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New yandere simulator video brings up options for kokona's fate.

A new Yandere Simulator video discusses the possible fates for the games guinea pig character Kokona Haruka.

Today, Yandere Simulator developer YandereDev released a new video on the game.

The video features Kokona, who has been used so far as a guinea pig to demonstrate the various elimination methods included in the game.

Players have grown attached to her, and while she was not initially intended to have a relevant role in the game, the developer is exploring various ways to give her some spotlight space.

You can check out the video below, and if you want to see more, you can watch another recent video on what Yandere Simulator can learn from Persona .

Yandere Simulator was recently involved in a deal with TinyBuild , that will help develop and publish the game, and is expected to move into a crowdfunding campaign somewhere down the line.

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Kokona Haruka

Kokona Haruka is one of the female students and the current test rival that attends Akademi High School.

Kokona Haruka wears the default female school uniform, unless customized by the player.

Before the February 8th, 2016 Build, she had purple colored hair worn in two drill pigtails. Her eyes were light purple as well.

As of the February 8th, 2016 Build, she has light purple spiky bangs which sweep to the right of her face and twindrills. She has dark purple eyes, fair skin and a very large bust size, set at 2.

As of the September 22nd, 2016 build, Kokona wears purple stockings and panties.

As of the January 16th, 2017 Build, Kokona wears a purple friendship bracelet on her right wrist.

Personality

Among the personas currently implemented in the game, she is a Social Butterfly. She will happily pose for a picture if the player aims their camera at her. If she sees a corpse or witnesses a murder, she will run to the nearest secluded area and call the police. She cannot participate in physical fights against murderers.

According to her Student Profile, Kokona may be participating in compensated dating (also known as Enjo kōsai) and may be a victim of domestic abuse, though the latter is proven false as of the June 1st Build. Although she does not enjoy it, Kokona only engages in such an activity to try and help her father out of debt.

In one of Druelbozo's streams, he explains that Kokona tries hard to become popular, but she is constantly bullied.

At 7:04 AM, Kokona enters the school grounds. She walks to her locker at 7:06 AM and changes from her outdoor shoes to her indoor shoes. At 7:15 AM, she walks into the plaza, to the left side of the fountain, and gossips with Yui Rio, Yuna Hina, Koharu Hinata, Mei Mio, Saki Miyu, and Musume Ronshaku. On Monday, at 7:45 AM, Kokona receives a call from a mysterious stranger and runs to the doorway in front of the lockers furthest to the right when facing the school.

how to do kokonas task

Kokona striking a cute pose. January 16th, 2017.

On Wednesday, at 7:30 AM, Kokona goes to the girls' bathroom on the first floor. On Thursday, at 7:15 AM, she goes to the shower room to take a shower and leaves her phone inside her locker, which the player can steal.

At 8:00 AM, Kokona walks into Classroom 3-2 and sits at her desk. She starts her morning classes at 8:30 AM, and leaves the classroom at 1:00 PM. On Monday, she goes to the rooftop to talk with Saki about what is vaguely hinted to be domestic abuse. On Wednesday, Kokona stays in the classroom until 1:03, when she walks down to the plaza with her lunch. Once she arrives at 1:07, she places her lunch down on a bench and goes to hide behind a tree to admire Senpai. On all other days, she goes to the cafeteria to gossip.

Kokona walks back to class again at 1:30 PM and finishes her afternoon classes at 3:30 PM. She then heads to the Cooking Club and stays there until 5:00 PM. On Monday and Thursday, she makes octopus-shaped hot dogs and shares them with the other members. On all other days, she sits at the table like the other members. Afterwards, Kokona heads to her locker and changes from her indoor shoes to her outdoor shoes, then she lingers there until 5:15 PM, when she walks home.

how to do kokonas task

Kokona talking with Saki Miyu about her family problems on the rooftop.

When Kokona was younger, she was a normal cute baby with the potential to become anything she wanted to, just like any other.[3]

It is assumed in a conversation between her and Saki Miyu on the rooftop that she has been abused by her drunk father after her mother's death. This is actually incorrect. When spoken to more, Kokona will talk about how her father comes to her to cry about his debt problems. Her family is very broke due to a loan he took out to pay for Kokona's school tuition, accidentally becoming in debt with a group of loan sharks, called Ronshaku Loans.

Kokona Haruka is also involved in compensated dating with a person who she has seen at least once in Shisuta Town. He might have offered her a large sum of money to meet him. If Kokona's dark secret is bought, Yandere-chan will receive video footage of Kokona selling used panties to a boy from another school that can be used as blackmail. Kokona does this to pay for her father's debts.

Main Article: Tasks

Kokona will have a uniform that is too tight around the chest. She will ask the player to get her a new one. To achieve this, the player has to buy a clean uniform from the drops menu, and then take the uniform to the sewing room and alter it. She will thank the player after the new, altered uniform has been given.

Relationships

Main Article: Saki Miyu

Kokona is seemingly good friends with Saki, and almost opens up to her about her father's debt problems. According to Saki's Student Profile, Kokona is willing to tell Saki about personal matters, but not too much.

However, if Saki learns about Kokona's compensated dating, she will be distraught and won't do anything to help Kokona out. In the full game, Saki might have comforting animations for Kokona, but will avoid her if it really gets too bad.[4]

Saki Miyu will not be Kokona's senpai, as they are just friends.[5]

It is revealed that Kokona had Saki involved in her plans for her father to get out of debt, though regrets having Saki help her, as Saki planned to sell her underpants to boys from other schools, but was too embarrassed to carry it out. This sets up Saki's task for Yandere-chan to find her bra somewhere at school.

