Does the price of the counter affect meal quality?

[lqtinkerbell]

I have been preparing autumn salad with perfect lettuce and the best I have gotten is Great and Excellent.  I am using the cheapest counter. Same with other foods. I have the most expensive fridge and stove and a food processor. Should I buy a more expensive counter or just keep making the dish? I am in week 3 day 6 and have a skill of 8 for cooking.

[Pam]

Welcome to our Forum, Iqtinkerbell.

I've never heard that the quality of the counter can make a difference in the meal quality.  I do know that the more often you make a recipe, the better it gets.  Autumn Salad is one of the hardest to get to perfect quality because you almost always start out with lower quality ingredients.  What about other recipes?  Does quality improve?

[samoht04]

Your Sim will get better at making Dishes if they prepare them a lot, my Dynasty Founder who has maxed Cooking and almost completed all the challenges for it and she still makes Great food that she doesn't normally make however things that she does such as Pancakes come out as perfect. It's like in Real Life you don't become an expert at a dish overnight. Also you get far more perfect items after you max the Cooking Skill.

[ratchie]

Have you tried making the autumn salad using perfect lettuce out of your own garden.

Rachel

[lqtinkerbell]

Yes, I use perfect lettuce and tomatoes for salad and spaghetti and both still come out Great even though I make them every other day or so for the whole time I have been playing. I will just have to keep making it until it is perfect I guess. I don't want to spend simoleons on a better counter if that doesn't affect it though because I am doing a challenge where money counts..

[Alexandria_]

I really don't think the counter affects the quality of the meal.
For the My Garden of Eatin' Smells Fishy challenge, I made plenty of perfect meals on the lowest quality counters.
The easy meals just have a lower quality start. You can see what quality level the meal starts at by going into your cooking journal. Next to the recipes you have learned, it should say the starting quality. The ones that start lower (Like Autumn Salad, Waffles and Mac and Cheese) take a longer time to get perfect, where as recipes with a higher starting quality (eg. Ambrosia starts at Perfect and Baked Angel Food Cake starts at Great) will be a lot easier to get to perfect more quickly.

Good luck 

[folcon]

Will a sim's favorite food rise in quality a little faster too, even if it starts off real low?  Because I often start a sim with a favorite food as mac and cheese or something simple at the beginning, and will use the change of taste reward once they are more experienced to make the fancier meals to switch it to something like lobster thermador or tri tip steak.

Though I have to ask, does the roast ever go up to perfect?  Because it's like the only thing that doesn't get caught or grown...or can you put a turkey in a perfect omniplant to get a perfect turkey for the roast?

[Alexandria_]

will a sim's favorite food rise in quality a little faster too, even if it starts off real low?  because i often start a sim with a fav food as mac and cheese or something simple open at the bigging, and will use the change of taste reward once they are more expereinced to make the fancer meals to switch it to something like lobster thermador or tri tip steak.

though i have to ask, does the roast ever go up to perfect?  because it like the only thing that doesnt get caught or grown...or can you put a turkey in a perfect omniplant to get a perfect turkey for the roast?

I've never put a turkey in an omniplant, so I'm not sure about that.
However, I've made perfect Stuffed Turkey a few times with the turkey from the general store.

[Leto85]

Now, there's an interesting question! Good thinking Iqtinkerbell.
You're probably wondering this because why on earth is there such a huge price difference between the counters, right?
Well, I'm afraid the answer to your question is still 'no' but I can say that the more expensive the counter, the more time it takes for them to get dirty, so less cleaning time for you.

Not practical anymore when you crossbreed your sims with the maid, so they get the hidden ultra-I-will-never-dirty-anything trait, but the more expensive counters look nicer anyway.
Again; but they don't infect your food quality.
Still you could come back here and note when your sim reaches level 10 cooking with every challenge completed.

[danefaith]

The autumn salad has one of the lowest, I suppose you could call it, "base qualities."  When cooking meals with low base qualities, even after you've piled on all the possible boosts: level 10 cooking, best equipment, best ingredient qualities, you'll still likely fall short of perfect until you've prepared it enough times.  It's especially difficult to deal with the salad because it isn't a stove top dish, and only uses two ingredients instead of three, robbing it of two quality boosts completely.

Granted, that doesn't directly answer your question.  No, counter price does not affect cooking quality, just cleanliness and room score.  However, if you were to purchase a food processor and use that, instead of a counter, to prepare your autumn salads, that WOULD add a boost to meal quality.

Hope that's of some help.  

[LucreziaBorgia]

Granted, that doesn't directly answer your question.  No, counter price does not affect cooking quality, just cleanliness and room score.  However, if you were to purchase a food processor and use that, instead of a counter, to prepare your autumn salads, that WOULD add a boost to meal quality.

I do not agree that cleanliness and room score affect meal quality. Even plant quality boost of meal in the end is very small. The only thing that works is that the sim be a level 10 cook with all the challenges mastered, and the reward for doing the cooking career- the refrigerator.

[Pam]

I do not agree that cleanliness and room score affect meal quality. Even plant quality boost of meal in the end is very small. The only thing that works is that the sim be a level 10 cook with all the challenges mastered, and the reward for doing the cooking career- the refrigerator.

For my cooks, the difference in ingredient quality can mean the difference between a Perfect meal and a Great meal.  At home with perfect ingredients, a meal will be Perfect, but in France with normal ingredients, the same meal drops to Great or Excellent.

[Schipperke]

Upgrading the stove to Improve Meal Quality helps as well.  It works even on the expensive stoves.

[Hosfac]

I do not agree that cleanliness and room score affect meal quality. Even plant quality boost of meal in the end is very small. The only thing that works is that the sim be a level 10 cook with all the challenges mastered, and the reward for doing the cooking career- the refrigerator.

I currently have a level 3 cook in my Immortal Dynasty who makes perfect meals every time.  While that refrigerator does a lot, the quality of the ingredients cannot be underestimated.

[LucreziaBorgia]

I currently have a level 3 cook in my Immortal Dynasty who makes perfect meals every time.  While that refrigerator does a lot, the quality of the ingredients cannot be underestimated.

Well every time I play the Sims 3 I always make a cook, and my previous post was from personal experience. I have a cook who makes perfect meals every time with normal ingredients, and the only thing she utilizes are: refrigerator, a stove with the improved meal quality upgrade, and her knowledge as a level 10 cook.