Soon after you begin your adventure in Fire Emblem Engage, you will unlock The Somniel. One of the first activities unlocked here is the Café Terrace. Here, you can eat meals with two of your units in order to increase their Support Level and give them a stat boost in the next battle. However, the meals can also go bad if you don't know what you're doing.
Another advantage that these meals do for characters is that if the meal is good enough, the chef will pack leftovers. These leftovers will work as a health potion while in battle, and any unit that you want can carry it into battle. This can be extremely helpful, especially early on in the game.
How To Cook
Whenever you enter the Café Terrace, you will see one of your units standing at the counter, ready to begin making the meal you tell them to prepare. When you approach the unit, select "order a meal," and the cooking will begin.
You will have to select two units to dine with. Once you do this, you will select a dish to cook, and then you can choose the ingredients you add to the dish. The more ingredients you add, the more likely you will have leftovers for battle. Once you're done, you will begin to share the meal that was just prepared.
You want to ensure that you are paying attention to the unit that is cooking. The unit will make a dish a lot better if it is one from their home. For instance, Alfred will be best at cooking food that is from Firene, and Merrin will be best at cooking food that is from Solm. If you want to ensure the meal you are cooking is from the same area as the chef, you can look for the dishes that have sparkles beside their name.
If you dine with two units from the same country as the chef, you will also have higher success with your dishes as they enjoy food from their home countries. Dining with two units that have similar stats can help you increase the stats they share for the next battle. The stats that are boosted depend on the dish you cook.
Meal Tiers
When you select a dish, it will tell you how well the chef can cook that meal. You will find this information in the middle of your screen by the dish's name. The skills of the chefs range from eager to skilled. These titles also correlate with what tier level your dish can be. Tiers can range from A to F depending on how well the chef does and how the units enjoy it. The higher the tier, the better the buff will be for your party.
You need to be very careful with meal tiers — if you have a lower tier, you can add a debuff to those who ate with you. They will then take this debuff into their next battle. This can be extremely dangerous for anyone who is playing in far into the game.