Food Lab: the discovery guide

271 discoveries, 12 countries, two ingredients at a time.

Food Lab is a discovery game disguised as a world food tour. There are no timers and no fail states — just a pantry, a combining bench, and 271 real dishes waiting to be figured out. Every country hands you a small set of base ingredients; pick any two, run the experiment, and either something delicious appears or the idea fizzles. The catch — and the whole game — is that every dish you discover becomes an ingredient itself, so the recipe book grows in chains. This guide explains how those chains work, walks all twelve countries with their signature dishes, and shares the habits that fill a book fastest.

How experiments work

Each country starts with 8 or 9 base ingredients — the UK opens with potato, beef, flour, egg, cheddar, cod, sausage, milk and onion. Tap two, tap EXPERIMENT, and one of two things happens: a new dish is discovered and added to your ingredients, or the combination fizzles and costs you nothing but the idea. Most dishes sit two or three combinations deep. The UK's signature shows the shape of it: flour + milk makes batter; batter + cod makes battered fish; battered fish + potato makes fish & chips. Bases combine into components, components into dishes, dishes into the plates each country is famous for. Discoveries are counted per country — each nation keeps its own book — and the full tour holds 271 unique discoveries.

The twelve countries and their signatures

Every country has one signature dish: find it, and the next country's pantry unlocks. In tour order:

• United Kingdom — signature: Fish & Chips. The biggest book in the game, 32 recipes of comfort food: bangers & mash, cottage pie, toad in the hole, a full Sunday roast.
• Italy — signature: Pizza. 26 recipes from a pantry of flour, tomato, Parmigiano, mozzarella and basil — lasagna and uova al purgatorio included.
• Japan — signature: Sushi Platter. 25 recipes built on rice, nori, tuna, miso and wasabi; the platter sits at the end of a sushi chain, so work through tamago sushi and the chirashi bowl.
• Mexico — signature: Pozole Rojo. 27 recipes — quesadillas, burritos, enchiladas suizas and elote callejero, all from corn, beans, chicken, chili and lime.
• France — signature: Croissant. 17 recipes, the pastry-and-chocolate heartland: gratin dauphinois, chocolate mousse, ganache and crêpes.
• Spain — signature: Paella. 14 recipes of olive oil, rice, chorizo and paprika — pan con tomate, patatas alioli, bocadillo de chorizo.
• India — signature: Chicken Biryani. 12 recipes from rice, chickpea, ghee and chicken: onion pakora, aloo chana chaat, chicken do pyaza.
• China — signature: Char Siu Fried Rice. 14 recipes of soy, ginger, scallion and noodles — congee, egg foo young, soy sauce eggs.
• Thailand — signature: Pad Thai. The smallest book, 10 recipes, but dense: tom yum goong, chicken satay and red curry shrimp from coconut milk, lemongrass and peanut.
• Greece — signature: Greek Salad. 12 recipes of feta, olive, lemon and yogurt — chicken gyros, baked feta, tzatziki & pita.
• Turkey — signature: Adana Kebab. 11 recipes from lamb, bulgur wheat and eggplant: kısır, içli köfte, karnıyarık, tas kebab.
• United States — signature: Bacon Cheeseburger. 12 recipes of beef, bacon, cheddar and burger buns — bacon cheese fries and a full breakfast sandwich to finish the tour.

How unlocking works

Progression is a relay: you don't need to complete a country's book to move on — you need its signature dish. The moment it is discovered, the next pantry opens with a fresh set of bases and an empty book of its own. That makes the efficient route clear: push each country until its signature falls, keep travelling, and come back later to mop up the dishes you skipped. Completionists, note the books vary wildly in size — the UK's 32 recipes are a project; Thailand's 10 can fall in one sitting.

Co-op: up to eight cooks in one kitchen

Food Lab's co-op mode shares one lab over the internet. Create a room, share the code, and up to 8 cooks can experiment in the same country at once. Every discovery counts for everyone in the room, and when you leave, the room's discoveries merge into your own collection — nobody's work is lost. It changes the game completely: instead of one player methodically pairing ingredients, a room can split the search — one cook works the egg combinations while another pushes the flour chains — and the book fills in parallel.

Discovering faster

• Work backwards from the signature. Its name tells you its likely components. Fish & chips needs something battered and something potato — find the batter first.
• Exhaust the staples early. Pair every base with every other base before reaching for exotic chains; the components you find (batters, pastries, sauces, mixes) unlock half the book.
• Think like the cuisine. Every recipe is a real dish from that country. If a combination would never appear on a menu there, it will almost certainly fizzle here.
• Use your middle dishes. Signatures sit at the end of chains, not in single leaps. A dish you discovered an hour ago is probably an ingredient in something better.
• Divide the labour in co-op. Agree who is testing what — and call out fizzles as well as finds, so nobody repeats a dead pair.

Questions about the game

How many dishes are in Food Lab? 271 discoveries across 12 countries, each with its own pantry and book. How do you unlock new countries? Find the signature dish — it opens the next pantry immediately. Can you play with friends? Yes: co-op rooms hold up to 8 cooks, discoveries are shared, and they merge into your own collection afterwards. Is it free? Completely — no accounts, no downloads, and your discoveries save on your device.

Ready to cook? Open the UK Lab in Food Lab — or browse all our guides.