Tears of the Kingdom: A Deep Guide to the "A New Signature Food" Side Quest

From my 40+ hours completing Tears of the Kingdom since launch, one memorable early game side quest sends Link investigating a secret family recipe within Hateno Village – "A New Signature Food." This light puzzle quest offers valuable lore, item rewards, updates Hateno with new shops, and sets up an entertaining mayoral race subplot.

As a passionate gamer who cleared this specific quest chain, allow me to provide an in-depth 1800 word guide to save you headaches. We‘ll uncover objectives, item prerequisites, related content, the tricky secret ingredient, and final rewards. Whether completely stuck or just hungry to appreciate nuances around Hateno Village, let‘s delve deeper!

Overview & Initial Steps

Upon reaching Hateno Village, a triggering first conversation must happen near the Armour Shop:

Required Triggers

Meet Reede & Cece
Witness their mayoral election argument
Follow Reede to activate "A New Signature Food"

With the quest unlocked, our objectives are:

Discover Mystery Ingredient from Reede‘s Grandfather‘s Recipe
Retrieve item from "A Letter to Koyin" subquest
Obtain secret signature ingredient
Return to Reede and provide his missing ingredient

Below covers how I completed each step when originally playing:

Investigating Hateno‘s Past for Clues

After talking to Reede, his first request is trying to remember Hateno Village‘s history for clues on his family‘s mystery dish.

"My grandfather worked together with another villager long ago to make some sort of truly unforgettable food item. Grandfather said it had some kind of…gooey mouthfeel?"

Without any villager names or ingredients to go on, we‘ll need to explore Hateno further and complete the prerequisites for "A Letter to Koyin" side quest.

"A Letter To Koyin" Subquest | Unlocks the Secret Cheese

Just southeast from Reede near Lake Sumac, I met a young village girl named Koyin fishing for glass bottles. By using Cryonis ice blocks to traverse the lake, Link obtains her floating bottle using Magnesis.

"A Letter to Koyin" Side Quest Objectives

Meet Koyin near Lake Sumac
Use Cryonis and Magnesis to grab glass bottle in lake
Return bottle for Koyin to read letter inside

The old letter reveals a recipe for crafting Hateno Cheese, created by Koyin‘s grandfather! Realizing her family‘s cheesemaking legacy, she then reopens their old store, rewarding Link with a Hateno Cheese sample.

Both subquest completion AND the acquired signature cheese are required to finish "A New Signature Food" next…

Completing the Main Quest

With Hateno Cheese sample in hand, I climbed back up the hill to Reede‘s house, the fragrant smell triggering his memories about grandfather‘s mystery dish!

In his revelation, Reede recognizes the soft, gooey Hateno Cheese as THE essential ingredient in the secret family recipe. As thanks for uncovering cooking history and advancing his mayoral bid, he then handed me 300 rupees.

Final Quest Rewards:

300 Rupees
Hateno Cheese Shop Access
Ingredient Samples

So in around 30 minutes total, not only did I earn monetary prizes, but unlocked a major shop vendor plus progressed Hateno Village‘s backstory. Nice for an early game puzzle quest!

Analysis: "A New Signature Food" Impact on Hateno Village

Completing "A New Signature Food" has significant impacts on gameplay:

New Vendor Shop: Koyin‘s reopened Hateno Cheese Shop selling rare crafting ingredients and food items. This additional shop helps unlock cooking recipe side quests later.
Mayoral Election Buildup: Reede claims his family‘s secret cheese recipe should help him win votes in the upcoming election against Cece. This kicks off the overarching mayoral race subplot spanning the whole village.
Village Lore & History: We learn interesting history about signature trade goods and industries specific to Hateno‘s local economy – namely Hateno Cheese production. Beyond the main cheese shop quest, several other NPC interactions elaborate on Hateno‘s mayor legacy, governance, and mayoral candidates over generations.

Analyzing all the side outcomes beyond just the basic objectives and rewards shows how even short side quests like "A New Signature Food" significantly deepen immersion in Hateno Village from roleplaying, economic, and story standpoints.

Final Tips

For anyone struggling with next steps on this quest after encountering Reede or stuck on the glass bottle portion for Koyin, here is some guidance:

Talk to every interactive Hateno Villager early on – they provide indirect clues revealing recipe creators or unique goods to investigate for Reede‘s dish. I only pieced together the connections after thoroughly exploring all dialogues in town!
For the floating bottle, use cryonis sparingly and build an ice raft to reach it. I wasted time trying to cryonis hop all the way there, leading me to foolishly fall in the lake and drown!

Let me know in the comments if these expanded tips for "A New Signature" proved useful on your playthrough! I‘m happy to lend my firsthand expertise from already finishing this sneaky yet rewarding side quest chain.