesaurus, she points you towards harmonious pairings.
Particularly if you’re not interested in defeating Ganon or any of that stuff.
But it feels like such a waste!
Also: deep down cooking is magic.
One of my favourite experiences with cooking was making syrup.
Sugar, water, heat.
And then you have to wait.
You have to wait for the sugar and the water to slowly turn golden.
And if you don’t: voila!
Zelda’s creators would understand that.
After all, they put the transformative magic of making food right at the heart of this astonishing game.
