Line #72 VideoGame/CookServeDelicious


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7	''Cook, Serve, Delicious!'' is a cooking-themed microgame game by David "Chubigans" Galindo, released for iOS, Android and Windows/OS X through the Platform/{{Steam}} Greenlight system in October 2013.
8
9	The titular restaurant was once a thriving source of fantastic food, but then it declined in popularity, and fell into disrepair. You, the player, have inherited the restaurant, and have to complete a set of objectives to hopefully raise the restaurant up through the star ratings. Orders are served by completing various timing and keyboard-based minigames as quickly as possible, while also having to contend with various chores such as rat traps, increased litter, dirty plates and the toilet. On top of this, you're also getting attention from the host of a cookery-based TV show, along with regular supplies of mysterious golden tickets. Only by progressing through the star ratings can this become clear to the player.
10
11	After becoming a surprise hit on its release, a sequel, ''Cook, Serve, Delicious! 2!!'', [[http://steamcommunity.com/games/247020/announcements/detail/101678365970378054 was announced in July 2015]] and subsequently released on September 13, 2017. A third game called ''Cook, Serve, Delicious! 3?!'' [[https://steamcommunity.com/games/247020/announcements/detail/1590252973962741931 was announced in August 2019]] and left Early Access on October 14, 2020. Finally, a [[VideoGameRemake remake]] of the first game, titled ''Cook, Serve, Delicious: Re-Mustard!'' [[https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/2139040/view/3668796106706344534 was announced in July 2023]], slated for a 2024 release.
12
13	A [[{{Spinoff}} spinoff game]] called ''[[https://store.steampowered.com/app/1928090/Cook_Serve_Forever/ Cook Serve Forever]]'' was announced in 2022. The game follows the story of aspiring chef Nori Kaga and her journey to rise to the top of the culinary world.
14	----
15	!!RUSH HOUR! The dawn of a new era of tropes is at hand:
16	[[foldercontrol]]
17
18	[[folder:Tropes common to more than one game in the series]]
19	* AfterTheEnd: The series takes place a couple of decades in the future, in which America has been ravaged by several disasters both natural and manmade, causing several states either to become irradiated wastelands or to sink into the ocean. While all this is mentioned throughout [=CSD2=] in the form of flavor text and emails, [=CSD3=] throws you right into the thick of it.
20	* ArtEvolution: The food in the first game were fairly simple cartoony drawings, but in the sequels they're drawn more realistically with more details, and with the sheer number of new foods added to the game, it's not easy playing the game without [[FoodPorn feeling hungry]].
21	* ButtonMashing: Tenderizing chicken meat can come across as this in a hurry, since a perfect order requires exactly six hits of the tenderizing key. It's slightly easier in the sequel because there's a visual indication of how much your chicken has been tenderized. However, be careful not to tenderize it more than six times, or it will be reduced into a mess and get a bad order!
22	* CrapsaccharineWorld: On the surface, everything ''looks'' silly and upbeat. However, once you start to peel back the façade by reading emails, food descriptions, and restaurant blurbs, you begin to realize that the world outside the walls of your restaurant is barely a step shy of Hell on Earth. Then ''[=CSD3=]'' all but drops said façade outright, allowing you to see the sorry state of the world for yourself.
23	* DynamicDifficulty: Buzz. The higher your buzz percentage, the more frequently customers will arrive outside of rush hour, meaning more money but also having a lot more to do and less time to breathe when rush hour ends. Certain actions and modifiers (such as getting perfect/bad orders, passing or failing a health inspection or earning a star) will raise or lower your buzz for the next day, and your buzz will even change throughout the day depending on the weather or what items are on your menu.
24	* ExcusePlot: You have to help a dilapidated restaurant (or, in the case of the third game, a food truck) climb through the star ratings by serving enough orders and making enough money. Minigames ensue.
25	* FoodPorn: It's a restaurant sim, what were you expecting? Much more prevalent from the second game onward, when the food art received [[ArtEvolution massive improvements]] to the point of looking nearly photorealistic at times. Good luck not getting hungry while playing.
26	* MouseTrap: The rat-trapping chore requires you to set up one of these.
27	* MundaneMadeAwesome:
28	** Placing down any ingredient results in a "'''''thwack'''''" sound. This can get very absurd if [[RapidFireTyping the player has managed to get very good at a given minigame]] and/or has rebound the controls, such as binding Q, W, E and R to the four initial ingredients of lasagna.
29	** Going into and out of Rush Hour has never been so grand.
