A new pack is being released on 28 September 2023, Home Chef Hustle Stuff. Thanks to the EA Creator’s network, we got to have a look.
.
I’m going to be honest here. I had low expectations for this pack. It’s a pack…about food? What? But I was pleasantly surprised by what I found! Let’s take a look.
CAS
First let’s look at CAS. There are some really nice hairs in here, and all of them come in child versions. The short male hair with the buzzed sides comes in a toddler version as well.
For clothing we have quite a few chef/cook type outfits, including two different chef’s coats, and one child’s full body outfit that puts Sim children in an apron. Sadly there is no chef’s hat, but there is a hat that looks like a cupcake, kinda. The cupcake hat also comes in child, toddler, AND infant versions! There are also some food-themed outfits, including one shirt for children, as well as some kitchen clogs, and various food-themed accessories. (the knife earrings are a favorite of mine!)
Build/Buy
There are two styled rooms, which showcase the new kitchen cabinets, counters, and major appliances.
There new kitchen assets include a new floor, new wall, and countertops/cabinets and a fridge and stove and range hood. There are also shelves and some kitchen clutter. The cool thing about the shelves and cabinets? They’re backlit! I took a picture of them at night without any other lights so it’s more obvious, but you can see it during the day, too. I actually wish I had this in my own kitchen in my house. It looks like it would make things a lot easier to see!
Then we have the Anywhere Any Fare food stand, which brings a new gameplay mechanic to the game, the food sale. Sims can now have food sales, either on their home lot or on a community lot! The food stand can be put into the Sim’s inventory and then set up on a community lot. The food stand name can be customized, and changed at any time. Food can be brought along, or, if you have the appropriate small appliances to put on the two slots on the food stand, be prepared while the food sale is running. The stand seems to be refrigerated, as when my Sim did her pizza sale the pizza in the food stand had days left before it would spoil, but only hours in her inventory.
Items are automatically assigned a price, but Sims can change the markup on items. As expected, higher markup increases profit per item, but also decreases sales. When running a food sale, Sims can perform a sales pitch or suggest a food. These rely on and increase the charisma skill, while holding a food sale improves the Entrepreneur skill. Food sales run for five hours and at the end
There are also three new small appliances. We have a pizza oven, waffle maker, and a stand mixer.
The waffle maker, surprisingly enough makes waffles. There are various recipes, including some cross-pack recipes. Some of the waffles have various effects, good and bad. The countertop pizza oven, believe it or not, makes pizza. When Sims use it, they do toss the pizza dough around, which is pretty fun.
There are various recipes including a very special pizza, which warms my nostalgic little heart, that you need Get to Work to be able to make. I haven’t had the hinted effect of this one yet, but I remain hopeful!
Lastly, there is the stand mixer.
This appliance enables Sims to do some prep work before cooking. For example, Sims with Cooking level 1 can make batter. It costs §45 to make the batter, although you can reduce that by having ingredients on hand, but that makes five units of it, and it only takes one unit to make a cake recipe. So this can potentially save a Sim a fair bit of money, especially when they are using prepped ingredients for food sales. The down side is that prepped ingredients do have a shelf life, even if you prep them from non-spoiling fresh veggies, so keep that in mind.
Aspirations
We also have two new aspirations, Appliance Wiz and Market Magnate.
Appliance Wiz is a Food aspiration and focuses on making the most of the new small appliances. The reward for Appliance Wiz is the Batch Cook trait, which gives duplicates of any food item made with prepped ingredients. I can see this trait making food sales extremely profitable, or just making dinner easier when the Sim has a really big family!.
Market Magnate is a Fortune aspiration and is all about food sales. The reward for completing Market Magnate is the Booth Boss trait, which gives the Sim the ability to set higher markup prices and makes them more successful at sales actions on the food stand and the sale table.
Final Thoughts
I came into this review expecting to be underwhelmed by this pack, and instead, I was blown away. There’s a lot more than I expected here. I really thought there would be a couple new food items and really not much else, but I was wrong! The short male hair may be a new favorite of mine, and I may have to make some of these new clothes the defaults for some of my restaurants. I also fully intend to see if my farm family can turn their eggs and milk into even more money by maintaining a food sale table.
If you like your Sims having more food options or having your Sims be entrepreneurs, this may be a good addition to your game.
Leave a Comment