Random: Bon Appetit food website posts about Switch games

The Nintendo Switch is apparently very hot right now, so much so that it’s in the kitchen. Bon Appétit, the New York-based cooking magazine / website / YouTube company that came under fire in 2020 Following accusations of a toxic and racist environment, he has slowly been building his site after a ton of his key talents left in protest, and part of that apparently includes expanding into video games. How dare they?

Writer Nico Avalle mainly covers food, with articles like “The 69 best Thanksgiving recipes” (good and “What is crab paste, anyway?“but a few days ago they published an article titled”4 Nintendo Switch games for foodies“- a list that includes examples of games that” get it right “when it comes to portraying food.

“Why does food in video games almost always suck?”

Avalle is not bad: food in games is usually a means to an end, something that heals you or maintains your survival for a little longer. “Almost universally,” Avalle says, “it feels like game developers see food as food and nothing else, condemning their characters to exist in pixelated meal replacement bars and nutritional shakes.” Although we are all game writers and not food writers, it’s hard to disagree.

But what are the four games?

Well, for “Cooperative Kitchen Chaos”, the recommendation is of course to play one of the brilliant and stressful Overcooked games:

“After 15 minutes or so, you will find yourself using kitchen lingo for sheer convenience:” Hot behind! “I mean, running past my friend with a saucepan.” You call that Juliana, you fucking donkey? “He says, testing my knife skills. What fun!”

If it’s more farm-to-table you’re looking for, look no further than Stardew Valley, says Avalle:

“Do you want to raise goats to produce an award-winning work? You can do it. Do you dream of owning a vineyard by the river? You can also do it. You want to channel Gerald Stratford and lean on growing massive pumpkins and other large veggies? You can and definitely should do that. “

Avalle describes The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild as a “gatherer’s fantasy” with all of its mushrooms, fruits, and animals waiting to be turned into steak, but notes that BOTW’s greatest ability is fostering curiosity through food:

“Where BotW sets itself apart from other adventure games, culinarily speaking, is that food is not only an essential tool for survival, it is also an engine for further exploration. While looking for wild boars in the forest, you may stumble upon a bushel of spicy peppers.

Cooked on a plate, these give Link resistance to freezing, allowing him to explore the frozen mountain tops without taking damage. There, you may find an herb with a cooling effect that gives you access to scorching deserts, where another new ingredient could point you in a new direction. “

And finally, what every chef needs: a bit of zen. However, unlike a real kitchen, Avalle finds peace in Cooking Simulator, which imagines a world where people don’t constantly yell at you to mash frites:

“Simply put, Cooking Sim is my unapologetic brain softener where nothing matters, and that’s the point.

Even the things I don’t like (it feels like it’s made for PC, so the controls on the Switch version are a bit clunky, and I’m still having trouble aligning things when cutting and serving, no matter how much I practice) are a constant reminder to step back and take stock. If I ruin a dish in the game, it costs me nothing and no one has to suffer a burnt dinner. None of this is real, I think, you are doing this to relax. And I do “.

Aside from making us incredibly hungry, this piece makes us wonder: if Bon Appétit can write about Nintendo Switch, does that mean we can write about food? We definitely have the qualifications – most of us eat at least three times a day!

Oh, and in case you’re wondering, crab paste is “a mixture of fermented crab casings and roe” with vinegar. You use it to spray meats, apparently.

What Switch games do you think are great examples of “getting it right” when it comes to food? Let us know in the comments!

And Bon Appétit, if you are reading this: we love you very much and you are welcome to our territory, as long as you share what you have been cooking.