30	-->'''RUSH HOUR!''' THE DAWN OF A NEW ERA OF FEASTING IS AT HAND!\
31	'''RUSH HOUR OVER!''' THE PERIOD OF EATING IS AT REST!
32	** The Super Rush Hours of Extreme Difficulty take this up to eleven; when they start, your entire restaurant is [[IncendiaryExponent engulfed in flames]].
33	* RapidFireTyping: With the appropriate key bindings, the player can do this easily to alleviate certain difficult foods.
34	* SeriousBusiness: Restaurant management and cooking was always treated this way, with elaborate betting pools and ludicrously over the top cooking competitions and festivals. The third game takes it to new heights, however, with one of the new mechanics involving ''gunfights in the streets'' with rival food trucks.
35	* SpiritualSuccessor: To ''Ore no Ryouri'', an obscure Platform/PlayStation game with very similar gameplay. This is no coincidence; the game is actually the [[OlderThanTheyThink third]] sequel to a series of fan games named Ore no Ryo''mi''. Posts in the developer's blog related to the first game are still even tagged as "Ore no Ryomi 3".
36	* WineIsClassy: Hence why it's a "staple food".[[labelnote:*]]A food which will not reduce buzz if it's been on the active menu for at least two consecutive days.[[/labelnote]]
37	* ZergRush: Rush Hours - 60 seconds where EVERY order slot is full and customers are replaced almost as quickly as you serve them. And you have to deal with these twice a day. It's usually during these periods that experienced players make or break their Perfect Day ranking.
38	** The third game ups the ante by turning every level into a series of these, broken up by calm stretches that allow you to focus on restocking your holding stations and preparing for the next stop.
39	[[/folder]]
40
41	[[folder:Tropes exclusive to the first game]]
42	* AntiFrustrationFeatures: In [[HarderThanHard Extreme Difficulty]], due to the sheer volume of orders you'll receive, it's possible that, during a [=Cook4Luv=] date, you won't receive the texting minigame. Should this happen, the date automatically counts as a success as long as you made your date's order correctly earlier on. High-level players will start deliberately slowing down their serving towards the end of the day so as to keep as few workstations open as possible, thus minimizing the chances of the game appearing (since the game's length is pretty much a death sentence for a full perfect combo).
43	* AWinnerIsYou: What's your reward for reaching five platinum stars, the final goal in the game? One last visual change for your restaurant, a brief congratulations message encouraging you to try out [[HarderThanHard Extreme Difficulty]]... and that's it. Even more egregious in the aforementioned Extreme Difficulty, where the congratulations message isn't even any different - it still wants you to try the mode ''you literally just beat''.
44	* TheBet: These can happen either from an automated betting service, or a mysterious, smug individual called Crazy Dave. These typically require certain items being on your menu in addition to achieving a perfect combo of a certain length.
45	* BoringButPractical: Salads are a relatively basic dish that earns you a somewhat lukewarm $12 once fully upgraded, but they're not subject to Menu Rot, add Buzz once you unlock Carryout Service, have only a small handful of ingredients, and the upgrades simply add more dressings. It's not uncommon for salads to be one of the first things players add to their menu at the start of a new game, almost never leaving once added.
46	* ButtonMashing: Serving wine requires the player to uncork a wine bottle by hammering the up arrow key quickly (after using the W key to make sure the right kind of wine is selected, in the case of the upgraded wines).
47	* TheCameo: On top of the generic chef characters, the "Battle Kitchen" mode involves a large handful of characters from various other indie games as unlockables. See MassiveMultiplayerCrossover below.
48	* DifficultButAwesome: Soup takes a long time to prepare and requires lots of ingredients, but it's also both a staple food and one of the more expensive items on the menu.
49	* DisgustingPublicToilet: Played straight at first, subverted when the player buys the "commercial toilet" upgrade.
50	* EarlyGameHell:
51	** With low-earning foods and low Buzz, money is extremely difficult to earn at the beginning of the game, meaning that saving up for those vital food and equipment upgrades will be a very slow process. Once foods start getting upgraded and additional earning opportunities become available, this becomes much less of an issue.
52	** Washing dishes and throwing out the trash are also immensely time-consuming chores until you buy their respective first upgrades, making it hard to maintain a combo if they come up during rush hour.
53	** Extreme Difficulty introduces it in a different manner. You begin with four times the starting cash as Normal Difficulty, and the high Buzz and increased starting prep stations mean you'll be raking in money far faster, allowing you to afford new foods and upgrades with relative ease. Where this trope comes into play is with the massive increase in orders that both the Buzz increase and the Super Rush Hour provide; this wouldn't be quite so bad if not for the fact that you're still at early-game patience levels, meaning you'll have ''very'' little time to handle the massive influx of orders coming your way. Once you start unlocking the patience-boosting upgrades, things start becoming far more manageable (or at least [[HarderThanHard as manageable as Extreme Difficulty gets]]).
