Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door: Zess T. Cooking Guide - All Recipes

Cooking is a minor but very useful side feature in Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door. Though it isn’t available from the start, you'll end up using it a lot for some side quests and just for general healing.

After unlocking Zess T.’s shop, you’ll be able to bring her ingredients that she can cook into meals. There are 57 of these meals in total, and each one you cook will be added to the Recipe book section of your Journal.

We’ve put together a list of every recipe in the game, plus how to unlock Zess T. and even upgrade her cooking facilities.

How to unlock Cooking

At the beginning of the game, Zess. T will block the entrance to west Rogueport. She’s looking for a contact lens she dropped – no matter what you do, Mario will step on and break it. You’ll have to head to Rogueport’s item shop and ask the shopkeeper to order a new lens.

The lens will be in stock after completing Chapter 1. From there, you can purchase a lens for 10 Coins and return it to Zess T. to unlock her cooking and access to western Rogueport.

How to upgrade Cooking

At first, Zess T. can only use one ingredient to cook meals. After clearing Chapter 4, however, she’ll post a notice at the Trouble Center that she’s searching for a legendary cookbook. Said cookbook is in the Creepy Steeple’s treasure room, which you can access by rolling into a hole at the entrance of the building.

Once you’ve given her this cookbook, she’ll gain the ability to cook recipes with more than one ingredient – and many of the ones we’ve listed below require two of them.

All Recipes

Once you’ve cooked a recipe, you can find the name of the finished meal plus its ingredients in the Recipes section of your Journal. There are 57 unique recipes in total.

We’ve organized all the recipes based on the order they appear in your Journal – that should make keeping track of the ones you still need easy! You can also sort the recipes alphabetically or by ingredient if you wish.

For more hints, tips, and walkthroughs, check out our full Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door guide.