How to Cook in Resident Evil Village

While he’s not the Merchant from Resident Evil 4, The Duke has become a fan-favorite character in Resident Evil Village. Ethan can buy new weapons and upgrade his current ones while exploring The Duke’s shop. However, he can also have The Duke cook a handful of meals for him with ingredients collected throughout the game. Cooking in Resident Evil Village is essential to beating the game on Village of Shadows difficulty. This guide will focus on how to cook in Resident Evil Village and where to find ingredients for The Duke’s recipes.

What does cooking do?

Resident Evil Village The Duke's Kitchen

Cooking is a mechanic unique to Resident Evil Village. It is how Ethan will upgrade himself rather than his weapons. Cooking and consuming The Duke’s recipes will increase Ethan’s total health, decrease damage taken while blocking, and increase his overall movement speed. There are three health-boosting recipes, two damage-reduction recipes, and one movement speed recipe.

As Ethan ventures around the village and surrounding areas, he’ll stumble across wildlife and livestock ripe for the killing. He’ll find fish swimming in ponds, chickens and hogs roaming outside their pens, and black goats wandering in the village. Thankfully, these animal locations are marked on Ethan’s map and will be X-ed out once he obtains all the available meat in that area.

With the ingredients on hand, Ethan must return to The Duke and turn over the meat required to make the desired dish. However, if it is your first playthrough, you won’t unlock the ability to cook until you make it out of Castle Dimitrescu and find the house with the red chimney.

It’s here that The Duke will mark treasure locations on your map, along with where Ethan can farm ingredients.

Recipes

The Duke is quite the cook. He’ll be whipping up the finest French cuisine Ethan’s had in his life. There is no way to pin or track recipes outside of The Duke’s kitchen. So, below we’ve listed every recipe The Duke has to offer along with its requirements and buffs.

Herbed Fish: 3 fish and 2 poultry — health slightly increases permanently.
Bird and Beast Pilaf: 4 poultry and 1 meat — damage taken when guarding decreases permanently.
Three Flavored Mititei: 4 fish, 2 poultry, and 3 meat — health increases permanently.
Tochitura de Pui: 4 poultry, 3 meat, and 1 Juicy Game — health greatly increases permanently.
Ciorba de Porc: 1 fish, 5 meat, and 1 Quality Meat — damage taken when guarding greatly decreases permanently.
Sarmale de Peste: 6 fish and 1 Finest Fish — movement speed increases permanently.

Where to find ingredients

Ingredients are scattered through each area of Resident Evil Village. Pay close attention, especially after The Duke marks the areas on your map. Here are all the ingredient locations in Resident Evil Village for those looking to speed-run all the recipes. Keep in mind, Ethan will need to progress the game to a certain point for some of these ingredients. Others are easily missed and cannot be obtained once past a certain point in the game.

Ingredients do take up room in your inventory, so it’s important to take them back to The Duke and turn them into meals as soon as possible.

If this is your first playthrough, use the knife to kill these animals to conserve ammo. Otherwise, unload with your infinite ammo Dragoon (if you bought it from the Bonus shop).

All normal fish Locations:

Ethan will find three fish as soon as he exits Castle Dimitrescu. Head down into the cave to find a small body of water. If this is your first playthrough, use the knife to conserve ammo.
Speaking of Castle Dimitrescu, head back through the Maiden and Demon door to find three more fish swimming in a pond left of the drawbridge.
Once you’ve ridden the boat for the first time, you’ll be prompted to head into a small shack. Don’t. Instead, head to the right and up a path to find a small pool of water. Inside will be some catfish with Ethan’s name on them. This one can be easily missed.
Once Moreau is dead, head back to the beginning of the area, to the fisherman’s house where you first left with the boat. You’ll have access to a new area where you’ll find more Catfish. Keep a sharp eye out for Catfish. They tend to hide under the surface and are tough to spot.

All normal poultry locations

Use the Iron Insignia Key to open a locked gate behind the Church in the village. You’ll find a pair of chickens here.
From the Church, head back towards Luiza’s house but hug the right side. You’ll see a path open up with a pair of chickens.
From there, head to the house with the red chimney to find three more chickens. You need to go this way anyway to progress the story.
In Moreau’s area, you can find two more chickens next to the first windmill. However, this is only after you’ve rotated it to gain access to the dam controls.

All normal meat locations

In West Old Town, you can find a sole pig in the first house on the right. It was probably the first house you entered after arriving in the village. Be careful; the pig will charge at you.
On your way back to the Benneviento grave, you’ll find a black goat on the path after obtaining the broken slab piece.
As soon as you enter Moreau’s area, you should see two pigs oinking near his Labyrinth puzzle. They’re impossible to miss.
Once Moreau is defeated, head back to the village to find two black goats hanging out in the graveyard near the entrance to Castle Dimitrescu.

Otto’s Mill

Otto’s Mill is an optional area in Resident Evil Village and the best source for meat in the game. On your way to confront Heisenburg, you’ll arrive at a fork in the road. Head left to find Otto’s Mills. Cross the river and destroy the lock on the door to find a pair of pigs.

Inside Otto’s Mill is an ax-wielding Giant mini-boss that will punish Ethan if he cannot kill it quickly. He’ll summon Samcas (the flying bat-like enemies). There are plenty of exploding barrels that Ethan can use to damage the Giant, but early playthroughs make him difficult.

However, if you’re quick about it, you can shoot the locks on the door he was guarding and find the spoils of Otto’s Mill without killing the boss.

Once you’re through the door, you’ll find three pieces of meat along with fish and poultry. You’ll also find Father Nicola’s Angel, a very valuable item that can be sold to The Duke.

Where to find rare meat

While the above locations only provide what we’ll call “normal” ingredients, there are three unique ingredients that you’ll have to search extra hard for. They are Juicy Game, Quality Meat, and Finest Fish. They are needed for the three best recipes. Their descriptions offer some clues as to what Ethan is looking for.

Juicy Game: “… the juicy meat of a rare bird found only in this region.”
Quality Meat:”… high-quality meat from a creature found only in this region.”
Finest Fish: “……rare fish found only in this region.”

So, where are they? For starters, they aren’t marked on your map.

Juicy Game location

Head into the village and look up at a tree between the mausoleum (where you found the Beneviento slab) and the entrance to Castle Dimitrescu. There is a bluebird perched in the tree. Take aim with your sniper to kill the bird. If you’ve played The Mercenaries, you know how annoying these birds can be.

Quality Meat location

After unlocking The Duke’s Kitchen, head back to Luiza’s house and find Elena and Leonardo’s small cabin. There is well-marked on your map, so you’ll be able to use that for reference. Jump through the window to find a white pig. Kill it to obtain Quality Meat.

Finest Fish location

You won’t be able to find the Finest Fish until after you beat Moreau and obtain the crank. Head back to the main area in the Village, where the Duke is. Head up the Lone Road and turn right to find a drawbridge. Lower the bridge with the crank and get in the boat. Turn around and follow the river south to the very end. Dock and turn left at the fork ahead of you. You’ll find a Pond with the Finest Fish and two normal fish. The Finest Fish is golden in color and is easily distinguishable from the other fish.

Now that you have the rarest ingredients in the game, you can craft the three best recipes for maximum health, speed, and damage reduction.

Do meals carry over?

Yes, meals crafted in one playthrough will carry over to the next as long as you’re playing the same file. Crafting these recipients is imperative to beat the campaign on Village of Shadows difficulty, as they’ll balance out the buffed enemy damage.