Minecraft mechanics big and small change all the time. Mojang has made a mission out of keeping the game fresh in whatever way possible, whether that means adding new biomes to the game's horizons or rewriting the cave generation algorithm so that the game's most basic environments feel new again. Minecraft fans haven't been told what's next for the game just yet, so anything is on the table. While Mojang may be tempted to toss more biomes or mobs into the game with the next update, it should consider stepping back and looking at a Minecraft fundamental like food first.
For years, food has been a basic system of Minecraft that continuously grows. Every once in a while, an update will include a new food item in its feature list, such as dried kelp or sweet berries. However, Mojang hasn't released a food-centric update in recent history, so a large-scale food patch could be an interesting direction for the studio. If Mojang does decide to rework the food system, it should look into Minecraft's Suspicious Stew for inspiration. Although Suspicious Stew offers a bit of interesting utility to Minecraft, it only scratches the surface of what cooking could really do in the sandbox game.
Envisioning a Minecraft Cooking Update
At the moment, Minecraft's food system is rather simple. Players can toss lots of food into a furnace to enhance it, but ultimately, most of Minecraft's prepared food is simply a cooked version of something else, like Baked Potatoes and Steak. Players can make a couple more complicated foodstuffs, such as Rabbit Stew and Cake, but ultimately, Minecraft players generally prefer to pack a stack of cooked meat, rather than lugging several bowls of stew around on their adventures. Meat definitely has an advantage as food, since it provides Minecraft players with lots of saturation, but eating Cooked Porkchops all the time can make Minecraft's hunger mechanic a little boring.
That's why Mojang needs to introduce more meals in the same vein as Suspicious Stew. Most of Minecraft's food only has one effect, but Suspicious Stew is special in that it'll briefly apply one of Minecraft's status effects to the player based on the kind of flower used to make the stew. While this seems handy, the effects are fleeting, and players have to manually organize their stew by effect, since the bowls look identical. Mojang had a good idea with Suspicious Stew, but it can improve on the concept by giving players more control over the boosts that they get from food.
Mojang could use bowls as a base to let players mix ingredients together before putting them in a furnace or a smoker. Once the food is cooked, players could get the bowl back and stack a particular meal in their Minecraft inventory. Ideally, each meal would have unique temporary benefits in the same vein as Suspicious Stew to reward players for the extra effort of making a meal, rather than just eating meat. Altogether, these kinds of meals would encourage players to invest more resources into gathering ingredients and reward more strategic thought around food, all without making potions or established Minecraft foods obsolete.
Meals wouldn't be the sole contents of a Minecraft food update. On the contrary, it could be a great excuse for Mojang to add lots of new Minecraft block types, whether that means new plants like rice or utility blocks specifically for crafting intricate meals. A food rework could also be part of a larger domestic update that introduces more villager types or adds new furniture to Minecraft. Whatever idea Mojang comes up with, it ought to make room for food changes in the near future. Minecraft's current snacks may be simple and effective, but as the game's many biome updates and block additions have proven, a little variety goes a long way.
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