54	* FinalExamBoss: The Hungry Festivities challenges play out like this, with each requiring you to make one of every recipe for one specific menu item.
55	* TheGambler: Crazy Dave
56	* GameBreakingBug: A particularly nasty one involving burgers: if you have them on your menu but then quit in the middle of the day, the game will no longer recognize them as being on your menu for certain events such as bets, [=Cook4Luv=] dates, and VIP visits unless you take them off of your menu and then add them back on. Those going for [[NoDamageRun Perfect Days]] will likely learn about this glitch when they inexplicably fail a date or VIP visit for not serving burgers despite having them on the menu.
57	* GratuitousFrench: The default (and least expensive) wine type is named "Le Cheap".
58	* GratuitousNinja: A secluded clan of ninjas appear as the people behind the mysterious golden tickets.
59	* GuideDangIt:
60	** The Robbery chore. The idea is to select various traits to build up a face based on the description. What the game doesn't tell you is that the labels next to the key prompts help in determining which traits are which. Thankfully, this chore is the rarest, so it's more of a momentary annoyance, particularly with a massive revenue stream.
61	** Enchiladas originally required each tortilla to cook in the pan for about half a second before they could be flipped out. Other than an easily-missed remark in the practice mode, there was absolutely no in-game indication that this was required, leading many to conclude that the food was broken. In response, a patch was released that made the tortillas cook instantaneously.
62	* HarderThanHard: Extreme Difficulty, which gives you a permanent +50% buzz boost, drastically decreases customers' patience, and turns all Rush Hours into Super Rush Hours, in which orders flood into all of your open prep stations at once instead of coming in one at a time. The difficulty selection screen warns you that it's nearly impossible.
63	* TheInspectorIsComing: Occasionally, a health inspector will come, and failing to complete a chore while she's around will result in you failing the inspection.
64	* JumpScare: The gunshot sound that heralds the arrival of the robbery chore. Since this is the rarest chore, this can easily come as a surprise to the player.
65	* LuckBasedMission: Any of Crazy Dave's bets that require making a certain amount in tips. Even with high Buzz and every item on the menu being a Big Tipper, whether or not you reach the goal is entirely dependent on whether or not customers actually feel like tipping.
66	* MassiveMultiplayerCrossover: The Battle Kitchen mode includes as unlockables characters from ''VideoGame/RiskOfRain'', ''VideoGame/HotlineMiami'', ''VideoGame/RogueLegacy'', ''VideoGame/GhostSong'', ''VideoGame/GangBeasts'', ''VideoGame/AssaultAndroidCactus'', ''VideoGame/{{Speedrunners}}'', ''VideoGame/ShovelKnight'', ''VideoGame/NuclearThrone'', ''VideoGame/{{SUPERHOT}}'', ''VideoGame/{{Luftrausers}}'', ''VideoGame/LethalLeague'', ''VideoGame/{{Nidhogg}}'', ''VideoGame/FTLFasterThanLight'', ''VideoGame/DustAnElysianTail'', ''VideoGame/JoeDanger'', ''VideoGame/PixelJunkMonsters'', ''VideoGame/PixelJunkNomNomGalaxy'', ''[[{{VideoGame/StealthBastard}} Stealth, Inc. 2]]'', and ''VideoGame/{{Cuphead}}'', the last of which being notable for appearing in this game [[EarlyBirdCameo over two years before his own game was released]].
67	* MoneyForNothing: A decently skilled player should be able to buy all foods and upgrades around the time they earn their fifth star, making money entirely superfluous at that point.
68	* NewGamePlus: Reaching the platinum star ranking unlocks a New Game+ mode on [[HarderThanHard Extreme Difficulty]] which resets the game to the beginning but grants four times more starting money, unlocks all of the Specialty Foods from the start, and carries over your progress towards achievements.
69	* RomanceSidequest: If a love interest is coming round on a certain day, and you manage to get his/her order right, (s)he'll then text you, requiring you to select the non-insulting response. [[NintendoHard During work hours.]]
70	* ShamelessSelfPromoter: The player becomes this during a minigame where a tablet appears, and the person with it asks the player to thumb up a photo of their food. This results in a slight boost to the buzz percentage, so evidently, this works.
71	* ShoutOut:
72	** There exists a crowdfunding website in-game called [[{{Website/Kickstarter}} ClickNStart]].
