I burn kitchens down IRL, but this Meta Quest VR app taught me how to cook

I once typed “how to unburn pasta” into Google. My chicken breasts are so dry, they taste like sandpaper dipped in regret. But thanks to this incredibly realistic Meta Quest VR cooking simulator, I’m finally clawing out of my way of Gordan Ramsay’s “idiot sandwich” status.

Like it or not, cooking is one of those adulting requirements you can’t skip. I can't DoorDash and UberEats my way through life forever. I mean, I could, but it wouldn’t just be dinner going up in flames — it’d be my bank account, too.

This isn’t one of those mindless cooking games where you’re just assembling burgers and calling it a day. What makes this Quest title “chef’s kiss” is that you’re forced to cook everything from scratch.

You want to make fries? There’s no bag of frozen crinkle cuts waiting for you. Get in the back and grab a potato. Peel it, chop it and get to cookin’! You’re building every meal from the ground up, teaching you how to graduate from an IRL accidental arsonist to a competent cook.

Finally, a kitchen where I can’t burn pasta

Cooking Simulator VR dropped me into a slick and sophisticated modern kitchen — Wolfgang Puck and Padma Lakshmi would cook in this culinary arena.

It’s intimidating at first, but the best aspect of this game is that it doesn’t need to be so frightful, especially if you choose Sandbox Mode. However, if you want a challenge, you’re free to select Career Mode.

But in Sandbox Mode, there’s no head chef barking orders, no impatient diners drumming on tables and no ticking timer breathing down my neck. It’s just me, a posh kitchen and a well-stocked pantry with over 140 ingredients. That’s on top of the top-tier collection of fresh spices and herbs. There’s more than just salt and pepper out there, y’know!

With state-of-the-art blenders, deep fryers, knives and stoves, this VR setup easily outclasses my real-life kitchen.

Let me cook

This isn’t a lazy cooking sim with clunky controls. Every moment felt natural and intuitive, from gripping a pro-grade knife to flipping raw meat with a spatula.

It’s the perfect replication of real-life kitchen actions: whisk with a flick, chop with a glide and twist the knob to turn up the heat. My hands performed just like they would IRL.

For my first VR dish, I decided to follow one of the recipes provided on the kitchen computer: steak and fries. After selecting it, it popped up on a giant monitor, walking me step-by-step through ingredients, measurements and timing instructions.

I pulled a juicy steak from the fridge, slapped it onto the cutting board and seasoned it exactly how the recipe suggested. After drizzling clarified butter into the pan and firing up the stove, I grabbed some tongs. After a minute, I flipped the steak, watching closely as the raw redness slowly transformed into a mouthwatering brown — just like it would in real life.

The recipe called for garnishing the steak with rosemary, so I plucked a fresh sprig straight from the indoor garden.

Next up? Fries. I grabbed a potato from the pile and went to work seasoning and chopping. I didn’t quite nail that perfect rectangular cut, but the wedges I cranked out still looked legit.

I poured them into the deep fryer and yanked them out by the basket like I was working a shift at McDonald’s.

And that was it — my culinary masterpiece was complete. My steak and fries were plated and ready to serve.

If I wanted to double-check how my dish turned out, I could slide it through the kitchen pass for a rating — but honestly, it’s optional. Not to brag, but I got four out of five stars. I’ll take that win.

Kick it up a notch

In the words of world-famous chef Emeril Lagasse, let’s “kick it up a notch!” Now that I’ve mastered the basic steak-and-fries dish, I wanted to try something more challenging.

I decided to cook Shakshuka, a Middle Eastern dish with an eggs-meet-salsa party in your mouth. I’ve never tasted it in real life, but I thought I’d give it a go in VR — against my better judgement.

Cooking this dish turned out to be a nightmare, and it exposed some of the setbacks of the game. The trouble started when I started gathering my ingredients, from eggs and tomatoes to goat cheese and jalapeños. I forgot how lifelike the controls are. At one point, I wasn’t delicate enough with the eggs, and they shattered before I could even use them.

It got worse. The recipe called for just the chopped tomatoes and jalapeños in the skillet, but I already had a medley of ingredients on the cutting board. Without a “bulk transfer option,” I had to delicately drag each slice — one by one — like I was picking peas from rice. It was culinary torture.

And here’s the kicker: I’m a clumsy pourer, apparently. The recipe called for an additional cup of water. However, I accidentally drowned the Shakshuka, which ruined the dish after spending nearly 15 minutes on it. Who wants soggy eggs swimming in tomato soup?

Out of curiosity, I submitted the dish through the kitchen pass. I got slapped with a one-star rating and immediately lost chef points. I respect the game’s honesty. That Shakshuka deserved jail.

I came, I cooked, I got roasted by a VR kitchen

Cooking Simulator VR isn’t perfect. I did feel a little woozy moving around at first, but switching to teleport navigation in the Settings solved that. I also wish the pantry items were labeled better, though you can ID them by holding the trigger button.

The chopping physics are a bit janky, which explains why some of my fries came out looking more like wedges.

Still, I learned a lot. This game teaches patience the hard way. Cooking can be tedious, especially with dropped eggs and endless veggie prep. I rushed through the Shakshuka, and it showed. But now I know: in real life, hurrying through a recipe is the quickest way to mess it up.

It also taught me the art of juggling because time management is everything in this kitchen. While sautéing one dish, you’d better be chopping herbs and keeping an eye on your fries before they turn into charcoal.

Finally, the Shakshuka fiasco taught me to think ahead. I should have read the entire recipe up front. I would’ve known to set the tomatoes and jalapeños aside, saving myself a tedious sorting session.

No, I’m not ready to open a restaurant just yet, but at least I’m ready to retire the fire extinguisher.

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