Knife maintenance simulation

[thecexpanther]

Hey pz crew, just your friendly real-world sous chef here,

 

Today at work I was sharpening my knives and it got me to thinking about how pz handles the knife/ cooking system. Basically I think the following changes could be made to add a little more interesting detail to a fairly mundane and oft-utilized skill set:

 

1) you don't need a knife or sharp object to "prep" your food, even though there's a definite 'chopping' noise when you add things to recipes. So with that, I think they should not be mandatory, but having a knife (specifically a sharp, kitchen one) should add bonuses to your meal. The sharper your knife, the more yield you should get (less waste from clumsy/ poor knife work) the faster it should be to prep/cook (smaller, evenly cut things cook better) and should provide more happiness (well prepared meals are nicer). 

 

2) the above bonuses should be tied to how sharp your knife is. To this end, whet/oil stones (for long term maintenance) and honing steels (for a temporary bonus that doesn't increase the overall edge quality) as well as cutting boards( to reduce wear) should be added. You should need at least one or 2 points in blade maintenance to be able to check the condition of a knife's edge also. 

 

3) dull knives are dangerous! One of the most common ways people injure themselves in the kitchen is because their knife is dull and the have to push harder on it to cut, couple that with most lay people not knowing how to properly hold food they are cutting and you can have serious injuries on your hands (pun not intended lol). So a character with low cooking skill and a dull knife should run the risk of cutting themselves, and also burning themselves while cooking. Higher cooking skill and sharper knives should lower this risk. 

 

This shouldn't be a priority project, but I feel it would add a lot of depth and realism to the game

[trombonaught]

+1 for penalties to risks for low cooking skills!

For something we have to do every day, I would love to make it more interesting/risky/considered (do I want to risk cutting myself without med supplies handy, or should I just eat this lettuce as is?).

[makkenhoff]

I'm reminded of how to slice a mango, courtesy of Alton Brown here.  My brother works in produce at a grocery - so he has to do a lot of different cuts of fruits/vegetables. I can certainly attest to the dangerous methods the untrained will do, as I'm one of them. I'm learning as I go, self learning cooking by watching trained and presumably talented chefs - I've no real passion for the creative and repetitive aspects of cooking though - I find something I like, I might make it a few times, and I'll add it to the list of things I've cooked; it gets stored in my head for later if I decide I want to make it again, but I don't just dive into cooking every day.