Main Article: Senpai

Since she is a test rival, she has a crush on him. Kokona calls him "Senpai", even though they're in the same class. She might also be moved to either Class 2-1 or Class 2-2 so that she can still call her crush "Senpai".[6] Currently, the only event that shows her feelings is her Wednesday speech, where she hides behind the tree and speaks while staring at Senpai. This event can be used as an opportunity to poison Kokona's bento.

Main Article: Riku Soma

When the November 15th, 2015 Build came out, YandereDev stated that Kokona's second crush is one of the students who already attends school.[7] As of the 22nd of September, 2016 Build, Yandere-chan can matchmake Kokona with her suitor, Riku Soma.

The topics that Kokona likes and dislikes are as follows:

Cooking - View Kokona preparing octopus-shaped hotdogs in the Cooking Club.

Cats - Make Kokona follow the player near the kitten.

Friends - Listen in on Kokona's and Saki's conversation.

Family - Offer to help/listen to Kokona explain about her and her dad's situation.

Money - Listen to Kokona's compensated dating phone call.

Occult - Have Kokona follow the player into the Occult Club.

Solitude - Walk into the group of girls in the plaza in the morning or the Cafeteria during lunch.

Violence - Take Kokona near the ritual knife in the Occult Club.

Video Games - Take Kokona near Pippi Osu or Ryuto Ippongo while they are playing in the computer lab.

Gossip - Use the "Gossip" option in conversation with Kokona.

Drama - Take Kokona past the Drama Club.

Many fans link Kokona's appearance to Teto Kasane the UTAUloid. However, YandereDev did not intentionally make Kokona look like Teto. It was pure coincidence.

Her hairstyle is final.

Her name is a reference to the eleventh and twelfth most popular female Japanese names in 2012, 11th most popular being Kokona, 12th most popular being Haruka.

YandereDev uses her character to test the new elimination methods every new update, as he has shown in his tutorial videos.

When asked about the reason for this, he stated that somebody had to be the guinea pig and she was simply unfortunate enough to be the one picked.

In older versions of the game, Kokona Haruka's name was Nodoka Manabe and for the builds shortly after, Nodo Mana. The placeholder name was inspired by K-On!.

YandereDev is not sure where Kokona lives at the moment.

YandereDev nicknames Kokona as "Everyone's favorite punching bag", referring to how she can be killed in more ways than any other student. The main reason why it is so easy to kill her is because YandereDev needs to test killing methods quickly for the sake of debugging the game.

Kokona succeeds Victim-chan as the test rival.

Her male counterpart is Riku Soma.

As of the December 16, 2016 Build, she, Musume Ronshaku, Oka Ruto, Nemesis, and Midori Gurin are the only students in Akademi High to have different colored panties.

Before the June 29th, 2016 Build, Kokona used to arrive on school grounds 7th in line on the left side, at 7:05 AM.

In the September 18th, 2015 Build, her crush was set to "None" by mistake.

Kokona makes a small cameo in the Gaming Club by appearing on the racing game, racing against Saki.

Her cell phone is the same purple color as her hair.

Pressing "G" on the debug menu will cause her and Yandere-chan to teleport to the rooftop, where the player can push her off or offer help.

Kokona finds slicked back hair, purple hair, glasses, piercings, and intelligence attractive in a guy.

If Senpai is not at school on Wednesday when Kokona goes down to the plaza to eat, she will walk in place.

In the January 3rd, 2017 Build, when Kokona goes to eat her lunch by the fountain on Wednesday, her event will still play out, even though Senpai has been moved to the rooftop.

how to do kokonas task

Comments (3)

how to do kokonas task

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Character Sheet

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Budo X Ayano\ Ayano X Budo

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Taro Yamada (Senpai~)

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Kokona x Saki

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Restaurants, Food and Drink | Alinea at 10: An interview with Grant Achatz &…

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Restaurants, food and drink, restaurants, food and drink | alinea at 10: an interview with grant achatz & nick kokonas.

Chef Grant Achatz (left) and Nick Kokonas reflect on the first 10 years of their influential restaurant, Alinea.

May 4 will mark the day Alinea, Chicago’s most important and consequential restaurant, turns 10 years old.

We consider our choice of adjectives carefully. Alinea is important and consequential in the way Le Francais and Charlie Trotter’s were, in that all are restaurants identifiable to fine-dining enthusiasts around the world. They were (and are) restaurants not measured within their place in Chicago, but among a shortlist of the world’s best.

Every superlative possible has been thrown Alinea’s way, perhaps none more meaningful than in 2006, when Ruth Reichl and Gourmet magazine called it the best restaurant in America.

For those unfamiliar with the world of luxury fine dining, where dinner for two costs upward of $800 and lasts four hours, it would be easy to dismiss Alinea as elitist, pretentious, unapproachable.

But price and rarity of ingredients aren’t the point. As someone who has written about chef Grant Achatz and his business partner Nick Kokonas for the better part of a decade, allow me to explain how Alinea has influenced the way people dine out:

Alinea was one of the first restaurants in the United States to involve science in manipulating how food tastes and feels. Techniques such as foam and spherification, while ubiquitous now, were at one point unheard of in American kitchens. Achatz, influenced by modernist Spanish chefs like Ferran Adria, popularized and developed techniques of molecular gastronomy stateside. (Achatz invented the anti-griddle, for example, a pan that can freeze the surface of foods in seconds.)

