Help Wanted:

Currently seeking kitchen helpers.

Applicants must be interested in preparing many different types of dishes, as well as learning the basic techniques required to create many delicious meals.

Food, glorious food!

What do you get when you mix in equal parts of “Diner Dash” and “Cooking Mama” and blend them both together? A recipe for a cute new time management/restaurant type game called “Hot Dish.” Oh Mama Mia!

So if you haven't yet had your fill of restaurant time management sims yet- then don your apron and get cooking!

But first things first, here, you play an up and coming sous chef, who's been a whiz behind a pot and pan since you were a kid. And well…that’s basically it to the storyline. There’s not much more to it than that I’m afraid - you are simply whisked from one restaurant (Italian, Asian, and French) to the next.

The goal here is to build up your career one dish at a time. You start at the bottom of the culinary ladder as a line cook in an Italian restaurant with dreams of one day becoming a 5 Star French chef!

Wait a second, was that laughter I heard? Sure, you're sitting there thinking that I probably can’t cook a lick and that I'm only capable of cooking things such as Pop Tarts or macaroni and cheese but the truth is that I can cook and I'm very proud of it, thank you very much!

I’ll have you know, that I make a killer Broccoli and Garlic Ziti that would have you begging for more.
Begging!

So how does it fare in the kitchen? Umm it does okay.

“Hot Dish” does a great job of being a cute" pick up and play" game, but it doesn't have much to bring to the table if you know what I mean, other than simple task by task meals with extra recipes to unlock. In other words, there’s not much to look forward too; each new level mostly brings more of the same. So if you are looking for intense, sweaty chef action - don't look here.

Mangia!Eat!

This game won't make you a better cook either. It's just actions like slicing, dicing and stirring over and over and over again. There are times when you will have to mix food by “stirring” it with a spoon (moving your mouse around in a circular motion). Trust me, this is trickier than it sounds, it was really hard at times 1.) to grab the spoon and 2.) make it turn the way you want it to.

I found the best way to do this is by placing your cursor arrow over the large grey shadowy symbol in the middle of the dish. Move the cursor in same counter-clockwise pattern as the diagram shows (Do NOT click on the small arrow at the bottom). It’s a nifty little trick that helped me out a few times but even after all that I must admit I deliberately didn’t pick recipes that required too many actions with the spoon since it would sometimes throw off my timing.

Like any good time-management game worth a lick in order to be successful you will need to make good use of your time, that’s right, you must multitask! Simply speaking you will need work on two or more dishes at the same time.

For example, you might have 5seconds to spare until your lasagna is ready to take out of the oven so you can begin to prepare a Chicken Cacciatore dish. But don't forget to keep your eye on the original dish or else you'll burn your lasagna.

You earn power ups after you've successfully completed a level. Here are a few of the power-ups you can earn:

·The Spatula will put the game into slow motion, allowing you to work faster.

· The Secret Spices will improve the quality of any recipe. Earning you more stars for that dish.

· Running out of time? The handy-dandy Chef-O-Matic blender will complete a recipe for you. Use this at the last stage of a dish for it to be the most useful.

Mind-blowing gameplay, it ain’t.

But with 45 levels, 80 recipes to unlock, and some cute hands-on cooking actions like frying, grating and broiling, what's not to like? I think you'll still find “Hot Dish” goes down easy and leaves you feeling at least somewhat satisfied.

Hot Dish Tips & Tricks

·At the beginning of each level, you will be asked to select which dishes you want to prepare. It is important to buy new recipes as often as you can it in order to get a higher rating. You will not be awarded higher stars if you keep the same thing on the menu all the time.

·As the levels get higher it's important to add more complicated dishes to the menu; ones that require several steps to make in order to pass the levels.

·If you're on the last set of a certain meal, like the desserts for example and you know you are not going to make your goal, just exit out of the game. Once you come back to the game it will put you at the beginning of the level where you can choose your menu selections and start over. This will save you from having to finish a round that you know you can’t beat.

·That having been said, even if you lose a round, you still get to keep the points you just earned in the level. The points will count towards the next round.

·Multi-task. Multi-task. Multi-task. Prepare as many things at the same time as you possibly can. While something is baking you can chop several things in between. But be careful, when you do more than one thing, don't forget to keep an eye on the other meals in progress.