What's Cooking With Jamie Oliver Hands-On Impressions

We don't know when it happened, but somewhere along the line the culinary arts have become a social phenomenon. TV personality and world-renowned chef Gordon Ramsay has his own branded Wii and DS games on the way, and naked chef Jamie Oliver wants a slice of the pie (so to speak) with the DS game What's Cooking.

Pitched somewhere between Nintendo's Cooking Guide: Can't Decide What to Eat? and the game Cooking Mama, What's Cooking has elements of a virtual instructional cookbook and a cooking-themed game. In it you'll use stylus controls to perform actions such as stirring, pouring, and serving, as well as to perform more complex tasks such as managing multiple plates, putting things in ovens, and working temperature dials. You'll be able to follow set step-by-step recipes to create simple dishes such as pancakes, or alternatively you can go all out on more advanced recipes such as the roasted bream with ratatouille.

A wide range of areas are available in the game's kitchen, including presentation, preparation, and washing areas. Each space is designated by a different icon on the navigation bar at the top of the bottom screen. By selecting and dragging an item to the chopping board icon, for instance, you'll be able to cut it to the required dimensions. If your food item requires more than one chopping stroke--such as dicing--you perform this on the touch screen using the stylus. Just drag the stylus across the virtual food to make the correct cuts. There didn't appear to be an automated process for this, meaning that cutting large amounts of any one item could become frustrating. Luckily our sample recipes all called for reasonably small portions of ingredients, so we didn't find ourselves on kitchen duty peeling potatoes all night.

Cooking is creative, and there's plenty of fun to be had throwing stuff into meals on a whim. What's Cooking's test kitchen lets you cook up a storm and practice your skills. There are 100 recipes scheduled to be included in the box, but there are also an additional 100 slots available for your own custom creations. The game has wireless support, so you'll be able to swap your culinary concoctions with other players. There's even the option to build shopping lists, which you can store and take with you when you go to purchase ingredients in the real world. Jamie Oliver has recorded original voice work for the game, and during the cooking segments you'll hear him offer his unique brand of English encouragement. Unfortunately, the game has no plans to be voice driven, so you'll need to press the D pad to move to the next step of the recipe.

Part game, part instructional guide, What's Cooking With Jamie Oliver is a title we'll be following with much interest. Budding chefs will want to add this one to their shopping list for the holiday season when it bakes its way into stores this October.