73	** One of the random emails that can be found is a message from the Immigration Protection Agency asking for information about a [[VideoGame/PapersPlease Mr. Jorji having shown up in the country with counterfeit documents and wanted by the Arstotzkan federal authorities for illegal activities]].
74	** Another email is from someone who's sick of waiting for "[[VideoGame/HalfLife HL3]]".
75	** The cooking competition TV show you can participate in is called "[[Series/IronChef Iron Cook]]", and the challenges the ninjas make you participate in are called the [[Literature/TheHungerGames Hungry Festivities]].
76	* SimpleYetAwesome:
77	** Wine is extremely simple to make (just pick the right bottle and then [[ButtonMashing pull the cork out]]) and a staple item (meaning it can stay on the menu indefinitely with no Buzz penalty), yet fully upgraded it can net you $60 in one order, making it the single most lucrative food in the game. The only major downside is that the amount you earn depends on the order, but even the cheapest wine is as expensive as a fully-upgraded Soda or Beer, both of which are easier to mess up.
78	** Lobster is as simple as boiling the lobster and then selecting the correct sauces when it's done, yet fully upgraded it nets you $40 a plate. The only major downside is that messing up the sauces will result in an automatic Bad order, but with only five sauces to choose from, this should be an extremely rare occurrence at best.
79	** Prepping chicken breasts is as simple as whacking it the correct number of times with a tenderizer and then cooking it, and all upgrades are simply acquiring higher-quality chicken breasts with no extra prep work or recipe cards, with the highest quality chicken going for $20 a plate.
80	** Fish similarly goes for $20 a plate once fully upgraded, and is incredibly easy to prep, requiring only four simple button presses. The only gameplay change that comes via upgrades is the possibility that lemon might need to be added - otherwise, much like chicken, the upgrades do nothing but up the menu price.
81	* {{Spammer}}: Spam messages show up in your in-game email inbox, and these can be turned off with an upgrade.
82	* SuperIdentikit: The rarest chore in the game involves getting robbed, and someone gives you a description to base a sketch on.
83	* TakeThat: One of the emails is a thinly-veiled dig at terrible ''VideoGame/SonicTheHedgehog'' FanFiction: basically, "Sawnik" proposes to "Aimee" after defeating "Dr. Eggguy", causing his friend "Trails" to [[RonTheDeathEater become jealous and plot revenge]].
84	* YouHaveResearchedBreathing: After unlocking meat and then vegetables to use in your lasagna recipes, the final lasagna upgrade is...using meat and vegetables ''at the same time''. Lampshaded in the upgrade description.
85	[[/folder]]
86
87	[[folder:Tropes exclusive to the second game]]
88	* AllThereInTheManual: The reason why you have to start with virtually nothing in a brand new tower in [=CSD2=]. Initially, you'd only find out if you read the Steam store page, while the game itself simply drops you into the new tower without any explanation as to what happened to the old one. The 1.5 update finally included an intro explaining this.
89	* AntiFrustrationFeatures:
90	** Prepping a Holding Station food that has a cook time will instantly refresh the patience of any order requesting said items, presumably to prevent certain dishes whose cook times may be longer than your initial patience level from becoming impossible to complete if you're unfortunate enough to get such an order at the very start of the day. This only works once per order, however, so you can't just keep prepping the same food over and over to keep those orders in your queue indefinitely.
91	* ApocalypseHow: At least a Regional Societal Collapse. As revealed in the Good Japan restaurant's description, by the time of the second game, great flooding had caused the entirety of Japan to sink into the ocean. Because of this, most of the populace took refuge in Canada, in an area newly-christened "Nova Japan". Many of the food and decoration descriptions also reference some sort of "Blue War" that, among other things, resulted in at least five different states[[note]]California, Nevada, Louisiana, New York, and Minnesota[[/note]] being bombed to Hell and back (with at least one of said bombings implied to be nuclear) and several other states going underwater. The ''[=CSD3=]'' reveal trailer establishes right from the beginning that [[FallenStatesOfAmerica the US has devolved]] into ''Film/MadMax''-esque anarchy.
92	* BagOfSpilling: How the game justifies having you start from scratch once again. The owners of the tower the first game took place in got caught embezzling, and the entire tower was seized and auctioned off, including your restaurant.
93	* ButtonMashing:
94	** Sushi needs to be cut nine times before it can be served.
95	** The trash chore becomes this as the day progresses and the trash needs to be mashed into the dumpster.