Alinea helped change the culture of ultrafine dining by eliminating many of its stuffy hallmarks — the crystal chandeliers, the gold-rimmed plates, the French maitre d’s. As daunting as it seems to procure a reservation here, it’s surprising a restaurant so highly regarded could manage to feel approachable, even humorous, during the actual dining experience. Some of this comes in the unique serviceware the restaurant has custom-made from Crucial Detail (a studio Achatz and Kokonas co-own with designer Martin Kastner). There are courses where you bite off an antenna without using your hands, a plate atop a pillow that slowly releases the aroma of rosemary, a soup served in a paraffin wax bowl in which components are suspended and released by pulling on a pin. The element of surprise is central within Alinea’s credo.

Though certainly not the first chef to do this, Achatz emphasized meals as not simply disparate bites but a progression strung into a cohesive narrative. At Alinea, menus are printed in a way where diners can visually track a dish’s sweetness or savoriness. The residual flavors of the previous course are supposed to influence what’s coming next. It’s the equivalent of listening to an entire album from front-to-back versus downloading 99-cent singles.

Achatz also took “flavor bouncing,” a concept of arranging, mixing and matching complementary foods to a central ingredient, and pushed that to the extreme. Take his iconic dish called Lamb 86, in which four preparations of lamb are served with 86 pairing ingredients in various forms of gelees, solids, powders and sauces, then arranged on a visually arresting grid atop a glass plate.

Alinea has eliminated tipping, instead adopting a service charge that is seen as more equitable for both kitchen and service staffs. (The Department of Labor prohibits cooks from receiving tips.) The 20 percent service fee is factored into a payment system where diners essentially prepay — like a concert ticket — before stepping into the restaurant. Kokonas is largely credited with kick-starting the restaurant ticketing trend, turning what was a pilot program at his restaurant Next, to adopting it at all his restaurants, to now, launching a tech startup called Tock that provides its proprietary ticket reservation system for restaurants everywhere.

On the eve of their restaurant’s 10th anniversary, we sat down with Achatz and Kokonas to talk about Alinea’s past and future. This conversation was edited for space and clarity.

Q: You two seem to complement each other well. Nick, what’s Grant’s biggest weakness?

Kokonas: I think we’re both a bit short-tempered and self-centered because we’re both only children. I’d say this as a criticism of myself. When I get frustrated with him, I could easily turn that mirror to myself. The ways we’re similar are faults, not strengths. As soon as someone does something that’s not useful, not toward the purpose we’re trying to get at, I think, “OK, you’re not on board, whooosh, away.” And the world’s not that black and white, and I get that especially as I get older.

Q: And Nick’s?

Achatz: I certainly agree with what he says. It’s manifested a couple of times where we had that position of volatility and frustration with each other that was perhaps beyond necessary.

Q: Would you two consider yourselves best friends?

Achatz: I certainly confide in him more than anyone else.

Kokonas: I’d say we’re more like brothers that we never had, because we’re family members now. You can dump your best friends, but you can’t get rid of your family. We are wedded at the hip at this point. I’ll say this: You call up your friends on a Tuesday night to go out for dinner. We don’t do that.

Q: You guys don’t hang out outside here?

Kokonas: I don’t think Grant hangs out outside here.

Achatz: Not really. I eat out more in New York than Chicago, by far.

Q: But you have enough deputies who understand your philosophy, and particularly after your cancer scare, you don’t have to be here until 2 a.m. every night. Are you not able to relinquish control?

Achatz: I think it is necessary, but in a different way from when Alinea opened and I was in the kitchen from 10 a.m. to 4 a.m. every day. I was literally touching all the food. Nick would make fun of me. He’d walk into the kitchen, and I’d be peeling off the ends of a giant pile of rosemary. He’d say, “What are you doing?”

Kokonas: It’s not like he has to be there every day at every restaurant. But when he goes in one of our kitchens and starts doing some mundane task, it’s like a quarterback who makes the whole team better. Everyone works a bit better. And these young kids, they see the old guy, the owner who doesn’t need to peel the ginger, and they go, “Man, that’s what I’m competing with?” That’s the value. It’s leading by example.

Q: How is Alinea different now compared with 2005?

Achatz: I think the food, stylistically, is more mature. There was a lot more emphasis on shock value on the opening menu, (and much of it was) using the Crucial Detail serviceware that people have never seen before. (But the food) was technique-driven and on the cusp of a new style of cooking. Therefore, it had more wow factor. But “being different” was a major priority of mine back then. It would keep me up at night, though now it’s far less of a concern. I think we’re still playful and interject humor. I think now there’s just a level of sophistication.

Q: You mention humor. There’s a segment of people with this preconceived idea of Alinea that it would be stuffy and pretentious. And I always thought there was a sense of humor about the place, particularly in the interaction between guest and server. Was that one of the bullet points on day one?

Achatz: There was a turning point for me right after I left Charlie Trotter’s and went to Europe. It was a big turning point in the way I thought about Michelin three-star restaurants. I graduated from culinary school in 1994, and fine dining was dominated by Alain Ducasse, Joel Robuchon, Michel Bras, all the French guys. No one even cared about the Spanish guys or knew who Ferran Adria was. So that pretentious, drippy, rooms-with-chandeliers — that was still “the best.” I remember going to Europe and wanting to see that in person. And they treated me like (crap). At the time I was 22 years old, had a frumpy J.C. Penney’s suit on, didn’t speak French. And I was so disappointed. In my mind, it doesn’t have to and it shouldn’t be like this. I came back and worked at The French Laundry (in Yountville, Calif.) and there was the humor and there was true hospitality and there was generosity.

Q: Describe how humor manifests itself in your dining room.

