Review: Epic Chef

• Platforms: Xbox One (Reviewed), PlayStation 4, PC, Nintendo Switch
• Developer:  Infinigon
• Publisher: Team17
• Release Date: November 11th, 2021

The Farming/Life simulation genre has been booming over the last few years, with plenty of crafting, farming, fishing, and romance; but no title has had a strong focus on the culinary arts. Infinigon and Team17’s Epic Chef does just that, providing strong cooking mechanics, surprisingly hilarious writing, and charming visuals, albeit with a few technical speed bumps along the way.

In Epic Chef you take on the role of Zest, a mischievous fellow that recently came into some land in a quaint seaside village known as Ambrosia. As the new owner of Villa Calamitozza, a rundown haunted mansion on the outskirts of the village, Zest quickly finds himself on a journey to become the very best chef in Ambrosia. The game starts off rather slow and linear in the opening hours, but once you’re familiar with the mechanics and lay of the land you’re set free to do whatever you please, with plenty of side quests and surprises around every corner. What caught me off-guard the most about Epic Chef was how clever and hilarious the story was. I did not expect to be pulled in and laughing alongside Zest and the rest of the misfits of Ambrosia as much as I did.

Although Epic Chef features many aspects you’d come to expect from farming/life sim titles such as crafting and farming, don’t come into the experience expecting the next Stardew Valley or Story of Seasons. The farming mechanics are incredibly simple, removing the regular care and maintenance a crop requires to grow. Simply till the soil and plant your seeds and you’ll be collecting vegetable ingredients the next day.

Epic Chef’s biggest strength is in its cooking mechanics, specifically how surprisingly deep they are. On the surface it may just seem like throwing ingredients into a pan and trying to rack up as many points as you can, but the further you progress and unlock ingredient synergies and other added buffs such as sauces, the more you realize the endless possibilities you can create in the kitchen.

Using these synergies and buffs becomes essential in order to take on the competition, as each culinary battle is like a chess match. If you don’t come prepared with a stockpile of ingredients and a game plan of how you’re going to cook them you’ll quickly find yourself on the losing end. These encounters can be so challenging that you’ll need to jump in and potentially lose on your first attempt just to get a feel for what ingredients the judge likes or what type of a point total your opponent can put up during each round.

The graphical style of Epic Chef is much like many Indie titles in that it will likely be very divisive; you’re either going to love it or hate it. The character models are short and stumpy with humungous heads, and the entire game has a very simple, polygonal aesthetic. I personally found the designs to be very charming, and the vibrant colour palette of the game was a real treat to the eyes.

From a technical standpoint, Epic Chef could have definitely benefitted from a little more time in the oven. There are some odd quirks to the overall gameplay experience, such as Zest’s snail-paced waddling that bogs down exploration, the lack of background music throughout most of the game, and load times when transitioning from the Villa to the center of town, even when playing on a Series X.

While Epic Chef certainly can be rough around the edges at times, I found myself completely hooked by the engaging cooking mechanics, as well as intrigued by the charming and hilarious story. With most of these issues being a simple patch fix away, Epic Chef is easily recommendable for players looking to scratch that culinary itch that has been mostly ignored in the farming/life sim genre.

An Xbox One review code for Epic Chef was provided by Team17. The review was conducted using an Xbox Series X Console.