96	* CallBack: There's an achievement for completing twenty days of service in Cook, Serve, Delicious mode, referencing [[ScrappyMechanic the most notorious requirement]] for completing each rank in the first game. It's even titled "The Good Ol' Days" to drive the point home.
97	* ChefOfIron: How do you deal with robbers in this game? By [[GoodOldFisticuffs punching/kicking them into submission]], usually [[CurbStompBattle within a matter of seconds]]. Then you immediately go back to cooking as if nothing happened.
98	* CrapsaccharineWorld: Many of the food descriptions and emails reference how at least nine US states are completely gone, how Japan has sunk into the ocean, and the existence of a "Blue War" that ravaged much of the US, among other things. Yet you wouldn't know it just by playing the game, which is about as innocuous as they come.
99	* DamnYouMuscleMemory:
100	** ''[=CSD2=]'' requires an additional button press to complete chores, unlike the original which ended a chore as soon as all of its tasks were completed. Cue many a ''CSD'' veteran sitting dumbfounded at a completed chore, wondering why it won't go away.
101	** Ramen originally had the first ingredients to be added (Oil and Ramen Noodles) at the ''end'' of the ingredient list, unlike every other food which allowed you to read it left to right. This was later patched out.
102	* DeepFriedWhatever: There's a restaurant named "Poppers & Crunchies" which revolves specifically around such food.
103	* DifficultySpike: Trash removal is an extremely easy task: one button to throw trash into the can, and then sanitizer and you're done. But if you have a lot of dishes on the menu with the "Makes Trash" trait, the trash chore becomes a lot more difficult: one button to throw trash into the can, mash until it's crushed down, and then sanitizer. And it keeps getting worse as the day goes on, until you might be mashing the button a dozen or more times before the task is done. It's not necessarily more ''difficult'', but the increasing consumption of time every time it comes up can absolutely mess up your orders.
104	* EasyModeMockery: Zen mode gives customers infinite patience and removes Rush Hours from shifts. However, completing Chef 4 Hire shifts in Zen mode can only award bronze medals at best, regardless of performance. In restaurant mode, however, [[AvertedTrope there is no penalty whatsoever for playing in Zen]] - once you've completed the handful of achievements that require you to play in the other modes, there's absolutely nothing stopping you from breezing your way through the rest of the CSD objectives in Zen.
105	* FreezeFrameBonus: There's a rare chance that, when preparing a chicken breast, the "Seasoned Chicken Breast" recipe name will be replaced with "Winner's Dinner"[[labelnote:*]]referencing the phrase "Winner Winner Chicken Dinner"[[/labelnote]].
106	* GratuitousJapanese: The words "Begin", "Finish" and "Rush Hour" are displayed in Japanese with English subtitles.
107	* HarderThanHard: Stress mode takes Extreme Difficulty from the first game, bends it over its knee, and spanks it without mercy. The day starts with only a single second of patience, maxes out your prep stations and holding stations to 14 and 8 respectively regardless of how many you've unlocked, and sets your Buzz at ''150%'', at which point orders literally occupy your prep stations the instant they open up (which results in 14 orders immediately flooding your stations at the start of the day; combined with the aforementioned patience level, this basically [[CharacterSelectForcing forces you to pick three instant-ready sides]] in order to give you enough of a quick patience boost to prevent those orders from becoming literally impossible to serve in time). Then there are the Super Rush Hours, which force your patience down to one second regardless of how many sides you've prepped. Fortunately, outside of a handful of achievements, playing Stress Mode is completely optional.
108	* LateArrivalSpoiler: The description and intro text reveals that five platinum stars is the highest possible ranking in the first game.
109	* LovedByAll: Multiple emails make mention of someone named Brysen, who seems to be universally adored by everyone in the tower to the point where people just randomly email him money for absolutely no reason at all.
110	* LuckBasedMission: The "24 Angry Customers" achievement, which requires you to get no more than 24 average or bad orders with six random entrees in [[HarderThanHard Stress Mode]], especially if you attempt it late in the game when you've already purchased/unlocked a wide variety of menu items. This task basically amounts to starting up the mode, seeing what orders flood in at the start of the day, and restarting if there's anything more complex than a few button presses. Rinse and repeat until you're lucky enough to get six simple items that can be quickly prepped and sent out the door with minimal hassle.
111	* MuggingTheMonster: Given that the sequel's robbery chore has changed from providing an identikit picture for the police [[TookALevelInBadass to disarming and taking down the thief yourself with your newfound martial arts skills]], it's safe to say anyone dumb enough to rob the restaurant while [[ChefOfIron you're on shift]] is guilty of this.
