As someone raised in a very food-centric home, I’m always baffled by how many people I meet just have no idea how to cook. It’s too bad, and not just for all of the normal reasons. Sure, folks should learn to feed themselves, it can save them money, yadda yadda. Beyond that, it’s sad because these people are missing out on one of the best games out there.

First off, cooking has a great learning curve, with a low barrier to entry and an impossibly high skill ceiling if you want to chase it. If you’re just starting out, there are still thousands of simple recipes that you can follow to make something delicious. Messed something up, despite following a recipe? That’s ok, cooking is extremely forgiving for most mistakes. Accidentally add too much of an ingredient? It usually won’t matter much! Your results might not be perfect every time, but it’s pretty rare that anything comes out inedible. You still get to eat, and hopefully you learned something too.

Of course, those are the negative scenarios.  Most of the time, you’ll follow the instructions just fine, and then you get to EAT SOMETHING DELICIOUS! That may not be great motivation for everyone, but most humans love food rewards. Even if you yourself aren’t that into food, cooking for a few people is often easier than cooking for yourself. That means you can cook for your friends and family, reaping those sweet, sweet social rewards too!

Ah, you like progression systems in your game to keep you playing? How about an almost infinite library of mostly skill-based recipes for you to learn? They vary in difficulty from toddler to superintelligent octopus, whatever your individual level may be. This skill tree is also incredibly flexible, allowing you to progress on your terms, choose what disciplines to pursue, cuisines to learn, and so on.

Each of those paths has its own set of fun discoveries along the way. Sometimes a new cuisine can be so much to learn, but they tend to have a core structure around which they are built. I like to taste new ingredients (within reason…) as I discover them, and it’s fascinating to find new flavors and see how different cultures use them as building blocks for all sorts of dishes. All of these pieces come together to make you a better cook, in addition to unlocking varieties of new recipes.

What about the actual act of cooking? It’s just a series of execution puzzles and you can approach them however you’d like! Go nuts and wing it, timing everything by the seat of your pants! If you’re more strategic, maybe you’d like to measure all your ingredients out first? Maybe you’re a mix like me, and like to optimize for fewest dishes dirtied, but not at the expensive of too much added complexity. You can experiment to find a ‘playstyle’ that feels best to you.

Still, not everyone is into that kind of experimentation. Good news, then! Cooking is one of the most explored bodies of knowledge humanity has. We’ve been cooking food for almost as long as we’ve existed, and there’s no shortage of techniques, tips, and tutorials for anyone who wants to learn theory before jumping in. Whether you’re into demo videos, prefer to learn the science behind flavor first, or just want to read about you really should put butter in everything, you can bet there are (often free!) resources out there for you.

So much of life is perspective, and it’s easy to feel like cooking is this annoying obstacle in the way of eating which pops up throughout the day and must be vanquished. Hell, I often feel that way myself, and I love both food and cooking. Still, I find that when I cook for myself, even if I’m not super excited about what I made, it feels like time well spent. Not everything in life is easy to treat as a game, but it’s such a tiny leap for cooking that we can do a better job of leaning into that.

And look, I know everyone is going to come after me and say that I didn’t address the elephant in the room: dishes. You’re right, dishes suck. I got nothin. Try to make those ‘friends and family’ that you cooked for do them so that you don’t have to. Or live somewhere with a dishwasher.