When I was playing it, I thought all those dream-like interludes in a new room were downright annoying, as they didn't seem to have any relevance to the game. Based on your comments, it sounds like eating the meal did not kill you, but sent you back to the start. This was not clear to me and I just continued playing as if it was a new game. Certainly, nothing seemed to have changed.
Now that I know, I think I need to pay more attention to those annoying interludes. Maybe there was something in there that changed each time through. I'm now looking forward to playing the revised version, but won't have time today.
Good luck with the final submission.