The Kitchen Storm update in Grow a Garden introduces a new NPC, the Rat Connoisseur, alongside Chris P, bringing a fresh set of rewards for cooking mutated dishes. One of the biggest highlights of this update is the addition of five new pets, each with unique abilities to enhance farming, cooking, or mutation production. There’s also an event-exclusive bonus pet for players who participated in the Junkbot Raid.
All New Pets in the Kitchen Storm Update
1. Grow a Garden Bacon Pig
How to Get: From the Culinarian Chest, which can be earned as a reward from the Rat Connoisseur.
Ability: Every 116.80 seconds, Bacon Pig grants nearby new fruits a 2× chance to become a variant for 15.48 seconds.
Best Use: Ideal for variant farming without relying on mutation sprays, helping boost plant variety with minimal effort.
2. Grow a Garden Sunny Side Chicken
How to Get: Direct reward from the Rat Connoisseur.
Ability: Increases egg hatching speed by 20.23%.
Best Use: Perfect for players focusing on pet breeding and hatching rare pets faster.
3. Grow a Garden Hotdog Daschund
How to Get: From the Culinarian Chest.
Ability: Every 4 minutes, drops a mustard or ketchup puddle for 30.8 seconds.
Mustard: Reduces cooldowns by 21%.
Ketchup: Increases experience gain by 21%.
Best Use: Great for speeding up cooldown-based tasks or boosting XP farming sessions.
4. Grow a Garden Gorilla Chef
How to Get: Reward from the Rat Connoisseur.
Ability: When equipped with a cooking pot or cooking cauldron, has a 5.15% chance to duplicate food while cooking.
Best Use: Essential for players focusing on high-tier dish production, especially for creating more mutated food during Kitchen Storm events.
5. Grow a Garden Lobster Thermidor
How to Get: From the Culinarian Chest.
Ability:
Every 14.55 minutes, has a chance to give the Molten mutation to nearby fruit.
Every 29.52 minutes, has a chance to give the Meteoric mutation.
Best Use: Recommended for mutation farming, as both Molten and Meteoric are valuable mutations for high-value crops.
6. Grow a Garden Junkbot (Event Exclusive)
How to Get: Exclusive to players who participated in the Junkbot Raid event.
Ability: Every 14 minutes 50 seconds, gives nearby fruit a 14.33% chance to receive the Oil mutation.
Best Use: A niche mutation pet for those who participated in the event—useful if you need the Oil mutation for specific recipes or trades.
Recommended Pets for Most Players
While all the new pets have their uses, three stand out for their long-term benefits and synergy with farming or cooking strategies:
Lobster Thermidor – Best for producing high-value mutations like Molten and Meteoric.
Gorilla Chef – Invaluable for food duplication, especially during Kitchen Storm events.
Bacon Pig – Excellent for boosting plant variety passively without manual intervention.
How to Maximize New Pet Abilities
Pair Pets with Relevant Farming Areas – Place pets like Bacon Pig and Lobster Thermidor in crop-rich zones to maximize their effect radius.
Use Gorilla Chef During Kitchen Storm – Doubling dishes during this event is especially powerful when cooking high-tier recipes for the Rat Connoisseur.
Combine Ability Effects – For example, use Bacon Pig for variant farming alongside mutation pets to produce rare, high-value ingredients.
Time Your Gameplay – Since pet abilities have cooldowns ranging from seconds to minutes, plan your farming cycles to coincide with their activation windows.
Final Thoughts
The all new pets in Grow a Garden Kitchen Storm update add significant depth to farming, cooking, and mutation strategies. Whether you’re boosting crop variety with Bacon Pig, farming rare mutations with Lobster Thermidor, or duplicating dishes with Gorilla Chef, these pets provide tangible benefits for both casual and dedicated players. By strategically placing and timing their abilities, you can maximize your farm’s output and increase your chances of earning valuable rewards from the Rat Connoisseur.