The Cooking Show (WIP) Chapter 3 is out NOW! (+7k words on Patreon)

[Rosyscribe]

Hey there! I’m the author of The Cooking Show. I’m new here, but I’ve been writing interactive stories for a while, and I can’t wait for you to dive in!

Step into The Cooking Show, the most elite televised cooking contest in the world. You’ll play as a rising chef, with millions watching on TV and social media, judged by five strict, charismatic, highly skilled experts.

Drama. Rivalries. Strategy. Delicious recipes. Emotions. A touch of romance. Are you ready?

Chapter 3, Part 1: is OUT!
(The full chapter is available on Patreon: 7k more words)

DEMO PATREON TUMBLR

You’re the wildcard — the 30th contestant no one expected. Competing among 29 fierce chefs, only one will win. Will it be you?

As a passionate, faith-driven chef, you’ll face weekly challenges, navigate rivalries and strategic pressure, and resist a growing attraction that could change everything. Every dish you create will shape your journey — who you are, how you survive, and who you become.

And behind the glimmer of cameras? Secrets, betrayals, and unexpected twists are waiting…

Don’t just watch. Step into the kitchen. Play. Compete. Prove you belong.

About the game:

    •      Be part of the one of the few exclusive contemporary cooking competition interactive stories on Hosted Games!

    •      Navigate unexpected twists, surprise rules, and a shadowy mystery behind your “30th” status.

    •      Five charismatic, strict judges.

    •	   Weekly intense challenges: speed, creativity, strategy.

    •      Boost your score and unlock exclusive perks like The Golden Chamber—a premium kitchen with top-tier tools to cook like a pro and escape from The General Chamber.

    •      Drama, rivalries, secrets, sabotage.

    •      Heterosexual route.

    •	   A slow-burn forbidden romance with a judge whose past is as complicated as your own. An enemies-to-lovers romance with a contestant you'll love to hate. And a friends-to-lovers romance with the sweetheart of the show.

    •	   Your dishes shape your journey — survive, impress, and become a legend.

Meet your First Romance Option — Adam/Amina Al-Hadid:

A composed, enigmatic judge with a troubled past. Every word and gesture are carefully measured, ready to make you feel everything — including angst.

Key rivals and allies:

•	Zahra/Zayn Dawson, The Mean Girl/Guy: cunning and vengeful. Your second romance option.

•	Noora/Noor Moon, The Sweetheart: fragile yet stronger than she seems. Your third and last romance option.

•	Mateo Perez, The Arrogant Champion: fan favorite hiding painful secrets.

•	Salma Leens, Your Loyal Roommate: supportive but hiding her own mysteries.

A gripping, emotional, and strategic cooking journey where every choice counts!

I’m excited to hear your thoughts—feel free to ask questions or give feedback!

AI Disclosure:
No — This project does not contain the output of Generative AI
Yes — This project contains the output of Generative AI

[ChanceOfFire]

${bestie_he} nods like it’s nothing. But it’s not nothing. Not to you.

${bestie_his}
tone shifts — just slightly.
“Hey… did you ever find out who pushed for you to be selected?”

Quick feedback item, you can capitalize the first letter in a variable by putting an exclamation point and writing it as $!{bestie_he} and $!{bestie_his}, so that it appears as He and His.

[Rosyscribe]

Thank you so much. I’m gonna apply it on this part. Thank you for giving a chance to my story!

[AnneWest]

Why is there semi-religious stuff that I didn’t ask for? Is it tied to being brown? Because that’s something that you may want to reconsider.

[Regali]

There’s a bunch of chosen stuff that gives faith boosts but the explicitly religious stuff seems to be tied in regardless of what appearance you give your MC? Looked at the code and the appearance options didn’t have anything around them and scrolling through chapter 1 those sections appear without a variable triggering them? Plus the post by the writer explicitly says “faith driven chef.”

Regardless, fun concept and fun demo! I’m excited to see more

[TonyG]

Congratulations on putting out a demo for your game! I’ve read through Chapter One, and here are my thoughts and feedback:

Some of the #options were too on the nose when cooking. Even a person who doesn’t know how to cook will know not to set the temperature too high or too low, or to put the cheese underneath everything else first, etc.

The #Be indifferent…" option is a little weird. Why does it decrease courage and confidence?

Religion is hardcoded into this IF, and players don’t get a say about it. Sure, some choices decrease the faith stat, but the PC is ultimately portrayed as a Muslim. Not that there’s anything wrong with that; I just think we as players should have been informed about it. You may also want to put in the extra work to include other religions if this is going to be a big part of the story. If not, then consider updating the description to mention where the story is set and who the PC is. Some readers who like to self-insert may not like it, though.

On the subject of faith, some #options decrease or increase faith if the PC acts conservatively or directly. An example is when meeting the judge. If I shake their hand, my faith decreases. But if I just nod, it increases? I know that may have something to do with the religion you’re imposing on the PC, but it’s not intuitive, and others may question what happened to the stat.

It’s been established early on that Nana is the PC’s sister. But later on, the parents say, “Your Nana would have been proud…” and it reads like Nana is the grandmother? Or maybe that’s just a typo and it’s supposed to be “Nana would have been proud…”

“Don’t worry too much, habibti.” I thought this was a typo since the what I’m familiar with is “habibi.” I didn’t have context about this until I googled it (I’m not Muslim and I don’t speak Arabic). Just wanted to mention it since there are also other references that some readers might question.

