Welcome to Pelican Town. Four of the residents have signed up to participate in a cooking contest. This comprises of hosting a dinner party for three other people. The original contest has four strangers getting together. However, this being Stardew Valley, there are no strangers in this little town. At least not until the following spring when the granddaughter of the former owner of Sakura Farms is planning to take over the farm. The prize is 1000 G. A shout out was made online for possible competitors. Only four people were courageous enough to take the bite. These four were all of the young professional age, in their mid to late twenties. Two of them had egged the third member of their own group to join in on the contest. The fourth member found out about the contest from his friends in Zuzu City. He had thought it may be a fun activity and would at least help him socialize with other people his own age.

The contestants are:

Sam

Sebastian

Abigail

Alex.

Wait, what? None of them can cook – at least they do not appear to be master chefs or anything close to it. Sebastian did make a plate of spaghetti once for his mother, Robin, but that was the extent of his cooking expertise. Sam, well, one can never trust him near a stove. He did, after all, once put anchovies into the communal soup one Luau festival ago. Abigail considers amethysts to be edible, which signals a small possibility that she has some heavy duty chewing action happening.

Alex seems to be the only one who could even come close to creating a meal. He is after all, a champion of the complete breakfast of hash browns, fried eggs and pancakes.

So, what was it that enticed the four of them to even enter this contest?

For Sam it was the money first and foremost. He wanted to buy a proper guitar to play for the band he was forming. At least he had hoped to form if they could figure out what type of band they are.

For Sebastian, it was to prove to his stepfather, Demetrius, that he can be an asset to the family and that he is not merely wasting his time on the computer watching cat videos all day long. Not that there was anything wrong with cat videos. He had been initially reluctant to participate in the contest, but Sam and Abigail both told him that it may be a lot of fun and the two of them had entered. It would not be the same without their third musketeer.

For Abigail, it was just the idea of getting out in the world. Her parents never seem to understand that she simply wanted to be her own person, not merely someone who helps out at the store and stay at home cooking and cleaning. If she had her way, she would be down at the mines swinging her sword against the mythical creatures that lurk down there.

As for Alex, he believes that this could be a ticket to a second career – or at least one that he could do while waiting for his big break on the professional Gridball field. He also hopes that he can mend ties with the trio. They always seem to be doing everything together – from playing in a makeshift band, to playing tabletop games, to playing pool at the saloon on Fridays. Although he will admit to himself that he had not treated the three of them very well while they were all at Zuzu High School, he has grown up a bit and hope that they would be able to find some common ground...somewhere.

The rules of the contest, as explained to the four of them beforehand, was that each one was to host a dinner party that the others will attend. They are allowed to have advisors, but no one is allowed to actually help them with the execution of the dinner preparations and subsequent party. Each one will secretly vote on how well each host performed. At the end of the week, one person will be declared the winner of the 1000 G jackpot.