In Cookdown, players are high level chefs, put through a gameshow-esque series of tests to be judged by their peers. Whoever wins the most food battles wins! The players are given a hand of different ingredient cards, and two people at a time compete to create a certain type of meal, based on a meal card played for that round.

After choosing three cards from their hand (and accounting for any special rules on the meal card), the competing players reveal their meals, and the discussion begins.

Anyone playing the game can argue for or against either meal, and this discussion session can last as long as people need before all non-competing players have decided who they think is best. All at once, the players vote, and whoever wins gets two points, and whoever loses gets none (in the event of a tie, they each get one).

The game continues as people refill their hands with cards from the deck and the winner of each match competes with the next person clockwise around the circle. Once all the ingredient cards have been used up, the game is over, and whoever has the most points wins.

-description from designer