Food in games such as this often heals you for some amount of health. But I noticed that food shows a "First Time Bonus" window when viewing it.
mmmmmmm food...
Consuming it changes the "First Time Bonus" text to "Consumed" and a spoon and fork icon is shown next to the item's name.
mmmmmmm consumed food...
The bonus does appear to be applied as shown on the right side of the screen but...
Is the bonus provided by the consuming food permanent?
I've had the same question and did some spoiler-free searching around, according to two sources, the bonuses are permanent:
The stat boost is a one time thing and is permanent for each new dish you eat. Afterwards, food only heals a bit of health when used.
One user then wonders if it is only permanent for the game session:
It does last after restarts as well? I'm afraid to quit the game and have to cook all of this food again. D:
To which someone else replies:
It lasts even after you reboot the game.
https://steamcommunity.com/app/692850/discussions/0/1638662230385491403/
The second source:
You may have noticed the "prepare" option, which allows you to use ingredients to prepare new foods, but may not have fully understood what the "first time bonus" menu represents.
So food can be used for several different purposes: you can eat it to regain health, pass it off to the old woman in the hub to complete quests, or eat it for permanent first consumption bonuses. Yep, those stat bonuses are permanent and will persist throughout the entire game, so long as you eat that food type once. See that little fork and spoon icon near the Rice Ball? That means you've eaten that type of food and have already reaped the bonus effects.
What you're going to want to do is work your way down the entire "prepare" menu and eat everything you can (preferably in the middle of a boss fight to get more use out of food) to power up. Ingredients can be purchased off the shop in the hub, grinded from enemies (check the archive in the pause menu to see what each enemy drops), and synthesized from this very "prepare/craft" menu.
The bonuses for individual pieces of food often aren't stark, but could be the difference between barely killing a boss and failing.
