stop cooking: how i make restaurant tycoon 3 run itself

the goal in restaurant tycoon 3 is not to cook. the goal is to build a restaurant that cooks without you. heres exactly how i turn it idle.

stage one, yes, you grind the stove with your own hands, serve a few tables, save every coin. do NOT decorate yet, thats a beginner money pit that eats the cash you need. stage two, the second you can afford a chef, hire one, then a waiter, then a second chef. every staff member you buy is one less thing your hands have to do, and their wages are cheap next to the income they unlock.

stage three, once the kitchen runs itself, THEN you expand, bigger building, new cuisines, more tables for your staff to work through. stage four, prestige the moment the current tier stops challenging you, because the income multiplier makes the next run trivial and that snowball IS the point, each loop bigger than the last.

i logged in yesterday, hit play, and just watched my staff plate a hundred meals while i rearranged chairs for fun. a restaurant that runs itself while i decorate. thats the dream tycoon and rt3 actually lets you build it.