Special Sub-Topic: "Cooking Mama" Basics Click Here To Play: "Cooking Mama" Basics

In order to create a gold medal dish, what score must be obtained?

100 points. With any dish, full completion with the utmost precision is required. If all tasks involved in a recipe are finished within their allotted times and correctly, then a gold medal meal is pretty much in the bag. If any single thing is incorrectly done though, Mama may only reward you with a silver or bronze medal or nothing at all. Typically, any ending score of 80 or higher will result in a silver medal while anything lower will end with bronze. In some instances, Mama will find mistakes so unacceptable that she will back out of the recipe altogether, instead opting to make it herself.

For which of these recipes do you not need to use the stove top?

Pizza. When making Chicken Rice, the stove top is used to saute the chicken, onion, and mushrooms, then cook the meal in a buttered pan. This meal is prepared over the element. Like Chicken Rice, Meatballs are required to be cooked on the element, but in a pot of water instead. To cook this meal, you need to tenderize and roll your own meatballs, then mix with ketchup during the cooking on the stove. Macaroni Gratin is a typical pasta dish, and as such, water is required to boil to cook the pasta itself as well as the sauce. The stove top tends to involve some of the more complicated procedures of the game, usually involving intricate changes of temperature, blowing off steam, stirring, mixing, and adding ingredients. Typically, these are done at the end of the recipe after the initial preparation of the food itself.

Grilled Mackerel is one of a few meals cooked with which of these?

Charcoal. Grilled Mackerel is a relatively short recipe in the "Cooking Mama" cookbook. To begin, a radish must be grated down. After this, it's as easy as placing the mackerel onto the grill and cooking. To cook over charcoal, you need to move the fans below the coals to heat up the food above. Once the fish begin to smoke and change colour, they should be removed from the heat otherwise they'll burn. The only other recipe on the menu to be cooked over charcoal is Chicken Kebabs. The majority of this recipe involves cutting meat and skewering it before taking the time to cook. Wine and cooking alcohol are typically used during the mixing and cooking processes of certain pasta/meat dishes.

Certain recipes require the use of a timer. Are you timed during the task of setting the cooking timer?

Y. In these instances, Mama will instruct you very quickly that a dish needs to be cooked in a certain amount of minutes. The moment she mentions the amount of time, you'll need to input the numbers on the timer itself (much like the numbers on a microwave) and press the enter button. During this task, the timer is exceedingly quicker than in others, so dexterity is a requirement. Dishes such as Pizza, Rice Gratin, and others will make use of this technique while other baked foods will often go into an oven. In some of these tasks, removing the foods at a time when they are coloured correctly is necessary.

How many recipes involve the use of a steamer?

Two. One of the only recipes that requires the use of this appliance is Shumai Wontons. During this recipe, you need to chop scallions and onions, mix up some vegetables and mixed meat, knead some dough, then stuff each dough packet with the ingredients. Typically, because there are so few tasks that require specific amounts of ingredients, stuffing the Shumai Wontons will be the most difficult part of the recipe. The only other recipe to use the steamer, Shrimp Gyoza, is much like Shumai Wontons in the sense that both do not fall into the same groupings as other recipes. If you begin making a different recipe or you begin making one of these, you will not have the opportunity to create a new recipe during the process.

Only one dish requires 'removing foam'. Which dish is it?

Seasoned Beef with Potatoes. Seasoned Beef with Potatoes begins with peeling, slicing, and chopping vegetables and meat. Once this is done, a quick saute will lead up to the foam process. Once all of the ingredients are boiling together, the point of this one-time-only task is to watch as foam builds on the sides of the pot and remove it by circling it with the stylus. Usually, if these are removed relatively quickly, the task can finish before the timer runs down completely. After this, stew the ingredients together to finish. Soba is a Japanese dish which requires the kneading of dough to make a long noodle while Instant Ramen's sole task involves pouring hot water. Udon, also a soup, does not require the foam to be removed by it does need to stew over the stove top.

How many individual recipes can be found in the game?

Eighty. Although there are eighty recipes to be found on the "Cooking Mama" menu, not all of them will be unlocked and available from the get-go. Many of these dishes are unlocked through the partial completion of other plates. For example, beginning a pasta dish may result in an option to change your dish or leave it as is to continue. If you choose to change the dish, the recipe will proceed with new ingredients and tasks, and when it's completed it will show up in the menu screen. Although many of the recipes are obtained this way, proceeding iterations of the title used these and other recipes in their games.

What is received after completing all of the game's recipes?

None of these. Unlike in the second DS version of the game, Mama will not reward the player with a trophy after completing the eighty recipes she offers up. Despite this though, Mama does allow the player to mix certain dishes with others to combine meals for other effects. Additionally, there is a challenge mode that allows the player to partake in the various tasks that must be performed (eg. Chopping, Grinding, Stewing, etc.) that are performed throughout the game. If the player clears a set of these, then they can extend their game to prove that they are indeed the master of the kitchen.

Which recipe is not found in "Cooking Mama" (DS)?

Pan-Fried Lobster. While Pan-Fried Lobster can't be found in the first game in the series, it can be found in the first Wii version of the game. Other recipes found in the DS sequel include Churros, Sliced Burdock Root, and Apple Pie although none of these appear in the original game. If you begin cooking Spaghetti Neapolitan, you have the chance to begin cooking both Spaghetti Bolognese and Seafood Spaghetti after you cook the pasta. Spaghetti Bolognese typically involves different meat and vegetables from the Neapolitan version. Fried Prawn involves coating and deep-frying shrimp. During this, you have the chance to make Shrimp Tempura as well. Egg Sunny Side-Up typically involves cracking an egg and cooking it over a stove.

A sequel for the original "Cooking Mama" was created for the DS in 2007. What was its subtitle?

Dinner with Friends. The surprise success of "Cooking Mama" after its initial release in 2006 resulted in a number of things. Majesco soon created two versions of the game for the Wii ("Cook Off" and "World Kitchen" in 2007 and 2008 respectively) and a sequel for the DS itself, "Dinner with Friends". All of these ideas took new recipes and new methods of cooking, allowing players to feel that the games were less repetitive. Although the basic concept of creating meals remained the same, the approaches differed. In 2009, Majesco also released the DS title "Gardening Mama", taking Mama from the kitchen to the backyard. Similarly, the game received critical success.