In a year of AAA tentpoles like Armored Core VI and Final Fantasy XVI, one of the most surprising games of 2023 was the short narrative cooking game Venba. It tells the story of an immigrant family, centering on the strained relationship between mother Venba and her son through traditional Tamil cuisine. It’s a touching story about how food is intrinsically tied to a person’s culture. It is also a game that will leave your stomach craving more Indian food than it can probably handle. And while I ordered some takeout minutes after finishing the game for the first time, I wish I could eat Venba’s recipes. Thankfully, that will soon be possible.
Developer Visai Games is currently working on DLC for Venba that will address the community’s biggest ask: recipes! The cookbook DLC for Venba will give players a way to look through detailed recipes for all of the dishes made in the game. Currently, there are some recipes used as part of the game’s cooking sequences that aren’t nearly informative enough for players to actually use as a guide. This is precisely what the cookbook DLC aims to address.
Based on short teases on social media, the DLC feature have twelve recipes, including the stunning layered biryani from the game. The recipes are developed by Divya Vivekanandan. Currently there is no release date for the cookbook DLC, but the Venba Twitter account assures fans it is “coming reallllll sooooon!” Of course you might want to work on your cooking skills beforehand, as not all of the recipes will be beginner friendly if the game is anything to go by.
To work up an appetite, you can play Venba while you wait for the cookbook DLC on PC, Nintendo Switch, Xbox, and PlayStation 5.