Kokonas: I think humor might be the wrong word, but an element of surprise. If anytime something is presented in a way you’re not quite sure how to do it, or asks you to do something uncomfortable, like suck a balloon, or eat something off a skewer without using your hands, or that bite looks really scary? It’s comfort food. You’re asked to take the jump, but the water’s warm. And the opposite is often true as well. If he’ll come up with something challenging from a taste or culinary perspective? It’s usually on a plate with fork and knife. It’s very rare you’ll get both of those things hitting you at once.

Q: If you look at a guidebook like Zagat or Michelin, it’s interesting in how they categorize Alinea. One calls it contemporary. The other, it’s simply American. How do you categorize the food you cook?

Kokonas: How do you categorize a movie like “Birdman”? Is that a comedy or drama? I think the answer is with anything that’s unique, if you have 10 boxes and try to fit in one of them, you probably can’t. Alinea should probably be in three or four.

Achatz: That’s kind of the point. We just say progressive American…

Kokonas: Because we are Americans and we try to be progressive!

Q: One of the big mysteries in the Chicago dining world is Roister, your new restaurant project. What more can you tell me?

Kokonas: We always thought it’d be cool to walk in and have the quality food of Alinea or Next, but get it as an a la carte, and have it be different stylistically. Sometimes you want to eat in the kitchen and have a five-course tasting menu, or sometimes you want to walk by for lunch and have something that’s really good. Then we’d ask, how would we accomplish that, and what would be exciting to us? So we thought, yeah, let’s build one of those! And that’s what Roister is. It’s where we want to go if we don’t want to have a 20-course meal. But what that is for us was a two-year conversation.

Q: What did you arrive at after two years of conversation?

Kokonas: I don’t know we know yet.

Achatz: We do on paper, and we do because we ordered kitchen equipment and picked out materials. But one thing we’ve learned, like the Boka guys and One Off Hospitality have learned, everyone who’s built restaurants and has a couple of them, is there’s a certain unpredictability of how the space influences the experience. And how it has a personality as a restaurant. The space is going to define a lot of things.

Q: So let’s tackle this one point at a time. Say I were to go with my wife and had a really nice night out at Roister, how much could I pay? Give me a range.

Kokonas: Maybe $50-60 for two minimum? Top end, $500?

Q: And (former Graham Elliot chef) Andrew Brochu is running the kitchen?

Kokonas: Yes.

Q: Give me some dishes in development.

(Long pause from Achatz)

Kokonas: He’s hesitating because at this point we haven’t finalized dishes. Can we talk conceptually rather than in detail? What if you had a party of six, and one of the things you could do is order a whole beast of some sort. But rather than have it prepared one way over an open fire like a whole Atlantic salmon, rather than have it be rustic and char-grilled and just put in the middle, what if you had five different preparations with 10 sides, all of which complemented it?

Achatz: So for instance, with chicken, you pull the chicken apart. And you prepare the breast one way, the thighs one way, the wings one way, the gizzards and liver one way. And then you’re able to reassemble it in all those different preparations.

Q: Can I order steak at Roister?

Achatz: Define steak…

Kokonas: You sound like Bill Clinton! “Define what you mean the definition of steak is!”

Achatz: Will there be beef? Yes. Steak? No.

Q: What’s this I keep reading about open fire?

Achatz: It can’t be and it shouldn’t be labeled as fire-focused cookery. Yes, there will be a hearth, but there’ll also be a Combi oven, a flat-top and a deep fryer. If you’re going to display wood and burn wood, then people are going to have this preconceived idea of what the food is going to be like. I think when Americans think of live-fire cooking, they think of Weber grills and barbecue, where you throw a burger or hot dog on it. We were just in Spain, and there’s a very famous restaurant that cooks only over live fire — in some cases very subtle and nuanced, not a big raging fire. You’re going to treat that box like you would a French flat-top.

Kokonas: Like, you can make pasta over an open fire.

Q: Can I use the word casual?

Kokonas: Certainly you can come in with jeans and T-shirt.

Q: Will Roister be on Tock, your ticketing system?

Kokonas: Yes! Every restaurant we ever do will be on Tock. But we’ll still keep 40 percent open nightly for walk-ins.

Q: Let me try one more way. My wife and I come to Roister. We’ll spend $120 and I’ll leave it in your hands. Can you describe the dining experience?

Kokonas: (He leaves the room and returns with blueprints and photo renderings.) You’ll notice the kitchen is right in the middle. There’s no walls; it’s completely open to everybody. There will be some a la carte spaces. This part is for tasting menus only. You can sit here at a bar and order food — think of it like a sushi bar. Chefs in that section will be taking your orders and serving you. You’re not going to have some waiter come up to you and say, “Good evening sir, welcome to Roister.” It’s more: “Hey! How are ya? You here for the tasting menu? Off we go, I’ll be serving you.” This is definitely the kind of place we’re not afraid to have people standing around. You want to drag a chair over? Totally cool.

Q: When will Roister be open?

Kokonas: This year. The reason I can’t tell you more specifically is because we don’t know and because every time we did that in the past, we got pigeonholed to a date. I refuse to ever have a deadline at a restaurant ever again. We’re in the fortunate position of having it in the same building as us. We can walk next door and deal with the construction, and we can afford to tweak. I wanted to open it four months ago. But we hadn’t congealed our idea. Our kitchen’s being delivered in June, if that helps at all.

Q: For the last year and a half, you’ve been telling me about wanting to reimagine Alinea from the ground up. What can you tell me right now about Alinea 2.0?

