Being able to keep Link in good health is essential if you want to see everything that Tears of the Kingdom has to offer. The Hyrule map is vast, and there are lots of enemies to tangle with in almost every zone.
One of the most important survival skills to have during the game is cooking food, although the game’s initial tutorial for it isn’t very straightforward.
To help you cook some Toasty Skyshrooms, here’s a bite-sized guide on how to cook food in Tears of the Kingdom. I’ll look at how to cook with a Cooking Pot and how to cook food without one, too.
How to Cook Food Without a Pot
There are two key ways of cooking food in Tears of the Kingdom. Cooking food without a Pot is the first method that you’ll come across, and it’s pretty simple to get the hang of.
First, get yourself some food. If you’ve just started the game, you’re likely to have a few Apples or Skyshrooms in your inventory.
If there are Apple trees nearby, you can hit them with your weapon to knock down more Apples. It’s also possible to climb the trees to pick the fruit.
Then, find a fire. They’re decently common across the various Sky Islands, and there’s often a Steward or Construct of some kind nearby.
If you can’t find a fire, it is also possible to make one, provided that you have Flint and a metal weapon or a Fire Fruit arrow.
Once you’re standing in front of a fire, open up your inventory and select the item that you want to cook. You can hold up to 5 items at once.
Exit the inventory menu and place the food items so that they’re almost inside the fire. If you place them too far away, they won’t cook.
Leave them for a few moments, then you’ll be able to pick up your cooked food.
Eating cooked food will restore your health and apply any relevant bonuses.
How to Cook Food With a Pot
Cooking a meal in Tears of the Kingdom is much easier if you have a Cooking Pot. This tool makes it much easier to put together specific ingredients for recipes, and it takes a little less time than cooking food manually with just a fire.
You can find Pots all over the game world, with some of them being attended to by Stewards who will walk you through your first meal.
The process is relatively the same as cooking without a Pot, except it adds a neat animation into the mix.
You need to select your items in the inventory menu, exit the menu, then select the Cooking Pot. A mini animation of Link cooking will then play and then you’ll be able to eat your meal or leave it in your inventory.
Remember to double check the recipe before starting if there’s a particular buff or benefit that you’re looking to get from cooking.
What to Do Next
Now that you can cook in Tears of the Kingdom, take a look at the different recipes that exist in the game. There’s quite a few of them and some of them have unique benefits, like giving Link a temporary speed boost, resistance to cold, or stamina boost.
Temporary boosts like this are very handy when trying to solve puzzles like the In-Isa Shrine or the Ukouh Shrine.
Make sure to spend some time scouting around for ingredients, too. There are edible ingredients in almost every area of the game, and plenty of critters to use for elixirs, too.
