The Cook-off
The Cook-off Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Components
- 6 Cooking Utensils
- 1 Custom Kitchens (Individual Mats) - one per chef
- 1 Round and Score Board
- 7 Round and Score Markers
- 42 Action Cards
- 54 Vegetable Tokens
- 36 Meat Tokens
- 18 Sabotage Tokens
Tournament Objective
The winner will be the one who gets more Victory Points (VPs) with his recipes, and nothing friendly tricks, after ten rounds with three actions each.
Preparing
To be part of The Cook-off! each chef should select their respective utensils and receive their initial tournament kit:
- 1 Raw Meat - If it was cooked you wouldn't need a chef, right?
- 2 Vegetables - Because it's good to be healthy.
- 1 Kitchen - Your culinary temple ready for the competition!
- 1 Set of Action Cards of their color, being: 1 Cook!, 2 Prepare..., 2 Sabotage, 1 Get Ingredient, 1 Double!
Stack the rest of the tokens in the middle making a Central Stock.
Getting Ready: The Kitchen
Here is where the precious recipes of the chefs will be prepared. But not without risks, because the kitchen will be under the constant threat of the other chefs and they are willing to do anything to win!
The kitchen is divided as the following areas:
- Grill: This is where the chef prepares his Meat recipes. Only one Meat is allowed on the Grill.
- Stove: On the stove there are three pans for the chefs to prepare their dishes with Vegetables. Only one Vegetable is allowed per Pan.
- Countertop: It's the action area where each player will play the three cards for the round on the desired order. The actions are resolved one by one and simultaneously among the players.
- Preparing Board: Keep your available ingredients here.
- Presentation Tray: Leave all your cooked ingredients on this tray for score checking by the end of the game.
Actions
In The Cook-off! there are six possible actions: Get Ingredients, Prepare..., Cook!, Sabotage, Double! and Clean.
Prepare...
Ingredients chosen. What will be prepared now?
If a player decides to prepare the food, that means he is putting an ingredient to cook. He must decide if he'll put a Raw Meat in the Grill or a Vegetable in a Pan.
While preparing, the chef cannot be target of sabotage.
Cook!
Time to show off your skills and earn some victory points on the way! This action allows the chef to turn a prepared ingredient into Victory Points.
Vegetables need to be cooked once, while Meat must be cooked twice, either by doubling the Cook! action or in two consecutive rounds from the first Cook! card. When you cook the Meat for the first time, turn the Meat Token to the brown side showing that it is half cooked.
- Meat: Each cooked Meat is worth 6 VPs.
- Vegetable: Each cooked Vegetable is worth 2 VPs.
Attention: If a player fails to Cook the Meat twice in up to 2 rounds, the token should be discarded and returned to the Central Stock.
After cooking an ingredient and turning it into Victory Points, keep it in your Presentation Tray and add the respective Victory Points to the Score Board.
While cooking, the chef cannot be target of sabotage.
Get Ingredient
This is the moment you, professional chef, will carefully choose which ingredients you need. Remember, even if there are only two options, it is still a big decision to make.
When a player uses this card, he may get two ingredients from the Central Stock: two Meat, two Vegetables, or one of each. The chosen ingredients must be placed on the Preparing Board.
While getting ingredients, the chef can be target of sabotage.
Double!
To be the best, some chefs are willing to work in double!
This card doubles the next card effect. Therefore, Double! cards must be played before the action you desire to double the effect.
Attention: If this card happens to be the third action, it has its effect nulled and won't double next round's first action.
While doubling, the chef can be target of sabotage.
Sabotage
Sabotaging opponent's dishes is a good way to make a grub look better than the others. Therefore, the chefs are armed with a few tricks to cheat and Sabotage other's recipes!
Players can Sabotage their opponents in two different ways:
- Remove: The first option is to remove a Meat from the Grill or a Vegetable from one of the Pans. Return the ingredient to the Central Stock.
- Disable: If there isn't an ingredient on the target Grill or Pan, it's possible to disable it. Place a Sabotage Token on an utensil. The Sabotaged utensil cannot be used till the player chooses to clean his mat.
Every time a player successfully Sabotages another player, he earns 1 VP!
Attention: If at any time, a player has his Grill and three Pans Sabotaged, he MUST lose the next round to Clean the mat.
While sabotaging, the chef can be target of sabotage.
Clean
The best chefs are the most targeted... Time to show that even playing dirty, they are clean chefs...
At the beginning of each round, players may declare they will Clean. When cleaning, all the Sabotage Tokens and Ingredients on the Grill and Pans must be removed. Turn the mat to its clean side to make it clear to others that you are cleaning. (Ingredients on the Preparing Board and Presentation Tray are preserved.) However, in doing so, the player can not make any other action in the round.
While cleaning, the chef cannot be target of sabotage.
Note that the action cards have background color and icons. This helps players to have a quick identification of whether the player could or not be target of sabotage. Therefore, green background cards with the icon let you be target of sabotage, while red background cards with the icon don't allow you to be sabotaged. (The source text for this note is partly broken by the icons; the green/red assignment is as printed.)
Sequence of Play
The tournament has 10 rounds with a sequence of three actions each.
Players put down 3 cards facing down on the Countertop, following the desired order for their actions.
After all players define their round cards, everyone simultaneously shows the first card. Players should now discuss and decide in which order actions take place, in other words, who Sabotages who. Alliances and conspiracies are more than welcome, but it is good to remember: No one is required to follow anybody!
After resolving first actions, each player has now the option to change the order of the second with the third cards, as long as they aren't revealed. Everyone confirms the final order and resolves the remaining actions one by one.
After resolving the three actions, each player returns the played cards to their hands and chooses 3 cards again according to their plans for the next round. Game continues...
Winning the Game
After finishing the tenth round, players should check their score and add or subtract the bonus points according to the following requirements:
- Raw Meat: The player who finishes with a half cooked meat in the Grill receives 3 VPs.
- Sabotage Tokens: By the end of the game, for each Sabotage Token on Pan or Grill, the player loses 2 VPs.
- Healthy Bonus: The player with the highest amount of cooked Vegetables earns another 3 VPs (in case of tie, the bonus goes to the player with the lowest amount of Meat. If the tie persists, both players earn the Healthy Bonus).
If at the end of the game there is a tie, adopt again the number of vegetables as the tiebreaker. So, the player with the highest number of cooked Vegetables and fewer Meats is the winner.