Cooks Aren't Cooking Please Help

[Lubert_the_Great]

Hello,
My cooks aren't cooking any food for my prisoners. There are food boxes in the fridges and the cooks all have queued jobs to "Load Ingredients Into Cooker" but they are all just running around the kitchen not doing anything. Has anyone else seen this? Does anyone know how to fix it?

 

[jordarkelf]

In recent patches kitchens have become problematic if the ratio is off.

For every cooker you need 4-6 freezers, 1 sink, and 2 cooks.
10 cookers can feed 400 prisoners with a food quality of varied/varied and two meals per day.

Any more cookers per freezer or sink, or too few cooks, and the cooks become stupid.

 

[AndrewT]

Hello,
My cooks aren't cooking any food for my prisoners. There are food boxes in the fridges and the cooks all have queued jobs to "Load Ingredients Into Cooker" but they are all just running around the kitchen not doing anything. Has anyone else seen this? Does anyone know how to fix it?

Please post details of your problem here, and a save game showing it:

Cooks and Kitchens not working as intended - save files

Hello! We are investigating the bug reports we are seeing about Cooks and Kitchens not working as intended. If you experienced this bug in one of your prisons, we would appreciate it if you could upload the save file here.

forum.paradoxplaza.com

Thanks!

 

[ulix]

Wait whaaaaat? So the info on the wiki, with 12 fridges and 12 cookers (11.25) for 100 prisoners (with high food variety) isn't correct anymore? You need 5-6x as many freezers as cookers? You serious?

 

[jordarkelf]

Yeah, I'm not sure exactly when it changed but the ratio definitely is now 2 cooks / 1 cooker / 4-6 fridges for ~40 meals.
I came across this on Reddit a while back and I can confirm this is how it works now after some extensive testing.
4 fridges for low quantity/variety, 6 for high/high.

Adding more fridges per cooker than 6 is wasted space, as one cooker will never run out of ingredients with 6. Adding fewer than 4 means cookers run out, meaning production stalls. This is why loading up old prisons which use more cookers leads to cooks seemingly not doing anything, they just don't have the ingredients to feed all the cookers.

2 cooks are the maximum amount needed for one cooker, one is cooking while the other is preparing meals.

Likewise, you need exactly 1 sink per cooker. One cook can do the washing up while the other gets plates.

 

[ulix]

Was there ever a patch note for this?

 

[Kazahara Khan]

I have multiple Kitchens in my 1300+ Prison.
I have 4 main Sectors with ca 300 Prisoners each. Each Sector has prisoners in 3 different security levels (ca 100x low, 100x medium, 100x high) with different mealtimes (2 meals per day and security level).
so i have 6 mealtimes per day with ca 100 meals and medium quantity and high variety. From 4am to 7pm every 3H is a new mealtime.
I have no problems to feed all Prisoners.
And at the beginning of a new day all trays are cleaned up.
I have per kitchen:
16 cookers (i think thats more than needed, but i have the place)
22 fridges
2 sinks (and 2 sinks in the kanteen itself)
10 cooks assingned
13 Prisoners from Prison Labour
deliveryroom in short range (with Prisoner access), supportet by helicopter

It works perfect for me

 

[Kazahara Khan]

I have oberved my kitchen a bit.
Its still so:
1 cooker -> 2x10=20 "portions" (NOT to confuse with "meals"!)
quantity low: 1 meal = 1 portion => 1 cooker serves 20 prisoners
quantity medium: 1 meal = 2 portions => 1 cooker serves 10 prisoners
quantity high: 1 meal = 3 portions => 1 cooker serves 6 2/3 prisoners
So my kitchen with 16 cookers is designed for high quantity meals for 100 prisoners.
But cause of the short time between the meals and the permanently needed replenishment, i only have time for medium quantity meals. (so practical 10 cookers would be enough, but then i can only have 10 Prisoners working in the kitchen)

Yeah, I'm not sure exactly when it changed but the ratio definitely is now 2 cooks / 1 cooker / 4-6 fridges for ~40 meals.

I think there is no chance for 1 cooker to make 40 meals in time
Perhaps u mean "2 cooker/1 cook/...?"
That would be the right ratio.

A fridge can still hold 2x20=40 Ingredience (=> 40 "portions")
so u can calculate by yourself ... 4-6 fridges per cooker is a bit too much (or u want a laaaarge buffer for the whole day. perhaps thats the reason for this large amount?)
normaly:
for low quantity : 1/2 fridge per cooker (per mealtime! so it make sense to have 6x fridges, when you have 6 mealtimes a day and the restock is only at night!)
for medium quantity: 1 fridge per cooker (per mealtime)
for high quantity: 1 1/2 fridges per cooker (per mealtime)
+ a few fridges for buffer

I have no problems to restock my fridges in time between the meals.
So I would need 24 fridges for high/high meals (for 100 prisoners), but for optical reasons i reduced to 22 as i realized i can only support medium quantity

 

[jjwalker]

I posted the exact ratios in the thread AndrewT linked further up.

 

[morbus0815]

I have to look if there is still food on the cookers.
If so, i must trash them and instantly the cooks are doing there work again.
Very strange.