112	* NextSundayAD: Certain food descriptions in the sequel imply that the series is set in the mid-21st century, if not later (and possibly in an alternate universe). You can't really tell, though, based on the kitchen equipment and restaurant decor. [[spoiler:The third game gives a more targeted time period: some time in the early 2040s.]]
113	* SequelEscalation: Surpasses the original in several ways:
114	** The sequel has a total of 210 menu items, i.e. ''seven times'' as many as its predecessor.
115	** Stars in the first game are earned one at a time, with five platinum stars being awarded immediately after the five star rank. The sequel awards stars in half-star increments every five YUM levels, including platinum stars (making for a total of 21 ranks vs. the original's 7).
116	* ShoutOut:
117	** In the Robbery chore description:
118	-->"Show the robber who's boss. [[Franchise/MortalKombat FINISH HIM!!!!]]"
119	** One of the Burrito recipes is called VideoGame/SuperMeatBoy. The v1.1 update added a booster with the same name revolving around having enough meats on the active menu.
120	** Read the description for onigiri. Are they describing rice balls or Franchise/{{Pokemon}}?
121	** One of the sub recipes is called [[WesternAnimation/RockosModernLife "Wacky Deli"]]: fittingly, other than bread, its sole ingredients are ham[[labelnote:*]]since bologna isn't an ingredient choice[[/labelnote]], salami, and cheese.
122	** One email mentions that a Mr. [[Literature/TheShining Jack Torrance]] will soon be joining the Teragon Tower maintenance staff.
123	* TakeThat: A chain of emails takes a jab at the notorious tendency of AAA game companies to work their employees to the bone, only to turn around and axe most non-senior staff once a game doesn't meet sales expectations.
124	* TookALevelInBadass: In the first game, robbery chores involved providing a description of the robber. In the sequel, you ''[[GoodOldFisticuffs beat the robber up]]''.
125	[[/folder]]
126
127	[[folder:Tropes exclusive to the third game]]
128	* AdamSmithHatesYourGuts: Every town has its local currency that is then converted to a cryptocurrency that you use to buy things. However, the more you level up, these local currencies are worth progressively ''less'' the more you approach the capital instead of more, as you'd expect.
129	* AntiFrustrationFeatures:
130	** To account for the fact that orders now come in large bursts instead of trickling in steadily over time (basically turning each stop into a self-contained Rush Hour), you can pull up an order listing between stops that shows exactly what orders will be coming in at the next stop, allowing you to plan ahead with your Holding Stations.
131	** There's now a special button that allows you to serve all orders that are ready simultaneously. This was done because the creator found serving multiple orders quickly with a controller was nigh impossible when having to select each order individually.
132	** Several of the more annoying ways to fail orders have been removed, tweaked, or made specific to certain higher-difficulty recipes; for instance, the game will generally no longer let you add too many of the same ingredient or perform an action like tenderizing meat too many times, at least in recipes where there's no reason you would ever want to go over the limit.
133	** Each level in ''2'''s Chef 4 Hire mode locked you into a specific menu, turning certain shifts into insidious showstoppers that were absolute nightmares just to complete, let alone get a [[NoDamageRun gold medal]] on. ''3'' changes this so that, as long as you meet a certain point threshold (if, indeed, the level even has one), you can make your menu as easy - or as difficult - as you want. While having a tougher menu earns you more money, thus allowing you to purchase new foods and upgrade your truck faster, if your only concern is progressing through the game, you can set your menu to meet the bare minimum point requirement and breeze through with relative ease.
134	** The Patience mechanic has been completely overhauled for Holding Station dishes, greatly extending the amount of time you have to serve them as long as you manage your stations correctly and have at least one serving of each dish ready to go at any given time. This helps to emphasize accuracy and resource management over the previous two games' focus on speed above all else.
135	* AsYouKnow: At the start of your first shift in any new city, Whisk and Cleaver typically have a conversation about where you're at, establishing its (in-game) history and fleshing out the world a bit further each time.
136	* AttackBackfire: Generally, ramming attacks from Tasteville push you into a tougher stop with more orders to fill. However, there's a non-negligible chance that it'll actually send you to an ''easier'' stop, giving you an unexpected (but not unwelcome) rest.
137	* BagOfSpilling: An even more extreme example than the previous game: this time around, your old digs, the Teragon Supertower, was ''obliterated by artillery fire''. With the USA apparently becoming too unstable to set up a static location, you take to piloting a food truck across the country, serving hungry customers at various stops along the way.
138	* TheCameo: The announcers for the Iron Cook Speedway are voiced by LetsPlay/{{Northernlion}} and his wife, Kate.
