My Time At Sandrock: How To Complete The Iron Chef Quest

The My Time At Sandrock Iron Chef Free Cities quest is a way of introducing cooking into the game. During your playthrough of My Time At Sandrock you’ll most likely have picked up ingredients in the wild with no way of implementing them, until now. To learn how to complete the Iron Chef of the Free Cities questline, and how to unlock cooking in the game, read on.

• Wish to play My Time At Sandrock with friends? Good news! You can read all about multiplayer in our My Time At Sandrock multiplayer guide.

My Time At Sandrock Iron Chef Quest: Mysterious Man

The mysterious man is a masked NPC merchant that appears in town on the 20^th day of each month. He sells special furniture items, and although he has a shop and residence in town, it is never open for business.

On his first interaction with the player, he gives the ’Iron Chef of the Free Cities’ quest, where he tasks the player to help him perfect the ‘Drool With Joy Noodles’ recipe and make a batch for him, this will only trigger if you have made or started to make the Apprentice Cooking Station. The Mysterious Man usually only lingers in cities for two days at a time, he does, however, give you three in-game days to complete the task.

• For more My Time At Sandrock tips, read our My Time At Sandrock Amirah gift guide, to learn how you can upgrade your relationship with Amirah, quickly.

My Time At Sandrock Iron Chef Quest: How To Get The Cooking Station

The Apprentice Cooking station, like most machinery, is available to unlock at the Research Centre in return for Data Disks (which you can get through salvage at the Salvage Yard or pay for at the Salvage Shop). The Apprentice Cooking Station is locked in a tree underneath the Drying Wrack, so you’ll have to unlock this first to be able to unlock the Cooking Station. The Apprentice Cooking station will cost 12 Data Disks and takes three in-game days for the recipe to be delivered to your mailbox. You can speed this process along with the use of additional Data Disks.

The crafting materials needed for the Cooking Station are:

• A Copper Pot
• ⁠Three Marble Slabs
• ⁠Three Rubber Shell⁠s
• ⁠Three Bronze Bars⁠
• ⁠Four Hard Wood⁠

The Bronze Bars can be made by combining Tin and Copper in a Furnace, both materials of which can be obtained in the Abandoned Ruins. (Tin first spawns at level three and lower).

To collect Hardwood, you’ll have to have access to a Bronze Pickhammer, and harvest Quality Wood Piles (found throughout the quarry area near the Workshop).

Rubber Shells can be made through a Processor or can be received as a drop from recycling Rubber Scrap in the Recycler.

The Copper Pot is the tricky part, to craft this you’ll have to have access to an Intermediate Worktable (level 2), this means unlocking the blueprint for it at the Research Centre and crafting it with the materials.

My Time At Sandrock Iron Chef Quest: How To Upgrade The Worktable

To upgrade the Worktable to intermediate level, you can navigate through the upgrade menu in your current Worktable, here you’ll need:

• Marble Slab x5 (Marble is found by harvesting Hard Rock Piles, four Marble inside a Furnace make Marble Bricks, two Marble Bricks inside a Processor make one Marble Slab)
• Copper Wire x10 (crafted from Copper Ore in a Grinder)
• Old Parts x10 (recycle Mechanical Scrap or buy from Eufaula Salvage)
• Hardwood Stick x5 (Made from placing Hardwood inside a Processor, Hardwood is collected from Quality Wood piles with a Bronze Axe)
• Machine Upgrade Kit x3 (Can be bought from ‘Hammer Time’ shop near the entrance of Sandrock.)

This ultimately means that to unlock and make an Apprentice Cooking Station, you’ll need to have access to a Grinder, Recycler, Processor, and Furnace. Once unlocked you can now cook dishes in a Cooking Pot or Steamer, with the ability to expand the possible cooking combinations further with a Cooking Station upgrade.

• To learn in depth how you can obtain a Grinder, read our guide on My Time At Sandrock Grinder.

My Time At Sandrock Iron Chef Quest: How To Cook Drool With Joy Noodles

Upon receiving the quest from the Mysterious Man, he will give you cryptic clues to follow without openly saying what you should include in the dish. He will also hand you his special seasoning to add to the mixture. The dish must be cooked underneath the Cooking Pot option in the Cooking Station, with the following ingredients:

• Flour (Can be purchased from Blue Moon Saloon or the By The Stairs shop, or made yourself with Wheat in a Blender)
• ⁠Meat⁠ (dropped upon defeating a Yakmel or purchased from the Wandering Y Store)
• ⁠Rib Meat⁠ (obtained from defeating Monsters like the Lizard folk)
• ⁠Alfalfa⁠ (can be purchased from Blue Moon Saloon or the By The Stairs general goods store)
• ⁠Seesai Pepper Blend⁠ (given by the Mysterious Man)

My Time At Sandrock Iron Chef Quest: Rewards

You’ll receive 900 XP and 10 Reputation points for your workshop, a sizeable bonus for early gameplay with the promise from the Mysterious Man that he will share 30% of his profits with you as he tours other cities selling the recipe.

The Mysterious Man will advise you on how to barter, with the idea of convincing Owen to stock Drool With Joy Noodles at the Blue Moon Saloon. If successful at selling the recipe to Owen he will regularly stock the noodles every Wednesday for the sale price of 100 Gol each.

Choose the following dialogue options with Owen to get the best outcome:

• ‘Nah, how are things with you?’
• ‘I’ve been re-making common dishes…’
• ‘200 Gols’
• ‘Mabel thought 200 was fine…’

Owen will take the offer and double it, giving you 400 Gols and 450 XP.

If you choose the ‘2,000 Gols’ option, Owen will remark that its ‘a bit steep’, and his dialogue won't change until you adjust your amount. If you choose 50 Gols, he will tell you it's worth more and give you 200 Gols for the recipe. If you open the conversation with a sales pitch for the recipe, he will deny you and say he will work with you in the future. If you choose the above options but choose ‘Please you’re my only hope!’ instead of the Mabel answer, he will accept and give you the agreed 200 Gols.

The Drool With Joy Noodles grant a 12% increase to maximum damage and a 12% decrease of damage received. This lasts for 30 seconds, a viable option when harvesting feathers from Rocket Roosters.

• For more My Time At Sandrock tips and tricks, read our My Time At Sandrock Mi-an gift guide, to learn how you can increase your relationship with Mi-an fast.