The stat screen is a bit weird. Up top, it says:
full_name_line: Name: Tony
“Personality”: Personality
“Popularity”: Popularity

And there are too many personality stats to keep track of. Currently, these stats don’t matter yet in Chapter One. But they may become a pain in the butt later on.

What I liked about it though, is that there are unique dialogue/flavor text depending on the PC’s and the other NPC’s gender.

That’s all I have. Good luck with your game!

[Bob_Brown]

The banter between contestants feels so lively and real, and I chuckled at a few of those pressure-cooker moments in chapter two. As someone who’s a total kitchen disaster IRL, it’s fun living vicariously through the MC’s choices. Quick question: are there romance options brewing (pun intended) in later chapters?

Excited to see where this goes!

[Rosyscribe]

Hello lovely !

Thank you for reading The Cooking Show, I appreciate it

It’s because faith is part of the characterization of the MC — their faith starts off already strong, but it can decrease or increase based on your choice.
For example, when doubt increases, faith automatically decreases.

But I was already thinking about giving
readers the chance to explore the faith characterization or not. I wasn’t sure, so I wanted to try by including it directly in the MC characterization and see the feedback.

Now, I may reconsider giving the choice to readers to explore the faith characterization if they’d like to follow a neutral path instead

[Abe]

i don’t necessarily mind the faith stat but i was blindsided when i learn that i was playing as an MC who is a Muslim.

i wished i knew about this (rather important) detail beforehand so i would have done more research in my character creation and playthrough.

[Rosyscribe]

Thank you so much for your feedback! I’m happy to know that you enjoyed the story!
I’ll definitely update the story and give readers the choice to be faith-driven or not. Thanks!

[Rosyscribe]

@Bob_Brown

The banter between contestants feels so lively and real, and I chuckled at a few of those pressure-cooker moments in chapter two. As someone who’s a total kitchen disaster IRL, it’s fun living vicariously through the MC’s choices. Quick question: are there romance options brewing (pun intended) in later chapters?

Excited to see where this goes!

Omg thank you so much! It really gives me a boost to keep going, haha! There’s only one romance option I wanted to focus on, since the story will be deeply centered on their relationship and there are already a lot of branches regarding the cooking aspect. I may also add that, coming from Episode Interactive, I was so used to writing only one love interest that the shift was a bit challenging for me.

Thank you so much again!

[Rosyscribe]

Thank you so much for your feedback and for taking the time to read my story and share your honest thoughts!

Regarding the religious aspect, I knew deep down that it could limit the story for many readers. Since I wrote for Episode Interactive before, I understand how much readers enjoy self-inserting. I think I was a bit biased by my own faith—after all, I’m so immersed in it that even while writing this reply, I’m doing Dhikr (remembrance of God)

That’s probably why I assumed “unconsciously” it would feel natural in the story.

But I guess it’s a good wake-up call to remind myself that we are all different. I’ll give readers the option to play the story either neutrally or as a faith-driven Muslim character. Thank you again!

Regarding Nana, she is indeed the MC’s sister ! She’s on a trip, which is why the MC’s mother said she would have been proud if she were there. I’m introducing this in the next chapters, but I’ll make it clearer, like saying “Your sister” instead of “Your Nana.” Using “Your Nana” was meant to be affectionate haha!

Thank you also for pointing out the bugs in the stats! I’ll fix them as soon as possible. Same goes for your comment about #Be indifferent—I’ll make sure to pay more attention to that in the future.

Regarding the faith stat decreasing because you hold hands or not with the love interest, what you said wasn’t my initial vision. I actually planned it to be a big part of the romance: the more you cross boundaries with the love interest, the more your faith decreases; the more you resist, the more your faith increases. That was the idea, but since I’ll be adjusting the MC’s characterization, I’m not sure yet how central faith will be to the romance.

Anyway, thank you so much again for your time and thoughtful feedback—it really means a lot! I hope you enjoy the upcoming chapters as much as I enjoy creating them !

[AnneWest]

Just please remember that some of us have life experiences that have led us to rejecting organised or even self-driven faith for good reason. If you want to keep it, that’s fine, but you need to make it more explicit in your description so that players don’t feel blindsided and unwelcome in your game.

[Rosyscribe]

As I mentioned, I already plan to make some changes. On other points you stated, let’s agree to disagree. Thank you for giving my story a try.

[Iukan]

This Choice is bugged:

[Rosyscribe]

I’ll do my best to make all the changes today and let you know once everything is fixed and updated. Thank you so much

[Rosyscribe]

MAJOR UPDATE!

All issues have been fixed and you can now play as a faith-driven character or a universal one! I hope you’ll have fun reading it. Chapter Three, Part One, is available in early access if any of you are eager to find out whether you won the surprise challenge or not.

More chapters to come very soon!
Wishing you an amazing weekend!

Demo

[TonyG]

Hello! Getting an error saying chapter1.txt is missing.

[FictReader]

I’m having difficulty accessing the demo it keeps saying it’s missing the game file.

[Rosyscribe]

@TonyG

Hello! Getting an error saying chapter1.txt is missing.

I can’t believe I didn’t notice this. The issue has been fixed. Thank you x)

@FictReader

I’m having difficulty accessing the demo it keeps saying it’s missing the game file.

The issue has been fixed! Thank you so much for your patience