139	* CrapsaccharineWorld: [[ZigzaggedTrope Zig-zagged]]; unlike the previous game, where you learned of the state of the world [[AllThereInTheManual primarily through emails and flavor text]], here you finally get to see the current state of the country first-hand. Among other things, most of the East Coast (along with the entire state of Oregon) is completely underwater, much of the rest of the country is either a blasted wasteland or a sea of flames, Washington and Hawaii have defected to Canada, and Texas has seceded from the Union and built a massive wall around itself. As far as the game itself is concerned, Teragon Supertower from the previous game has been completely destroyed by artillery fire, and you are regularly attacked by rival food trucks. Yet overall, it's still the same silly, hectic cooking game it's always been.
140	* DarkerAndEdgier: Greatly downplayed thanks to the [[CrapsaccharineWorld game's lighthearted nature]], but ''[=CSD3=]'' takes the [[AfterTheEnd post-apocalyptic America]] that the second game [[AllThereInTheManual merely hinted at]] and throws you right into the middle of it with nothing but a food truck, two [[RobotBuddy wise-cracking robots]], and a dream.
141	* EasyModeMockery: Chill mode gives infinite patience to customers. However, the best you can earn in the mode are silver medals, even if you complete a [[NoDamageRun Perfect Day]].
142	* FaceHeelTurn: Many of the restaurants you helped out in Chef 4 Hire mode in the previous game return as rival food trucks, now hostile towards you and frequently attacking your truck throughout each day.
143	* FeaturelessProtagonist: While the protagonist is sometimes shown onscreen, the game is careful to show nothing but a massive chef hat that completely obscures their features; likewise, your companions use gender-neutral pronouns when talking about you.
144	* GuideDangIt: Unlocking the “Manifest Your Truth” achievement, whose description only mentions inputting some form of “classic code” at the main menu, then getting a gold medal on any shift. While exceptionally GenreSavvy players may deduce that the code being referred to is [[spoiler:the KonamiCode]], the overwhelming majority of players will likely expect the code to be revealed at some point during the game, only to find themselves utterly baffled and forced to consult the internet when said revelation never comes.
145	* InterfaceScrew: Food truck attacks generally screw with your systems in various ways. Getting shot at usually results in at least one of your holding stations being knocked out for the rest of the day, ramming attacks can change your order queue or knock out any dishes currently in your holding stations, and hacking attacks can range from from blocking you from seeing Today's Menu, blinding your incoming orders before you work on them, or prevent you from seeing your cooking timer.
146	* LyricalDissonance: One song in ''3'' is an upbeat Music/{{Toto}}-esque 80s number about nervously going through a neighborhood that's [[TheCityNarrows really gone downhill]].
147	* MarathonLevel: Any stage appropriately titled "Endurance", which typically have at ''least'' seven stops.
148	* MoodWhiplash: The transition from Dallas, a ritzy, high-tech metropolis, to Newer Orleans, a blasted, war-torn wasteland in which many of the inhabitants are forced to don radiation suits, is quite jarring to say the least.
149	* MoneyForNothing: A decently skilled player who normally puts high-scoring items on their menu each shift will typically find themselves unlocking the entire food catalog and completely upgrading their truck by the time they finish Newer Orleans, leaving them with nothing left to purchase but truck decorations... and once ''they’re'' all gone, this trope kicks into full effect for the rest of the game. This does come with the nice side-effect that you can coast through the rest of the game using the easiest menus the game will allow, since there’s no longer any incentive to deal with anything tougher.
150	* NintendoHard: Fitting for being the final stage of the game, the Iron Cook Speedway is a ''major'' step up from everything that's come before it. For starters, ''every'' shift now has VIP orders, meaning you'll randomly get Special Order foods in the middle of stops. Then the point requirements for most shifts are significantly higher than what they've been in the past, meaning you can no longer get by with the simplest dishes you can manage - you'll ''have'' to put tougher items on your menu. But the biggest monkey wrench comes with the food truck attacks: not only are there now at ''least'' two per shift, but your [[NoSell armor upgrades]] can no longer protect you, which comes as a huge wake-up call for players who have been able to ignore most of them for most of the game as they'll likely be completely unaware of what most of the attacks even ''do'' until they've been hit with them for the first time. Anyone can play the game, but the Iron Cook Speedway serves to ensure that only the best players can see it through to the very end.
