Cooking meals in Stardew Valley has tons of great benefits. You can eat the meals to regain large amounts of health and energy, plus favorite meals make for great gifts to improve your relationship with villagers. Unlocking cooking requires you to make some upgrades and learning new recipes takes more effort than you might expect.
How to cook
Every recipe in Stardew Valley is shown in the cooking menu, but only unlocked recipes can be made.
In order to cook food, you need a kitchen in your house. To get a kitchen, you need to purchase the first house upgrade from the Carpenters. The first upgrade costs 10,000G, and you need to provide 450 wood. It takes three days for the upgrade to be completed, adding a kitchen to your house.
Once the upgrade is finished, you can cook a dish by interacting with the stovetop in the kitchen. To cook a dish, you just need to have the ingredients either on you or in the refrigerator. Just select the dish you want to make, which will be colored in if you have the ingredients, and the dish will be made--no minigame required.
