Fun fact: this game was released in Japan as Wanpaku Kokkun no Gourmet World, and the chef was a young man instead of an old man. (They obviously changed him for the Western audience.)
The old man attacks with a frying pan, but the young man attacks with his head. Yes, the pan is a chef's hat and he headbutts sentient food. That is hardcore.
Anyway, this game came out late in the NES era...and it's really hard to find in cartridge form and fetches rather high prices as a result. To add more sensationalism to this: the game is actually good.
On with the show.
Stage 1 - Appetizer
The game begins with our hero (some unknown chef) minding his own business when a bunch of fruits followed by a giant pumpkin with a face fall on him. The sky flashes, then another chef who looks like Waluigi whose name is Ohdove (a reference to hors d'ouevres) shows up and forcefully takes over his restaurant. Then our hero gets chased by a sentient, cooked chicken with no head. What the hell.
Anyway, we see the level start screen, complete with a picture of the restaurant, and we begin.
The enemies here - running carrots, jumping French bread, and sentient cooked chickens - at the beginning are pretty simple. Just whack them with your frying pan when they come into view. The spoon replaces your frying pan, and it has a marginally longer hit radius. It's also pretty powerful. Of course, if anybody had a giant spoon, it would hurt no matter what.
Enemies will drop coins when you defeat them. Grab them, as you'll need at the end of every stage.
The piece of candy replenishes one heart on your health, though you probably won't need it at this point in the game unless you got hit somehow, which would be epic fail.
Behind the first door is a giant popcorn popper. This is your first boss. Whack it so it stores heat like a pressure cooker, then after the third hit, avoid the popcorn kernels it shoots out of its head. When you destroy it, grab as many coins that come out of the mini-boss as you can. The more you grab, the better.
When you beat the popcorn popper, you've cleared the first stage. That was quick. You'll get a bonus for how much time you have left on the clock.
Bonus Stage
It's a slot machine. Put more coins in to get more lines on the slot machine, then spin it and see if you get anything. The rewards are at the top of the screen, and you can increase your maximum health as well as earn extra lives here.
You can get up to four hearts for your life bar.
Stage 2 - Soup
You'll be riding dumbwaiters while taking on rolling pizzas and pudding dishes with feet. The enemies start getting crazier, even if they don't really get any harder.
If you climb the ladder to the roof, you'll find a mini-game. Catch the fish for points. Avoid the bombs so bad stuff doesn't happen. Do you need any more explanation than this?
The onions require two hits to destroy. The first hit, it breaks apart and starts moving. The second hit, it dies. The apples are jerks. When you get close enough, they'll hop high into the air and split into four pieces that come down at you like knives.
The lollipops increase your health by one heart and refill all your health.
The chandeliers send lightning bolts to the ground. Wait for them to shoot out the lightning bolt, then continue on your merry way.
The giant wok makes you invincible as long as you have it. Run around with reckless abandon and take out all the enemies. When the music stops, you'll stop spinning and the giant frying pan on your head disappears.
The fork is a giant pogo stick. You can jump on enemies, but take care to jump dead center on the enemy you're trying to kill, or else you're going to lose it. Touching the sides will cause you to lose it, and taking damage will cause you to go back to the frying pan. Yeah, that's pretty unforgiving.
The boss here is a giant microwave that grabs chickens, hops around, and then sends the chickens at you like underlings. Smack the microwave around and take care of the chickens. That's it, really. When you kill the microwave, the chickens go to heaven with little halos above their heads. Poor chickens...
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