"Dirty Cooking Area"--how much space do I need to tile?

[ProjectXa3]

I'm scouring the wiki and I can't find any info on what the game refers to for the "cooking area" and therefore I'm at a disadvantage when trying to make it clean. My stove is in my main area, I'm not about to tile something like 16x10 in sterile tile just on the off chance of it. What am I looking for?

[Canute]

Yeah i know the problem, i got my butcher and cooking benches at my main multi room too.
But since they increased the food poisoing chance by dirty cooking area i got to much ill pawns and changed that tactic.
Now i allways made a 5x5 room between my main and the freezer. As floor i use metal tile because that floor give a cleanness bonus like the sterile tile but can be build early.
The 5x5 give you enough room for stove, brewing and some room to storage some ingredients to cook.

The mod "Common Sense" let the pawn clean his working place before, which is most of the time a good thing (except you don't have much time and want just cook 1 bulk meal).

[Bozobub]

I *believe* that the entire room (if inside) is judged for cleanliness but I'm totally not sure of that =o.

[sadpickle]

I'm fairly certain it's just the room cleanliness. A smaller space that is diligently cleaned is the easiest solution. The danger is your cook gets food poisoning and then floods the room with puke while you're not looking, which can cause a wave of illness.

My set-up is basically Canutes; kitchen is it's own room and every effort is taken to drive the room cleanliness as high as possible. The fridge mod(s) are indispensable to cut down on your cook walking, which afaik produces filth. I usually have no food illness.

[zizard]

Just use a pure dirt floor

[Alenerel]

Just use a pure dirt floor

This is actually the meta, since it has cleanliness of -1, and food poisoning goes from 0 at -1 to something at -2, and dirt floor cant get dirty by normal means.

However if you want to play "realistic" put stove either in its own small room of 4x4 at least or put it in the main room and have it clean. Really no need to go sterile. I say 4x4 cause in a very small room of 3x3, even a single dirt makes the room very dirty.

The other thing that you should really do is never have the butcher table where you need cleanliness, cause it causes a lot of dirt with the blood. A small trick is to make a 3x1 room with a door in the middle and put the butcher there, and the blood will never spill outwards. However I just put it in my freezer, its easier and I dont need the freezer to be clean.

[UltimateTobi]

Yes, the entire room is important. I'd keep kitchen and butcher room seperate to reduce food poisoning.

[Bozobub]

Never thought about just using dirt, that's interesting.

Note:  Reducing traffic by other pawns besides the cook and any helpers (carrying meals/ingredients), most especially animals, can help reduce dirt a LOT.  For example, it's best to not have the butcher walking through the kitchen evrry time (unless the butcher is also the cook).  Or you could just use a dirt floor, but that *also* causes your cook/helpers to track dirt, if the kitchen is not directly attached to the storage.

[Lexa]

Just use a pure dirt floor

This is actually the meta, since it has cleanliness of -1, and food poisoning goes from 0 at -1 to something at -2, and dirt floor cant get dirty by normal means.

However if you want to play "realistic" put stove either in its own small room of 4x4 at least or put it in the main room and have it clean. Really no need to go sterile. I say 4x4 cause in a very small room of 3x3, even a single dirt makes the room very dirty.

The other thing that you should really do is never have the butcher table where you need cleanliness, cause it causes a lot of dirt with the blood. A small trick is to make a 3x1 room with a door in the middle and put the butcher there, and the blood will never spill outwards. However I just put it in my freezer, its easier and I dont need the freezer to be clean.

I want to add to this that small kitchens ironically actually are more suspectible to tracked dirt than large kitchens. Putting the stove in the recreation room might even be easier to be kept clean enough than a dedicated kitchen since a tracked dirt or trashs impact on cleanliness is distributed over the entire room.