TL;DR
What this career is
Food domain. Restaurant kitchens across Melino's three eateries. Cooking is the one skill that gates it, from line cook to head chef.
At a glance
Is Food right for your Para?
- Key skills
- Cooking
- Story fit
- Fits family-kitchen-to-restaurant dreams and cosy domestic saves.
Editorial ratings from our own EA playthroughs — not official data.
Getting hired
How to land a Food job
Application Points come almost entirely from the Cooking skill plus kitchen experience. Melino's restaurants — including the Fancy Restaurant — hire Cooks, Assistant Chefs and Chefs. A Hospital Cook even counts under both Food and Healthcare.
- 1
Open the job board. Click your Para, choose Use Phone then Find a job — or use any computer (the Town Hall and Library have public ones) or a Hiring poster around Melino.
- 2
Check the Application Points. Rank 1 listings need 0 points; every higher rank needs Application Points equal to its rank number — a Rank 12 job needs 12. Points come from leveled skills, sector work experience, the Charisma stat and certain Vibes.
- 3
Accept and set a schedule. Listings refresh every in-game day, you can hold multiple jobs if shifts don't overlap, and you tweak hours at the bottom of the Occupations tab. Applying internally adds +3 points; a Jester Vibe can roll a random +5.
Rank & pay
The rank ladder, entry to capstone
Pay scales with rank. Figures below are daily salaries cross-checked from the EA job tables — treat them as representative, not guaranteed, since patch 0.1.x can rebalance.
- Entry · Rank 1
Cook — the kitchen entry role. A low Cooking level gets you in; the failure-and-fire risk drops as the skill climbs.
- Mid ranks
Assistant Chef (Sous Chef) — the mid kitchen rank, leaning on a solid Cooking level and restaurant experience.
- Senior / capstone
Chef — the senior kitchen role at the Fancy Restaurant. Food is a focused track: one skill, a clear ladder, steady mid pay.
Skills that feed it
What raises your Application Points
These are the player-leveled skills that count toward this domain's Application Points. Level them, or use a cheat to test a higher-rank listing.
Cooking is the whole story. Level it on any stove and learn recipes through the Skin system — LEARNALLSKINS Recipes pre-unlocks the tree, or LEVELUPSKILL Cooking to test a higher kitchen rank.
Perks & cheats
Upgrade points, perks and the console
Kitchen shifts are rabbit-holes: bank salary and upgrade points, then spend them on perks like faster plating or higher dish quality.
PRINTALLPOSSIBLEEXTRASFOROCCUPATION— lists every Occupation Perk for the current job.ENDWORKDAY— resolves the shift, pays salary and grants an upgrade point if performance held.CLEARSTRIKES— wipes disciplinary strikes before they get the Para fired.
Need the full command list? Open the cheats index for all 100+ Paralives cheats, categorised.
Common mistakes
Three pitfalls on this track
Cooking under-leveled for high roles
Chef needs real Cooking levels. Grind it at home first; low-level cooks risk kitchen fires and slow promotions.
Ignoring recipes
Unlearned recipes give almost no skill XP. Learn them via the Skin system or LEARNALLSKINS Recipes before chasing rank.
Letting performance slip
Same firing risk as any job. Arrive in a good mood; CLEARSTRIKES clears a bad streak.
Related careers
Adjacent tracks to consider
Careers that share skills, employers or Application-Point sources with this one.
Keep exploring
Continue the field guide
Wider reading from the rest of the Paralives field guide.
All 11 domains, the Application-Points system, the skill-to-career map and how a workday plays out — back to base camp.
Every player-leveled skill, what it unlocks, and the career it pays into. Level the right one before you apply.
100+ achievement-safe console commands. Career, skills, money and more — categorised and searchable.