In Island Chef Academy, you take on the role of the Underwater Chef from Mystery Island, who seems to be running a successful restaurant business in between rustling up meals for Mumbo Pango. Your job is to prepare meals from start to finish for your customers without taking too long, making the wrong dish, or running short of what you need at the wrong moment. Sound hectic? You're not wrong...
Controls
You will need your mouse for all the controls in this game.
First, look at the line of hobs in the middle of the screen. Pans will appear with a small icon indicating which ingredient you need to place in each one. Find the right ingredient among the row of dishes at the bottom of the screen, click to prepare it for cooking. When the ingredient is prepared, the dish will be full. Then, you can drag it across the counter with your cursor, and drop it into the correct pan.
You will need to prepare the ingredients each time you want to use them. To save time, we recommend that you prepare them ahead of time, before you need them. That way, as soon as you need an ingredient it will be ready for you to use.
Gameplay
A small timer will appear above each pan once the ingredient has been added. The circles count the cooking time for each dish; when all of them are lit up, the dish is fully cooked. If you've got multiple meals to make at once, try to make sure they all finish cooking at about the same time. You'll get a score bonus and it'll make things easier for you in a moment.
When the dish is finished cooking, drag it across to the top counter, where there will be a plate waiting for it. The waiters won't pick anything up from the counter unless there's more than one dish sitting there, so once you have one meal on a plate, try to get another one out there as soon as possible.
When the waiters pick up the dishes, you'll gain points based on how hot they are. (The dishes, that is, not the waiters.) A meal fresh from the saucepan will have all the lights above it lit, to show it's piping hot. The longer it takes before the plate can be collected by a waiter, the more lights will disappear and the lower your score will be. If all the lights go out, the dish is too cold to serve and you'll have to start again!
If you have time (and there will only be a few seconds), sprinkle the dishes on the counter with the spice shaker on the left. Not only will this double your score for those dishes, the hot flavour of the spice will disguise the fact that a dish isn't as warm as it should be, restoring some of the lights above it if they've gone out.
Of course, the more popular your restaurant gets, the more your exclusive gourmet ingredients will be in demand. From time to time, you'll run out of a particular ingredient. When you run out of an ingredient, you have two options. You can order extra cooking supplies for free, but your customers will have to wait while the delivery arrives, and they aren't the most patient. Alternatively, once you're past the first level, you can subtract points from your final score in exchange for having the ingredients delivered instantly. Choose wisely!
If you're running short on time, the "Focus" button on the left-hand side of the screen will slow down time for a short while, allowing you to finish more tasks. It doesn't last forever, though, so keep an eye on the gauge and don't rely on it too much.
Each level represents one day on the job. When all the customers have gone home for the night, your points will be calculated and you'll start again for the next day. Every two levels, you'll get the option to upgrade either your focus or the speed of ingredient preparation. Improved focus lasts for longer, while faster preparation is exactly what it sounds like: there will be less time between clicking an ingredient and being able to use it. The restaurant will get busier and busier as your reputation grows, though, so be prepared for some hectic work!
