A friend of mine said that, when running an RPG, she has to dial back her tendency to over-describe the food. I know it's unlikely but do you know of any RPGs where food plays an important role?
There are a couple of ways to approach that: games that are about food, and games where you play as food.
For the former, I’m pretty fond of Uranium Chef, a pay-what-you-want Fate Accelerated Edition supplement that puts a satirical sci-fi spin on competitive cooking reality TV shows. The big idea here is that cooking and non-cooking conflicts share the same resolution mechanics, but use different sets of stats; outside the arena, you might be rolling Flashy, Careful or Clever, while in the arena you’ll be rolling traits like Sour, Spicy or Savory.
For the latter, you might have a look at Annie Rush’s The Secret Lives of Gingerbread Men, a Christmas-themed RPG that describes itself as a 1:1-scale miniatures game – that is, you’re expected to use your own house as the terrain, and an actual gingerbread man as your minifig. It’s rules-light and reasonably family-friendly, if the family in question doesn’t mind playing out a stark exploration of mortality dressed up in a festive wrapping.
Apart from that, there’s a whole genre of RPGs where eating is a big focus, though your friend may have difficulty making the food sound appetising. Kobolds Ate My Baby is a good example of the type; the players take on the roles of the kobolds, and guess what’s on the menu?
Finally, there are games where food plays a prominent but peripheral role. For example, in Skulduggery, player characters are awful people who literally have to make saving throws to resist indulging their vices whenever the opportunity arises; all player characters share the same set of vices (though individual resistance ratings may vary), and depending in the particular playset you’re running, Gluttony/Gourmandism may be one of them.
