Cooking in Heartopia is a core hobby and progression mechanic that lets you transform raw ingredients into valuable dishes you can either sell for profit, consume for energy and buffs, or gift to NPCs to increase friendship points. Cooked food generally sells for significantly more gold than raw items.
As you improve your Cooking level, you unlock increasingly complex and profitable recipes, from simple jams and salads to full‑meal platters and desserts. Many recipes can also be found, bought from NPCs like Massimo, or unlocked through quests and hobby progression.
1. How to Unlock Cooking
Massimo
To access Cooking, you must complete a few progression steps:
- Reach Developer’s Guild Level 5 (or higher): Cooking becomes available once you hit at least DG Level 5 and higher.
- Get a Hobby Expansion Ticket: You’ll receive this automatically after leveling up your DG.
- Talk to Massimo: Locate Massimo near his restaurant/café in the Town Center and give him the Hobby Expansion Ticket. This unlocks the Cooking hobby and gives you a starter stove for your home.
- Optional Later Unlocks: If you don’t pick Cooking immediately at DG Level 5, you can still unlock it later (e.g., at DG Level 8 or 11) using another ticket.
Once unlocked, you can use either the public stove near Massimo’s restaurant or your home kitchen’s stove to start cooking.
2. How to Cook Food
House Salad Recipe
Cooking involves a stove interaction and a simple mini‑game:
- Approach a Stove: Use the public stove (restaurant) or your personal home stove.
- Open the Recipe Menu: Only unlocked recipes will be available — you must learn or unlock recipes first.
- Insert Ingredients: Place the necessary ingredients into the recipe slots. Some slots will show arrows, allowing similar items (e.g., different vegetables) to be swapped.
- Watch the Progress Timer: A circular timer appears while cooking. At intervals, a spatula icon prompts you to click before time runs out — this prevents the dish from burning and preserves quality. Missed prompts can lead to Bizarre Food or Bizarre Drink, low‑quality results with minimal value.
- Star Quality Matters: Dishes have star ratings (1★–5★) determined by ingredient quality and cooking performance. Higher star dishes sell for more gold and restore more energy.
3. How to Get Ingredients
Gardening Tomatoes
Cooking ingredients can be obtained through several methods:
- Gardening: Grow vegetables, fruits, wheat, and other crops in your garden. Gardening level unlocks more crop types used in many recipes. For example, tomatoes, potatoes, lettuce, and wheat are commonly used.
- Fishing: Fish and seafood (e.g., any fish, shellfish) are crucial for recipes like Fish & Chips and Seafood‑based meals. Visit rivers, lakes, or ocean areas to catch them.
- NPC Shops: Massimo and other vendors sell staples like eggs, milk, cheese, butter, and basics like coffee beans, flour, and sugar. These can’t be foraged or grown.
- Foraging & Map Items: Wild ingredients such as mushrooms, fruits, berries, and truffles are found across the world by foraging. These are often used in pies, jams, and grilled dishes.
