Hey, cousin! Did you know that last week the Michelin Guide awards were awarded? The coveted stars are the Oscars of haute cuisine, that everyone wants to win one. You are wondering: what does a tire brand like Michelin have to do with good taste? Chef, the answer to this tasty trivia will come later. In the game Critter Kitchen, players run a luxury restaurant and try to earn as many coveted stars as possible by serving the best dishes.
Background and Theme
Last week, seven new Michelin stars were awarded in the Netherlands. Two restaurants received an extra star, but five new restaurants were included in the famous guide with a star certificate. By the way, the maximum number of stars a restaurant can achieve is three, and unlike hotels, earning one (or two or three) stars as a restaurant really means something.
The Michelin Guide uses five criteria when awarding stars: 1. the quality of the products/ingredients used, 2. mastery of flavor and cooking techniques, 3. the chef’s own personality/signature in the dishes, 4. the balance of the dish and the flavors, and 5. consistency of culinary level, both across different visits and within the menu. The atmosphere of the restaurant, the friendliness of the staff, or the level of service do not play a role—otherwise, no French restaurant would ever get a star (ahem).
Nowadays, there is only one restaurant in the Netherlands with three stars: De Librije. There are other distinctions as well, such as the green star for sustainable restaurants and the Bib Gourmand for restaurants offering excellent food at a reasonable price. You could debate what “reasonable” means, but compared to star restaurants, other restaurants are quickly considered “affordable.”
Why did a tire company actually publish this guide? At the start of the last century, according to Michelin, there were very few cars in France. Moreover, it was better for Michelin if car owners drove as many miles as possible because tires would wear out faster. The French love good food, so this guide was meant to point drivers towards the best restaurants—in other words: “restaurants worth a detour.”
Back to the main course: in the game Critter Kitchen, players also try to earn stars for their restaurant, because stars are victory points and, as the name suggests, you need them to win. Just like in the Michelin Guide, atmosphere does not matter. That’s a relief, because these restaurants (and their rivalry) are really a zoo. What does matter are the quality of the ingredients you use in your dishes, the flavor balance of the seven courses in the final round, and pleasing the reviewer.
Objective and Game Flow
In Critter Kitchen, each player is the head chef of a restaurant. Each round, players send their critters to the different markets to collect the best ingredients. With those ingredients, players prepare dishes to serve in rounds 3 and 6. The quality of the ingredients determines the quality of the dish. In round 7, the reviewer visits, and players try to serve seven courses—but each reviewer has special requirements, and players can only discover some of these by picking up rumors. The player with the most stars wins.
Setup
Each player has at least three critters: small, medium, and large. Each round, markets are stocked with ingredients, spices, and/or rumors. These tiles are drawn randomly from a bag. Players secretly choose the locations for each critter and reveal them at the same time, then move the corresponding pawns to those locations.
The locations are resolved in order. The different critters have different speeds; for example, a mouse is much faster than a wild boar (in this game). The slower animals may be last to act, but can carry more ingredients. If several players choose the same location, it’s possible that an animal can’t or doesn’t want to pick up any tiles. Luckily, as a consolation prize, that player can take soup. Soup can also be obtained from the soup truck and can be used as a joker in place of an ingredient. Don’t ask me how that works. I imagine the Michelin Guide would consider it a bold culinary move if you served a grilled cheese sandwich made of 95% soup, 5% cheese, and 0% bread…
The last location is the culinary school. Your restaurant always needs cheap labor, and you can get a zoo-chef (haha) as an intern, who can be used once as a critter in the next round with special abilities. These interns are scarce, so act fast. By the way, all unused ingredients at the end of a round go to the school. If they’re not chosen there, they end up at the soup truck for the following rounds.
Players collect ingredients, spices, and rumors. Spices can be used to increase the quality of specific ingredients. Rumors give players information about the end scoring in the last round.
Conclusion
Critter Kitchen has the right mix of bluffing, tactical planning, luck, and dynamics. The mechanism where players simultaneously select locations and plan the order of their turns to collect the right ingredients creates interesting and fun dilemmas with lots of interaction and little downtime, since players resolve everything at the same time. The scoring of dishes and the final round also provide plenty of variety.
Moreover, the game is fantastically designed, and together with the great gameplay, it has a lot of character. Speaking of characters: players can choose to play with unique chefs, inspired by real chefs, with fantastic puns.
