I had considered how to make the cookbook simple to use while also chewing up a bit of time for the player to access, but I agree that I could have done it better. Thank you for the feedback!
If you could find a a solution to this that would be awesome. Micro Jam 037 : food had some great entries , my personal favorite got second place , here is the link.
https://macrowdev.itch.io/food-mix-cook
Good luck with your future projects!