A la carte (2006) + A la carte: Dessert (2010) used board game

A la carte - In one of his sillier games, Karl-Heinz Schmiel casts the players as semi-psychotic cooks attempting to hone their culinary skills. Each player receives a miniature pan and a hotplate. Then each turn you can either attempt to turn up the heat, season your dish, or attempt to steal another cook's recipe in the making. Heating your hotplate is a random affair with a die, and could raise the heat on everyone's plate. Spicing the dish is heart of the game and done by up-ending small bottles filled with little colored wood pellets. When the pellets tumble out of the bottle (sometimes, if they do), the number of pellets can't exceed two, because over-spicing the dish ruins it and you have to throw it in the trash! A la carte: Dessert- An expansion for A la carte that introduces new gourmet desserts for avid gamers including Spice Dice, Salty Dogs or the fiery Pomitos Frititos. This expansion contains 4 mini expansions for A la carte and the components necessary to add a fifth player. Menus Before the game starts each player receives 3 menus and chooses one. He doesn't let the other players know which menus he/she has. If a player successfully prepares the dishes on the menu, at the end of the game he/she receive extra victory points. Otherwise he/she gets no extra points. For some of the menus the player also needs at least one star.