Achatz: We want the interior space to go through a major aesthetic change. And that includes eliminating and replacing some of the more iconic architecture in the restaurant. Where Alinea was always described in the media as “modern minimalist in its decor,” I think for a creative jumping-off point, we’re looking at older designs of interior design. Not saying that we’ll make it look old. One of the things we ask ourselves, whether it be with cocktails or food or restaurants, is, “What is the opposite of what we’re doing? And what is the impossible?” Because if you can find a way to do the opposite of what you’re doing, or a way to do the impossible, chances are it’s a new, exciting, original and creative.

Kokonas: What I get paranoid about is at some point you have only one direction to go, unless you expand or change, and that is downward. I think what most people do, not just in restaurant industry, is you get to that point and you start worrying about how to stay there. And to keep everything the same. Everything’s working, don’t mess it up. It’s the innovator’s dilemma. Our “pop-up” at (New York’s) Eleven Madison Park was a critical moment, where we took the Alinea experience and (transplanted) it into a different setting. Some of the solutions people came up with in this whole different environment, not only did it work, it reinvigorated everybody.

Achatz: That’s been our guiding principle. Once you energize the staff both passionately and creatively, that energy is palpable and is felt by both the team and our guests.

Kokonas: There are things we could do elsewhere in museums and pop-ups that would, or have, worked very well. So how do we bring it back to Alinea? Well we can’t. Because the physical space doesn’t allow it. So all of a sudden, if we took two months off and shredded the place, and took all the first 10 years and go, that’s gone … we’re not doing the black truffle explosion anymore, we’re not doing the table dessert plate anymore … I want to start from scratch. I personally want to give the Michelin stars back.

Q: So you’re not just getting new drapes and buying new chairs.

Kokonas: We’re going to rip out the front hallway and move the front door forward. The entire downstairs will now be: You arrive, have some bites, can move through the space physically. You won’t be sitting at the table the first half-hour you’re there.

Q: Walk me through that open space.

Achatz: Think of that space more like a gallery. In a way, the idea would be, maybe one week you’d come in here and there’s a table made from giant blocks of ice, and here’s a rare fish from Japan that sous-chefs are either cutting or charring and handing the bites out to people in that space while they have a glass of sake or Champagne. We want to play with color, sounds, live music, aromas within a room. We’ve never been able to do that.

Kokonas: When you get people to physically move through a few different rooms, you have a lot greater control over the variety of their experience. Right now you’re sitting down in a fixed spot for three to four hours. And if instead, we can break that up to two, three distinct experiences, that gives us the ability to create a broader set of experiences within those few hours that’s going to have more impact emotionally. We experimented this thing with a cellist. We plated the mat dessert plate with a cellist who was improvising jazz. And it transformed the space and it was awesome. The problem is, if you’re on the dessert course, and the table next to you is eating their first course, they kind of ruin the show later on. You can only do it once a room. However, if we have the entire room dedicated to that experience, where we have 15-20 people experiencing that all at once, it’s like theater. And then someone discreetly brings you upstairs and it’s a completely different experience. The whole thing starts over. That’s really powerful and cool. That’s what we’re shooting for.

Q: Allow me to play devil’s advocate. For someone who doesn’t understand your philosophy, who are just thinking, “Just feed me. I just want to sit down and eat” — is there any fear this idea of “cellist improvising jazz during dessert” would be dismissed as pretension?

Kokonas: No. That’s only because I said cello. What if I said we had a world-class drummer playing Zeppelin? Would you be worried about pretentiousness then, or would that go in the opposite direction?

Q: Will the food change? Should diners still expect a 22-course experience?

Achatz: Certain aspects of the experience will be different and some will be the same. I think what Nick said is the best way to look at it. When we’re building it 11 years ago, we had a wish list we couldn’t accomplish for whatever reason. Maybe we had a budget, maybe we weren’t established enough. Then over time, there’s certain things we’ve experienced personally that we want to incorporate into the rebirth of Alinea, and now we have the opportunity to do that.

Q: What’s the timeline?

Kokonas: We’ve tentatively planned to close at the beginning of 2016. We’ll do an Alinea installation, one in Spain, one in the U.S. that is not New York City. It’ll be super-challenging. To do a pop-up restaurant in someone’s space? Hard, but not terribly difficult. Taking half your staff to Spain for four weeks, swapping them out two weeks in, keeping everyone on payroll the whole time while managing the construction of the new Alinea? That’s a daunting thing. The pop-ups alone are $2 million projects. We’re talking about shipping our tables and chairs. We’ll need corporate, airline, credit card sponsorships.

Q: What’s beyond your roster of restaurants, bars, ticketing systems and publishing group?

Kokonas: Next year, after opening Roister and after reopening Alinea, we’re going to build an events and catering company. Giant open kitchen, big glass, people walking down the street can look into it. Here in Chicago. Aviary will do all the drinks, and you can get any food from Roister, Next or Alinea. Up to 100 people for Alinea food, 1,000 people for non-Alinea food, pick your experience.

Q: My one takeaway is this idea of letting the space dictate your identity. Has that always been your philosophy since the beginning? It seems you can’t just serve Alinea food in some random warehouse.

Kokonas: The question we ask here isn’t, “What’s the food at this place?” That’s asking the wrong question. Roister is about asking what the experience you want people to have there. What’s the feeling and takeaway you want people to have? And each one of those places serve a different need and experience. I look at everything we do as designing experiences. As we look to do Aviary at different places, we’re still going to do a menu that’s not dissimilar to The Aviary here. But what kind of experience do we want in Singapore? It’s a totally different experience that you want to have here.