151	* NonIndicativeDifficulty: Generally speaking, the higher a dish's point value is, the harder it is to complete perfectly and, consequently, the more money it earns you. However, some dishes' high point values stem almost entirely from their default key bindings, being relatively simplistic otherwise. If you change the keybinds to something more streamlined, then it's entirely possible to make a 5-point dish as easy as a 1-point dish, allowing you to earn lots of cash for far less effort than intended.
152	* NoSell: Each level of the "Food Truck Reinforcements" upgrade allows you to do this to a different type of food truck attack. At its maximum level, you'll be completely immune to rival food trucks of all types.[[labelnote:*]]Except in the Iron Cook Speedway, which automatically disables such upgrades. [[JustifiedTrope Justified]] in that it's supposed to be a high-stakes, high-intensity competition; needless to say, allowing you to keep your enhanced defenses would give you a ''massive'' advantage.[[/labelnote]]
153	* PigLatin: The lyrics to "A la Idavay!" are sung in pig-latinised Spanish.
154	* RedOniBlueOni: Your companions, Whisk and Cleaver, who ironically have inverted colors for this trope. Whisk is very quick to praise the Chef's efforts and accomplishments, while Cleaver is much more critical of them and will treat anything below a gold medal as okay at best. Whisk also drives the truck, while Cleaver directly helps the Chef with orders and fights off rival food trucks.
155	* RobotBuddy: Two of them, actually. One drives the truck while the other keeps you updated on goings-on around you as you prepare orders.
156	* SimpleYetAwesome: The trio of Wok dishes, despite being five-point items (and as such are ''supposed'' to be among the hardest dishes in the game), are ''much'' easier to prepare than other five-point dishes and even some ''four''-point ones, requiring only two ingredients in the first prep phase and three in the second. Once you get used to which keys go with which ingredients (and even better, since they all use nearly identical ingredients, skill gained in one applies to all three), there's virtually no reason not to have them on your menu whenever they're available in order to make yourself some easy money.
157	* ShoutOut:
158	** One of the float recipes, the Root "Baer" Float, is a nod to [=YouTuber=] and streamer [=BaerTaffy=], who has extensively played through every game in the series.
159	*** Baer gets another Shout Out at the start of the Iron Cook Speedway's Coffee Cup, which reveals that, despite being one of the best chefs in the world in-universe, he recently lost his hands in a tragic waffle iron incident.
160	** The "Dreamy Chef" trinket is a photo of Chairman Kaga from ''Series/IronChef''.[[labelnote:*]]In fact, the picture in question is a monochrome, mirrored, and autographed version of the one on the show's page.[[/labelnote]]
161	** All of the recipe names for chakalaka are references to ''VideoGame/NBAJam'': "On Fire", "Razzle Dazzle", "From Downtown", and "BOOM"[[labelnote:*]][[DontExplainTheJoke As in "BOOM chakalaka"]][[/labelnote]]
162	** When [[NoSell blocking a rival food truck attack]], Cleaver may remark with the following:
163	-->“Well, would ya look at that? ''[[Franchise/{{Pokemon}} It’s not very effective!]]''”
164	** The achievement for getting a gold medal on New Orleans J-1 is called [[VideoGame/HouseOfTheDead "The Typing of the Dead"]].
165	** The achievement for getting a gold medal on Nashville J-1 is called [[VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaMajorasMask "Dawn of the Final Day"]].
166	** The achievement for getting a gold medal on shift F-3 of the Iron Cook Speedway is called [[VideoGame/GranTurismo "Gran Tiramisu"]].
167	** The first stage of the Iron Cook Speedway is called the Mushroom Cup, a nod to what is typically the first series of races in each of the ''VideoGame/MarioKart'' games.
168	* SuddenlySignificantCity: As a result of the war, a lot of the United States' major metropolitan areas have been destroyed and what are today much less relevant towns have grown to take their place. Your trip takes you to places like Boise, Idaho; Moab, Utah; Wall, South Dakota; Wichita, Kansas; Marietta, Oklahoma; Midland, Texas; Jackson, Mississipi; Mobile, Alabama and Nashville, Tennessee; the latter being the U.S' new capital after Washington, D.C. inexplicably sunk into the ocean.
169	* TookALevelInBadass: Well, ''another'' level in badass, anyway. Due to [[ApocalypseHow current circumstances]], you've graduated from beating up robbers to ''getting into occasional shootouts with rival food trucks''.
170	* WillReturnCaption: At the end of the ending credits, the captions "CSD will return" shows up. [[https://i.imgur.com/PzlCzto.png Chubigans forgot he put it in as a gag and didn't have solid plans for a sequel at the time]].
171	[[/folder]]
172	----

Context VideoGame / CookServeDelicious