4. All Cooking Recipes in Heartopia
Cooking
| Recipe | Required Cooking Level | Required Ingredients | How to Get Ingredients |
|---|---|---|---|
| House Salad | 1 | 2× Tomato + 1× Lettuce | Grow in Garden / Foraging wild vegetables |
| Fried Egg | 1 | 1× Egg | Buy from Massimo’s Cooking Store |
| Fish N Chips | 1 | 1× Any Fish + 2× Potatoes | Fishing hobby + Garden crop |
| Chocolate Sauce | 1 | 4× Cocoa Beans | Forage cocoa / Garden if unlocked |
| Tomato Soup | 1 | 3× Tomatoes | Garden / Forage tomatoes |
| Vegetable Stir Fry | 2 | 2× Cabbage + 2× Carrot + 1× Onion | Garden vegetables |
| Coffee | 2 | 4× Coffee Beans OR 3× Coffee Beans + 1× Milk | Massimo’s Cooking Store & Dairy Shop |
| Fruit Smoothie | 2 | 2× Apple + 2× Strawberry | Garden / Foraging fruits |
| Honey Tea | 2 | 2× Tea Leaves + 1× Honey | Garden tea leaves once unlocked + Foraging honey |
| Hot Chocolate | 2 | 2× Cocoa Beans + 1× Milk + 1× Sugar | Cocoa foraging / Massimo’s (Milk & Sugar) |
| Omelette | 2 | 3× Egg + 1× Cheese | Massimo’s (Egg & Cheese) |
| Pancakes | 2 | 2× Flour + 1× Egg + 1× Milk | Blanc’s Garden Shop (Flour) & Massimo’s (Egg & Milk) |
| Fruit Salad | 1 | 1× Apple + 2× Strawberry | Garden / Forage fruit |
| Grape Jam | 2 | 3× Grapes + 1× Sugar | Garden fruit + Blanc’s (Sugar) |
| Blueberry Jam | 2 | 3× Blueberries + 1× Sugar | Forage berries / Garden + Blanc’s (Sugar) |
| Apple Jam | 2 | 3× Apples + 1× Sugar | Forage apples + Blanc’s (Sugar) |
| Mushroom Stew | 3 | 4× Mushrooms + 2× Potato + 1× Onion | Forage mushrooms + Garden roots & onions |
| Mushroom Risotto | 3 | 3× Mushrooms + 2× Rice + 1× Butter | Forage mushrooms + Garden rice + Massimo’s (Butter) |
| Clam Chowder | 3 | 3× Clams + 2× Potatoes + 1× Cream | Fishing shore shellfish + Garden + Massimo’s (Cream) |
| Fish Tacos | 3 | 2× Any Fish + 1× Flour + 1× Cabbage + 1× Lime | Fishing + Blanc’s (Flour) + Garden veg & forage lime |
| Garden Pizza | 3 | 2× Cheese + 2× Flour + 1× Herb + 2× Tomatoes | Garden crops + Blanc’s (Flour) + Massimo’s (Cheese) |
| Beef Steak | 4 | 2× Herbs + 2× Beef + 1× Butter | Forage herbs + Massimo’s (Beef & Butter) |
| Fried Rice | 4 | 3× Rice + 2× Eggs + 1× Carrot + 1× Onion | Garden rice & vegetables + Massimo’s (Eggs) |
| Fish Soup | 4 | 2× Any Fish + 2× Tomatoes + 1× Herb | Fishing + Garden tomatoes & herbs |
| Salmon Sushi | 4 | 2× Salmon + 2× Rice + 1× Seaweed | Fishing + Garden rice & forage seaweed |
| Spaghetti Bolognese | 5 | 2× Flour + 2× Beef + 3× Tomato + 1× Herb | Blanc’s (Flour) + Massimo’s (Beef) + Garden tomatoes & herbs |
| Curry Rice | 5 | 3× Rice + 2× Potatoes + 2× Carrots + 1× Curry Powder | Garden crops + General Store (Curry Powder) |
| Strawberry Shortcake | 5 | 4× Strawberry + 2× Flour + 2× Cream + 1× Sugar | Garden fruit + Blanc’s (Flour & Sugar) + Massimo’s (Cream) |
| Lobster Bisque | 5 | 2× Lobsters + 2× Cream + 1× Tomato + 1× Herb | Fishing + Massimo’s (Cream) + Garden crops |
| Crab Cakes | 6 | 3× Crab + 1× Flour + 1× Egg + 1× Herb | Fishing + Blanc’s (Flour) + Massimo’s (Egg) |
| Macaron | 6 | 2× Almond + 2× Egg + 2× Sugar + 1× Cream | Foraging nuts + Massimo’s (Egg, Sugar, Cream) |
| Phở | 6 | 2× Rice + 2× Beef + 2× Herb + 1× Onion | Garden rice & herbs + Massimo’s (Beef) |
| Moon Cake | 6 | 2× Flour + 2× Egg + 2× Lotus Paste | Garden (lotus) + Blanc’s (Flour) + Massimo’s (Egg) |