Q: How concrete are those plans of expanding The Aviary into other cities?

Kokonas: We are really close to opening permanent Aviaries in New York and Singapore. Those are 18 months away, at best.

Achatz: I think as restaurateurs, we realize that if you paint the walls beige and hang minimalist paintings, you can say the hyperfocus comes down to the food. “I didn’t want any distractions in the space and focus on the food.” Now we understand more about the human interactions with other people, the staff, space and the food. It’s more complex.

[email protected] Twitter @pang

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I'm unable to use the sewing machines in the sewing room or give Kokona any uniforms, any help? I used to know how to do it before they changed the sewing room but now I can't find any tutorials on how to complete her task for the newer versions and i'm stumped!- Is this just a problem for me or is there a different way to complete it now? 

SoulPetrov's avatar

The task works perfectly for me. Have you spoke with her first?

You Need 5 Panty Shots > Buy A Clean Uniform in Drops in the Phone Menu > Go Behind the School to Collect The Uniform > Go to The Sewing Room > Then You Sew at the desk in the middle row third column, Sew > Go to Kokona then done.

If its not working It is probably a bug.

What do you think?

Tatler Asia

How to build a restaurant empire.

how to do kokonas task

Nick Kokonas of The Alinea Group talks about staying motivated, why restaurants fail, and how they choose partnerships

The co-founder of The Alinea Group tells Janice Leung Hayes about staying motivated, why restaurants fail, and how they choose partnerships

August 11, 2017

From the moment they decided to open their first restaurant, Nick Kokonas and Grant Achatz (pictured top), owners of The Alinea Group , have always done things differently. Before Alinea opened, they documented their plans and thought processes on an online forum, then came Next and their revolutionary ticketing system, and The Aviary made us all give cocktails a second thought. The Group now boasts five establishments in Chicago, and one (soon to be two) in New York. They have been showered with every accolade imaginable with their dishes and ideas constantly imitated around the globe. Even non-foodies know about “the restaurant that serves dessert  on  your table”. 

 How do they do it? We spoke to Nick Kokonas to find out more.

See also: A Food Lover’s Guide To Chicago

Janice Leung Hayes: When you started Alinea (and The Alinea Group), where did you think you’d be in 12 years?

Nick Kokonas: In some ways we've exceeded my initial expectations, in others we are right on course. When we began I put together a long-term plan that included a 2-3 restaurants, a bar, and a winery. Obviously, we don't have a winery!

JLH: To those outside the US, Alinea arguably put Chicago on the culinary map. Do you think you’ve changed the restaurant scene?

NK: The Alinea Group really put 'experiential' dining front and center, cementing that with Next. Alinea was and remains Grant's vision of a dining experience which is fun and delicious... but also emotionally resonant. Next then took that to another level, changing the theme entirely every four months. We've now done 21 menus with completely different experiences, serviceware, and menus since 2011. I think that's set the bar high in terms of what is possible for a single restaurant to accomplish.

The exquisite dishes at Alinea (Photos: Matthew Gilson)

JLH: How did the concepts for Next, The Aviary, The Office, and Roister come about, respectively? Was it a conscious decision to head down an increasingly casual route?  

NK: Next is about taking the techniques and precision of Alinea and applying it to the world of cuisine, one focus at time. The Aviary is a 'restaurant for drinks'—utilising Michelin quality chefs and processes to innovate cocktails and the lounge experience. Roister came about when we realised that we personally enjoy rustic dining in sight of the kitchen and hearth. Alinea is our flagship and all of the fine-dining focus is there, so naturally the other innovations are more casual... otherwise we'd apply those improvements to Alinea.

Roister is The Alinea Group's more casual outlet, serving rustic comfort foods such as roast chicken (Photos: Matthew Gilson)

JLH: Around the time that Alinea opened, “foodieism” had just started to take off. How have things like Yelp, social media and the World’s 50 Best awards affected what you do, for better or for worse?

NK: The internet is simply magical and allows us to connect directly with our guests without a PR team filtering the message. Since 2004, we've embraced that direct connection and encouraged our guests to share their experiences, first via foodie message boards like eGullet and now via Instagram, Snapchat and others.

JLH:In many ways, the restaurant industry has traditionally been very archaic and insular, and, for instance, chefs complain that their dishes are copied within a week of appearing on Instagram. You've been very “open source” from the get-go, be it about creativity in the kitchen or how you run the business. Why did you do this?

NK: I've been involved in computers since I was 10 years old—way back in the hobbyist days of the Apple II. There is a culture of being open-source and sharing knowledge within that industry. Beyond that, the internet makes such 'ownership' both easy and impossible... so we decided to document our team's creativity both to take 'credit' for the innovation and to share it from our own point of view. While not financially beneficial, we do own the idea and that helps our business reputation. It's also the right thing to do for the industry and the art.

JLH: Most fine dining establishments work incredibly hard to gain certain accolades. Once you’ve reached that level, how do you stay motivated and keep creating rather than stick to a tried-and-true formula?  

NK: The accolades do not make a business and the good feelings of winning awards do not last very long. Keeping our patrons excited and happy, however, is a daily goal and the feedback is often and immediate. So that's where you have to focus, in any business. And that makes pushing in new directions a necessity.

The Office is the group's newest opening (Photo: Allen Hemberger)

JLH: How did you come to realise that ticketing was the way forward in terms of reservations? What are some best practices you've learned when it comes to handling the reservations process?

