The Sims 4: Home Chef Hustle - How To Run A Food Stall

The Sims 4 has never shied away from food-based items in its expansions, and Home Chef Hustlemarks a valiant return to Stuff Packs. Among other additions that came with the pack, your Sims are now able to step behind the counter and run their very own food stall to sell their culinary creations.

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Whip up some sweet treats and enjoy your sugar rush with our Baking Skill guide for The Sims 4 - bon appetit! 

Whether you choose to specialize in the new pizzas or tasty waffles, or opt to expand on your expansions and see what else you can mark for sale, we’ve got everything you’ll need to run a successful food stall in The Sims 4: Home Chef Hustle.

Food Stall Basics

What Can You Sell, And How Do You Sell It?

Before you can run a food stand in The Sims 4: Home Chef Hustle, you'll need to purchase an actual food stall itself. The Anywhere Any Fare Food Stand is available for 585 Simoleons and comes in a variety of colors, woods, and designs, so experiment with the design tool and see what speaks to your Sim and their brand.

Once you own the food stand, place it in your Sim's inventory. Then, you can either sell from your home lot to attract customers from the neighborhood or choose to travel with the food stand and set up shop on a public lot to sell in a more populated area. Customers tend to pop by regardless, but your sales from there are up to you.

Avid Simmers are likely to have multiple packs that include unique food items coming from countertop appliances, and these players will be happy to know that food from various packs that's prepared in a countertop appliance are available to sell with the Home Chef Hustle stuff pack.

The baked goods introduced with the Baking skill in Get to Work offer a new way to run a bakery with the food stall in Home Chef Hustle, while items like popcorn or ice cream from other stuff packs are available for sale, too.

Prep Ingredients Beforehand To Make Food Faster

By using the Ciao Bella Stand Mixer introduced in the Home Chef Hustle stuff pack, your Sim is able to prepare cooking ingredients and dough ahead of time. Doing so not only makes your food cook faster than normal, but it'll also typically end up being of a higher quality and costing less to prepare in the end, too.

Prepared ingredients go into your inventory, and you'll receive five servings of ingredients per prep. These can then be used in your regular cooking, but dishes can still be prepared without these ingredients if you're willing to sacrifice quality and cash for speed.

Just make sure they end up in a refrigerator before long so they don't spoil! Sims originally used to eat prepared ingredients when you told them to get leftovers before, but this has been patched since launch, so ingredients can safely be stored to prolong their shelf life.

Bring Countertop Appliances To Cook On-Site

In the Home Chef Hustle pack, you're able to put countertop appliance cookware into your inventory, which allows you to then prep more food on-site if you need to. These items include the pizza oven, waffle maker, microwave ovens, as well as the tools to prep more ingredients if you run out.

It's best to prepare as much as you can ahead of time and set the food out when you set up the stand, but if you sell out and aren't ready to close up shop for the day, doing this allows you to replenish your sold-out meals as you go and continue selling without pause.

Give Your Sim The Best Traits

There are a few ways to make sure your Sim has a leg up during these timed Food Sale events in The Sims 4: Home Chef Hustle, including boosting their Charisma skill beforehand to make them better at chatting with potential customers, and buying the Marketable trait from the Rewards Store to increase the limit on your markups.

Additionally, The Sims 4: High School Years expansion pack brought the Entrepreneur skill into the mix, which helps your Sim to market themselves and their product. If you have the expansion pack, not only will you have those new foods available to sell, but you can have your Sim build their Entrepreneur skill to help their food stall business in Home Chef Hustle.

Finally, if you complete the Appliance Wiz aspiration that came with the Home Chef Hustle pack, you'll receive the Batch Cook trait, which allows your Sim to duplicate food they made with prepared ingredients, allowing them to stock their food stall easier than ever before!

How To Complete The Appliance Wiz Aspiration In The Sims 4: Home Chef Hustle

Aspiration Name

Goal

Tips

Chop Chopper

Own one small kitchen appliance.

Items that count for this aspiration are the following items from the ChowBella brand:

• Heart Waffle Maker.
• Portable Pizza Oven.
• Stand Mixer.

Collect prepped ingredients five times while Inspired.

Have your Sim become inspired and then prepare ingredients, ultimately collecting five portions.

Slice and Dicer

Experience sped-up cooking five times.

Use prepared ingredients to hasten your cooking five times.

Collect three prepared ingredients that were made with fresh ingredients.

You'll need to do a bit of gardening for this one, but fresh fruit and veg are always the tastiest!

Flavor Fusionist

Collect one excellent-quality prepared ingredient.

As you improve your Cooking skill, you'll make higher-quality ingredients.

Cook meals with six different prepared ingredients.

Of the eight prepared ingredients types, cook with six of them.

Cook five times while listening to music.

Pop a stereo in the kitchen and jam out while you prep!

Mixing Maestro

Make a prepared ingredient using a stand mixer with an upgrade.

You'll need to reach Handiness Level 4 to begin upgrading the stand mixer.

Make Pleasantly-Unpleasant Waffles.

Check out our Waffles guide for the recipe!

Cook two pizzas or waffles at a singled Goaled Social Event after reaching silver.

Keep your food stall going after you've finished the event, and keep prepping food.

It involves some extra skill gains in Gardening and Handiness, but the Batch Cook reward trait in The Sims 4: Home Chef Hustle is well worth the work!

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How To Run A Food Stall In Home Chef Hustle

Put Down The Food Stall And Open Up Shop

After purchasing your food stand and the small appliances you'll need to operate, it's time to open for business. To do so, place the food stand from your Sim's inventory. Once you've found a good spot to set up shop, click "Open" on the stall.

This brings up the shop's inventory, which should be empty when you begin, alongside your Sim's inventory. Here, you can drag food between your inventory and the store's inventory to mark dishes for sale.

You can also choose a markup for your items of up to 300 percent of their original cost, but beware that expensive goods are less likely to sell, so weigh your popularity and product quality before deciding on a markup. The Marketable trait allows you to instead go up to a 500 percent markup.

Having items in your inventory is helpful for keeping a constant supply, but beware that food spoils quickly in your inventory, so be sure to mark it for sale as soon as you can for maximum freshness.

After your inventory is set, click the stand again to Start Food Sale. This triggers a five-hour scored event during which your Sim will be hawking their goods to any passers-by at their chosen location.

Sell Actively And Keep Your Table Stocked

If Sims are milling about but aren't buying anything, your Sim can interact with potential customers to give sales pitches or try to convince them to buy a certain product. Not only is this helpful if Sims are loitering a bit too much, it also gives you the option to nudge customers toward certain dishes as you see fit (such as ones with big markups).

If food starts to run out, you can enableAutoStocking to convince your Sim to replenish the table automatically with food from their inventory.

But, if your inventory is looking light, you'll need to use your countertop appliances mid-sale to prep more food on-site. Using the equipment doesn't stop your Sim from making sales with the current goods, so feel free to cook as you need without fear of missing a sale on what you've currently got in stock.

Just be wary of tending a food stand in inclement weather, as some appliances become broken when using them in the rain.

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