The requirement of learning a recipe is a small thing, but as a goal oriented Sims player, it's something that helps extend my interest in a pack. It gave me another reason to keep going to the festivals in CL, take additional trips to Salvadorada in JA, & go out to restaurants in DO. It's especially disappointing to hear that the food items in SE are automatically unlocked given that many of the other activities in the pack are refreshes of things that I can already do in game thanks to other packs.