NK: Well, this is a huge question and I've built an entire company around the answer — Tock. We now provide reservation software to restaurants (and even wineries) in 16 countries and 46 cities around the world—and growing quickly. In general, restaurants still answer the phones in an era when people would rather swipe on their smartphones than dial on a landline. Beyond that, quick communication, better CRM, digital waitlists, and no lines when you arrive are all better hospitality. Unfortunately, OpenTable, Resdiary and others around the world have not innovated in over a decade, and restaurants rely on them to 'template' their bookings in the evening instead of running the proper experiments to optimise the flow of guests. It's the biggest mistake I see restaurants make.

JLH: You’ve made a point of making your establishments about the experience, being a form of recreation, and not just about filling hungry stomachs. But what happens in a recession when belts are tightened? What are your strategies for mitigating lowered interest/disposable income and making a recession work in your favour?

NK: We've had dynamic and variable pricing in place since inventing Tock in 2011, and even a Tuesday night is priced differently than a Saturday. If we are offering great experiences—truly unique, world class—then even in tougher economic times people will celebrate with us. The industry as a whole may suffer, but that doesn't mean, necessarily, that any individual restaurant will be hurt.

At Alinea, dishes appear as works of art (Photo: Matthew Gilson)

JLH: Many people think there isn’t a strong business case for fine dining – low margins, high labour costs, can’t scale/franchise, for example. As the owners of a successful restaurant group that started off with the epitome of fine dining, what are your thoughts on this?  

NK: I wrote a long piece on Medium about just this— basically, a failing business is a failure of the management and ownership, not of the business type. We've tripled our margins in the past few years during a time when many restaurant groups are feeling the pinch of rising labor, lease, and food costs. For the most part, restaurant people focus on food and service and forget the 'other back of house' — the business side. 

JLH: Restaurant staff with the right skills and attitude, both front and back of house, are increasingly hard to come by. How have you approached hiring and managing that has helped retain talent?

NK: We are working to treat restaurant employees as the professionals they are... which means offering benefits, pay, and perks commensurate with their skills. We host job fairs, are increasing professional training, and more across our group.

JLH: With the expansions, publishing your own books and so on, do you ever worry that you’re stretching yourselves too thin, and not focusing on the restaurants and the food?

NK: Grant [Achatz] is in the kitchens and over a cutting board every day—that's his home. Our entire focus is the guest experience—the photography, serviceware design, Tock, and other endeavors are all in the service of hospitality.

Chef Grant Achatz (Photo: courtesy of The Alinea Group)

JLH: You’ve just opened The Office and are about to open The Aviary in New York—is the plan to roll this concept out worldwide?

NK: After we open New York's Aviary and The Office we will assess what we'd like to do next for the Aviary... but the goal is a few more major world culinary centers.

JLH: You must have had plenty of potential investors in other cities looking to partner with you and open restaurants outside of Chicago. What do you look for in a partner?

NK: A commitment to excellence, not just the talk of it. We get calls every week from groups that want us to open a restaurant in their building or hotel, or simply want us to do a pop-up. But they often have no idea the number of staff, the investment required, to do the project an Alinea standard. They often think that a single chef can show up and make it happen with existing staff—and that's just not possible of course. For our pop-up in Madrid we got 52 EU work-visas; that alone cost nearly US$80,000 of legal work.

JLH: What’s next for The Alinea Group?

NK: We'll be announcing a new project in Chicago soon...

Janice Leung Hayes began a career in eating (and writing) in a Melbourne community magazine. She has since eaten and written for major local and international publications including New York Times, Gourmet Traveller Australia and Eater, and founded two Hong Kong's farmers markets. She is also a regular contributor to Hong Kong Tatler Dining.  See more articles by Janice

IMAGES

  1. YANDERE SIMULATOR : Kokonas task

    how to do kokonas task

  2. Doing kokonas task

    how to do kokonas task

  3. How to make Kokona's task 👔 (In June 1st update)

    how to do kokonas task

  4. How to help Kokona

    how to do kokonas task

  5. Kokona and Musume Task

    how to do kokonas task

  6. EXPELLING KOKONA WITH NEW ELIMINATION METHODS!

    how to do kokonas task

COMMENTS

  1. Yandere Simulator Tasks #1

    Steps:1. You need to talk with Kokona Haruka and select Task.2. Accept the task.3. Make 5 panty shots of the girls you see and send them to Info-chan.4. Go t...

  2. Kokona Haruka

    Social Butterfly (Persona) (5/24/2015 - 11/1/2015) (2/1/2015 - 1/15/2016) Cait Myers/Mom0ki Hayden Daviau-Hunt (poisoned Kokona)(old rooftop conversation) [2] Kokona Harukawa ), is one of the female She was the second and final test Kokona wears the default school She has fair skin, light purple eyes, and a bust size of 2.

  3. yandere simulator the kokona haruka task

    #yanderesimulator#kokonaharuka#yandere#yanchan#task

  4. Kokona's Task??? : r/yandere_simulator

    Talk to Kokona, order a clean uniform from Info-chan, and altar it at the seat in the sewing room with the scissors on the table. Always worked for me. 2 Sw4nkyOrc OP • 4 yr. ago Do I need the scissors on the table to alter it cause, I picket them up and I dont get the option to alter the outfit,, oh no 1 sadisticpen • 4 yr. ago

  5. How do you complete Kokona's task? : r/yandere_simulator

    How do you complete Kokona's task? Question Sorry if this is a stupid question, but how exactly do you give her a new uniform? 4 Sort by: actualmigraine • 8 yr. ago Get a clean uniform from Info-chan and take it to the Sewing Room. 6 Prestigious_Rate8273 • 3 mo. ago

  6. Kokona's Tutorial

    1Tutorial 2Pre-Tutorial Cutscene 3Tutorial Cutscene 4Tutorial Menu 5Trivia 6Gallery Tutorial[] As of the 2nd of February YandereDev released a build that contained a Tutorial. The tutorial has 2 stages, the Pre-Tutorial and the Tutorial Cutscene.

