Preparing for the Cooking Exhibition
Before you can even begin cooking, you must first upgrade your house to get a proper kitchen. After you unlock Lulukoko halfway through your first Spring, you can stop by the Jack-of-all-Trades Shop with the required lumber from Westown’s Material Shop to upgrade your house.
As soon as your house is upgraded, the restaurants in each town start selling cooking recipes at a relatively cheap price. If you have the funds, it’s a good idea to go ahead and purchase every recipe as they become available. The further you increase your Town Link Rank, the harder the recipes become. Note that the harder the meal is to make, the more bonus points you’ll get from the judges.
To cook a dish, head to the kitchen and select a recipe you have all the ingredients for. You can tell it to auto-select ingredients of the highest quality – and yes, the quality of the ingredients has a huge effect on the quality of your dish. For tips on harvesting solid ingredients, check out our Beginner’s Guide and Daily Routine Guide.
Cooking is an in-game skill, like Fishing, that gradually gets better the more practice you have with it. Since judges reward bonus points based on your skill level, a good way to prepare is to raise your cooking level by making a lot of dishes.
Leveling up cooking also gradually unlocks the ability to add toppings to select dishes. Toppings also contribute to the quality of your dish, so keep that in mind before heading off to compete.
You will lose points if you don’t match the contest theme in higher ranks. On the 2nd day of Summer and Winter, MC will come to you with the theme for each rank that season. You can check the calendar in case you forgot the contest theme.
Make sure you have plenty of ingredients before entering the Cooking Exhibition. It doesn’t matter whether your ingredients are in your Bag or the Storage Box, you’ll be able to access both during the contest. Save the game before going in and study how the competition wins if you lose. Feel free to retry the contest as many times as you need to win.
That’s all a budding chef needs to know about being successful in the Cooking Exhibition in Story of Seasons: Trio of Towns. Check out our Crop and Animals Guide and Fashion and Tailoring Guide if you’re looking to get into those competitions, too!
