The character progression in the game is directly tied to the food you eat. Some food will unlock new attacks, while others will provide temporary buffs. All food increases your characters max health and max nutrition (allowing you to go longer without needing to eat).

Starting with all food unlocked took away from a feeling of progress. Now you will only start with 2 basic recipes and will have to explore to find small chests containing recipe books. Once you find a recipe book, you will be able to make that meal.

Recipe chest locations are as follows:
levels 1 - 3 will randomly pick 1 location for a recipe chest.
levels 4+ will randomly pick 2 locations.
Bonus levels will not provide any recipe chests.

[i]In a future update:
* chests will also contain upgraded versions of recipes that are more powerful
* improved messaging around the stat increases from food
* improved messaging when finding and unlocking new recipes [/i]