  7. ALL TASKS (as of May 2022)

    Download Yandere Simulator╰https://yanderesimulator.com/download/TimestampsIntro 0:00Hazu 0:06Gema 1:30Riku 4:26Kokona & Saki 5:28Osana 8:00Kyuji 9:20Musume ...

  8. How to make Kokona's task (In June 1st update)

    About Press Copyright Contact us Creators Advertise Developers Terms Privacy Policy & Safety How YouTube works Test new features NFL Sunday Ticket Press Copyright ...

  9. Tasks

    Tasks are a type of interaction with students that can be used to befriend said students. Eventually, every NPC will have at least one unique task. Some will not be as easy. When Ayano Aishi/Ryoba Aishi walks up to a student and prompts the interaction wheel, the player must choose the sprite art of the two people holding hands. When chosen, the student will proceed to tell the player what ...

  10. New Yandere Simulator Video Brings up Options for Kokona's Fate

    Published May 17, 2017. A new Yandere Simulator video discusses the possible fates for the games guinea pig character Kokona Haruka. Today, Yandere Simulator developer YandereDev released a new ...

  11. i still can do the kokona event? if yes, how?

    Befriending kakona, getting her secret, kidnapping bully, blackmailing dad, saving kakona, then getting her to do one last date dressed like kizana while sabotaging kizana so she stays home so she has no alibi, would be hard in one week. WilliamW2010 • 1 yr. ago look in the game files and force the game to boot the event true

  12. So doing Kokona's task in the new build resulted in this...

    Business, Economics, and Finance. GameStop Moderna Pfizer Johnson & Johnson AstraZeneca Walgreens Best Buy Novavax SpaceX Tesla. Crypto

  13. Kokona Haruka

    Task. Main Article: Tasks. Kokona will have a uniform that is too tight around the chest. She will ask the player to get her a new one. To achieve this, the player has to buy a clean uniform from the drops menu, and then take the uniform to the sewing room and alter it. She will thank the player after the new, altered uniform has been given ...

  14. KOKONA HARUKA'S AND SAKI MIYU TASK Yandere Simulator

    KOKONA HARUKA'S AND SAKI MIYU TASK Yandere Simulator | Yan-Chan Gaming Yan-Chan Gaming 1.83K subscribers Subscribe Subscribed 183 Share 10K views 1 year ago #yanderesimulator #yanderesim #yan Hi...

  15. Suitors

    Yandere-Chan can also buy something in Buraza Town's Gift Shop that would make a good gift, such as a necklace, and give it to the suitor; this allows the suitor to give the gift to the rival during the daily matchmaking interaction. The gift must be given to the suitor before the interaction begins. When the remaining suitors are implemented, some suitors may look like gender-bent versions of ...

  16. Is the option to modify a uniform for Kokona's task gone...?

    Is the option to modify a uniform for Kokona's task gone...? No you have to walk over to the sewing machine with the scissors on the desk. It should be near the back of the room. That and you can only unlock the option once you accept the task. Ah, the desk closest to Yan-chan IS the desk with scissors in it, I just equipped it.

  17. Alinea at 10: An interview with Grant Achatz & Nick Kokonas

    But when he goes in one of our kitchens and starts doing some mundane task, it's like a quarterback who makes the whole team better. Everyone works a bit better. ... Kokonas: Yes! Every ...

  18. Can't complete Kokonas task..

    You Need 5 Panty Shots > Buy A Clean Uniform in Drops in the Phone Menu > Go Behind the School to Collect The Uniform > Go to The Sewing Room > Then You Sew at the desk in the middle row third column, Sew > Go to Kokona then done. If its not working It is probably a bug. (edited by SoulPetrov) What do you think?

  19. YANDERE SIMULATOR : Kokonas task

    About Press Copyright Contact us Creators Advertise Developers Terms Privacy Policy & Safety How YouTube works Test new features NFL Sunday Ticket Press Copyright ...

  20. How To Build A Restaurant Empire

    From the moment they decided to open their first restaurant, Nick Kokonas and Grant Achatz (pictured top), owners of The Alinea Group, have always done things differently.Before Alinea opened, they documented their plans and thought processes on an online forum, then came Next and their revolutionary ticketing system, and The Aviary made us all give cocktails a second thought.

  21. Kokona task : r/yandere_simulator

    Kokona task : yandere_simulator 2 2 Posted by 2 years ago Kokona task For some reason the sewing machine in the sewing room doesn't work. I can't do Kokona's task because of it, and I've downloaded the most recent game and update so I'm not sure what's wrong. What do I do? 6 comments 100% Upvoted This thread is archived

  22. How to befriend Kokona Haruka || Yandere Simulator Demo

    Link to download Pose Mod :https://mega.nz/folder/CMYxxADZ#DWbw60b2IhqfHMyGITcaIA/folder/jNBBzCZaThe command to enable the tripod :EnableGameObject:Tripod:tr...

  23. The placeholder task is too overpowered + Proposal

    • 4 yr. ago KuuderessioPlusvalin The placeholder task is too overpowered + Proposal As you may know, YandereDev implemented a placeholder task for all students which have the purpose of letting us befriend everyone, without giving unique and elaborated tasks to each one. Well, I like the solution itself, but I don't like how this idea was filled.