Oooh! House Elves!

[Zazazu]

I have a quandary. While I don't want the issue solved for this lot, I would like to know how to replicate it  .

At Saish, a self-built club/restaurant with loft ceilings and fun stuff, the food is being served by house elves...at least as far as I can tell. Chefs don't spawn, and I only have the one waiter (fine, it's a small restaurant). The kitchen setup contains:
1. The most expensive fridge.
2. Two of the least expensive full counters.
3. The deep-depth industrial sink.
4. The restaurant stove.

None of the items in the kitchen are custom. Yet I have no chef. What happens (and I do love this) is that the waitress comes to take the order. They then go back into the kitchen, idle for a moment, and then the food suddenly appears in front of my sims  . The waitress then moves on to the next table. There is no jumping, and no error popping up.

What item am I missing that provides a chef? I had thought the stove did it. When I glanced at Always in Season (another self-built, but older), the kitchen has more sinks but is otherwise the same, and I have a chef. The kitchen at Saish is significantly smaller at only 9 tiles.

[Marhis]

I would say you have an invisible chef.

Try some hacked object that shows you a menu of all sims present in the lot, like the relationships setter element of Insim, something like that.

[tgcgoddess]

I have the same thing happening in FM, that came in the EA Downtown neighborhood.  But then if I wait long enough, a chef is suddenly there.  I haven't watched to see if he is showing up later, or just whips off his invisibility cloak, but this lot is totaly EA made and I havn't changed anything in it.

[Zazazu]

Hm. I suppose that's possible, but I should have mentioned two things:
1. The lot has now been used in two 'hoods: Urban Paradise and Monopoly. In neither 'hood has it had a chef. Multiple visits in UP (6, approximate).
2. A townie decided to bypass the exorbant charges and feed herself some lobster thermidore. She was able to use the stove.

I can always use the ACR adjuster and see if anyone pops up that isn't visible just in case. Good idea.

Tgcgoddess, I've had similar...especially if it's a first visit and the chef has to be generated. No chef ever generates on this lot, though, and I have plenty in the "pool"....5 in UP due to a downloaded pizzaria with a gargantuan kitchen that spawned extras, and 3 in Monopoly.

[jsalemi]

Ok, I don't think playable sims are supposed to be able to cook for themselves on community lots (though I may be wrong).  I think jfade made a version of the restaurant stove that can be used on residential lots -- maybe you accidentally used that one instead of the original from the game?

[Zazazu]

No, I don't have any custom stoves (shockingly). The sim was also a townie. I've seen townies (or non-playables in general) grab food and prepare from the fridge fairly often, but they are always blocked from the stove. My self-sim is quite fond of doing this in UP whenever I run into her. One time, "I" decided to make a salad, stand there in the kitchen, and eat it while the waiters and waitresses milled about.

[jsalemi]

Hmmm -- I wonder if it's the presence of the fridge that's causing borkedness?  I don't recall ever seeing a fridge in a maxis-made restaurant, even the one that came with OFB in Bluewater Village (which one of my sim's owned and ran for a while).  With the industrial stove, the food comes out of that magic space where all sims store stuff.  Maybe try taking the fridge out and seeing what happens?

Ewww, butt food! 

[pbox]

This has happened to me in a restaurant with a *very* small kitchen (6 tiles) -- my guess is that it's simply due to lack of space that the cook wasn't generated. I playtested twice, the first time the cook appeared and did his thing like normal. The second time I must have added more tables or something -- for whatever reason, this time two waiters were generated (both standing in the kitchen) but no cook .. but the restaurant magically worked, just like you describe. No kitchen-related custom content involved, and no hacks. Haven't heard of anyone who downloaded this and ran into the same issue .. I'm not sure if it's happening consistently, I haven't played that lot since.

Description + pics in this post: http://www.modthesims2.com/showpost.php?p=1719277&postcount=13

(The 5th screenshot is a closeup of the kitchen in build mode, while the neighbourhood was unpopulated -- no idea why, but sometimes cooks show up for me in build mode )


ETA, because I'm slow .. fridges seem to be normally useable on comm lots, not causing any borkedness for me. I have a few owned restaurants/diners, most of them have fridges (maxian ones); when I forget to lock the kitchen door one of the visitors will invariably go help themselves. The owners and staff use the fridges too, when the cook isn't blocking it they also use the restaurant stove to make lunch for themselves (both autonomously).

[jsalemi]

Ok, I guess I'm wrong about the fridges then. So I agree with your assessment -- it might be that the kitchen is too small.

[Zazazu]

*bows to plasticbox, one of the few people whose lots she has in her game*
Very, very similar kitchen. It's a 3x2, with a 2x1 path to the fridge, so the cook would basically be penned in the same way yours is. Hm. So the way to have magic food should be to put the stove in a tiny, tiny roomlet (just big enough for the stove and a couple tiles).

On this lot, I won't be able to change it without major redesign...it was built with copious application of floor elevation cheating, and overall the lot and building is pretty small. The kitchen has to fit in a tiny space behind the 2-story tall stairwell (extreme loft ceilings). 'Twould be a good technique for the futuristic lots I have in my alien hood.

[BambuLimey]

I've had this occur in my current hood created post-Seasons-p3. "La Magnifique" has no chef, and functions as described by Zazazu with teleporting food, whereas "Londoste", "SimBowl Lanes" and "Rodney's Hideout" have chefs and function as you expect. All Eaxis-made lots, without fridges.

I've only seen this since Seasons p3.

[Hecubus]

Plasticbox's explanation makes sense, now that I think of the lot where this has happened for me; I had a bar and grill set up, with the stove behind the bar -  but with only one tile gap between stove and bar. I'll have to experiment.

and I agree - it's not a bad quirk!

[pbox]

*waves at Zazazu*

"only one tile gap between stove and bar" (Hecubus) -- Sounds like this might be the key: with another object closeby that also generates NPCs (bar in your case, sink in mine; the waiters seem to be always generated next to the sinks, no?), the other NPCs take precedence.

If this happens in maxis lots too, well .. goes to show how much they playtest their own stuff 

I have Seasons p2, by the way.