| Tom Yum Soup | 8 | 3× Shrimp + 2× Mushrooms + 2× Lime + 2× Herb | Fishing + Forage mushrooms, herbs, lime |
| Truffle Risotto | 8 | 3× Rice + 2× Truffles + 2× Butter + 1× Cheese | Garden rice + Forage truffles + Massimo’s (Butter & Cheese) |
| Dragon’s Breath | 10 | 3× Dragon Fruit + 3× Chili + 2× Honey | Forage rare fruit & wild chilies + honey |
| Full Course Dinner | 10 | 2× Wagyu Beef + 2× Lobster + 2× Truffle + 1× Caviar + 1× Gold Leaf | Fishing + Forage truffles + rare shop goods for caviar & gold leaf |
| Phoenix Feast | 12 | 3× Dragon Fruit + 2× Gold Leaf + 2× Starfruit + 1× Phoenix Feather + 1× Flame Essence | Foraged & rare items (specialist nodes) |
| Bizarre Food | 1 | Any food recipe + fail cooking | Any gathered ingredients + QTE failure |
| Bizarre Drink | 1 | Any drink recipe + fail cooking | Any gathered ingredients + QTE failure |
5. How to Increase Your Cooking Level
Leveling up your Cooking hobby unlocks more recipes, better dishes, and higher profits. Your cooking level determines which recipes you can prepare — from simple salads and jams to seafood platters and gourmet desserts — and letting it stagnate will bottleneck your progression.
Cooking XP & Level Requirements
Cooking leveling
Each time you cook dishes, you earn Cooking Experience (XP). When your experience bar is full, you need Hobby Upgrade Tickets to level up. Higher levels unlock more complex and profitable recipes.
| Cooking Level | What Unlocks |
|---|---|
| Lv. 1 | Basic recipes (jams, salads, grilled mushrooms) |
| Lv. 2 | Coffee, Latte, Smoked Fish Bagel |
| Lv. 3 | Seafood Risotto, Rustic Ratatouille, Black Truffle Pasta |
| Lv. 4 | More main dishes & desserts |
| Lv. 5 | Advanced soups, stews, and multi‑ingredient meals |
| Lv. 6–8 | Premium dishes with higher profits |
| Lv. 9–10+ | Gourmet and special event recipes |
Best Ways to Level Up Cooking
- Cook in Bulk: Use multiple stoves (your own plus the public stove) to prepare many dishes at once. This not only increases XP per session but also lets you farm bigger batches of dishes for profit. Place 2–3 stoves in a row so you can keep swapping rapidly between them, especially on recipes that require minimal QTE effort, like jam.
- Focus Early on Easy Recipes: Low‑level recipes like House Salad, Mixed Jam, and Fish & Chips cook quickly and often require only one QTE, giving steady XP with minimal input.
- Cook Newly Unlocked Recipes: Whenever you unlock a new recipe — whether by level, Massimo’s shop purchase, or quest reward — cook it immediately. The first‑time bonus XP is often higher than repeating old recipes.
- Use Seasoning (Advanced Strategy): At Cook Level 6+, you can buy Seasoning from Massimo to guarantee that dishes are at least 2★ quality. This doesn’t directly give XP, but it makes high‑quality dishes more consistent and thus increases star‑based XP gains overall.
- Complete Cooking‑Related Quests: Massimo and other NPCs sometimes offer quests that unlock special recipes or give Hobby Upgrade Tickets, which are necessary for leveling. Check Daily Requests and gossip quests regularly.
How to Get Hobby Upgrade Tickets
- Developer Grade Level Rewards – awarded when you level up other game progression systems.
- Daily Resident Requests & Quests – completing these gives tickets or XP indirectly.
- Event Rewards – special quests/events can give bonus tickets.
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