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If you love cooking mechanics as much as I do, you likely spent your early time in Village in the Shade wondering if the game would ever let you cook. Rest assured: there is a cooking mechanic in this one, and it goes beyond that simple recipe you whip up at the workbench.
Once you hit a certain point in the game, you’ll unlock cooking equipment and be able to start learning new recipes. If you’re curious how cooking works in Village in the Shade, our guide has got you covered!
**This guide is in progress. Last updated 10/31/2026**
How to Unlock Cooking in Village in the Shade
It takes getting into the groove a bit before you will be able to truly cook your own food in Village in the Shade. But rest assured, you will be able to cook soon enough!
To unlock cooking, you need to reach the Rule 2: Cooperate for the Sake of the Village errand quest and complete Rokkaku’s errand request. Once you do, Rokkaku will gift you some cooking supplies and your first recipe.
At this point, you will be able to set up your first cooking station and make boiled eggs. This also unlocks the ability to learn new recipes and expand your cooking repertoire.
Keeping Your Stamina Up Early On: Forageables and Early-Game Snacks
Cooking won’t be readily accessible during your first few hours in Village in the Shade. However, the game offers other ways to keep your stamina up. You can forage for wild, edible plants all around the village. Eating dandelions, bracken, and the like will restore some stamina early on.
You’ll also learn a very simple recipe that you can make at your workbench, no cooking equipment required. Hyorogan requires just two ingredients: 10 wild grass seeds and 5 wild grass roots. It’s not as hearty as a good meal, but it will restore some stamina.
You can also visit Rokkaku’s restaurant next to the General Store to buy food dishes. I found that this wasn’t super necessary early on, and would suggest saving your money for other things. Buying those meals will be more worthwhile once you unlock cooking properly.
Once you do unlock cooking, Boiled Eggs are a fairly easy staple recipe that restores both stamina and health. It just requires 2 eggs, so you should be able to make it daily once you’ve got 2 adult chickens in the coop.
How to Get New Recipes
Getting new recipes in Village in the Shade works a bit differently. Rather than buying or finding new recipes, you learn to make dishes by eating them several times. So, ordering a dish at the restaurant and eating it 3 times should unlock its recipe. You can track your progress based on the little rice ball icons that pop up next to each recipe.
NOTE: Eating dishes that were gifted by NPCs outside of the restaurant does not appear to make progress towards unlocking new recipes, so you’ll need to visit Rokkaku often to fill up your recipe book.
Some recipes will also be gifted by villagers, so be sure to keep those relationships strong if you want to cook everything in the game. In our experience, villagers will give you a recipe the first time you speak with them following their heart events.
All Cooking Recipes in Village in the Shade
Here’s the full list of available recipes that we’ve unlocked so far, plus what you’ll need to prepare each dish. All recipes are unlocked by eating the meal 3x at Rokkaku’s restaurant, unless otherwise specified.
Looking for more tips for Village in the Shade? Check out our main walkthrough hub for tips and links to all of our guides.
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