Thunder's Food Grading System
Thunder’s Food Grading System is a custom culinary evaluation framework created by Cameron “Thunder” Lobban to classify and measure the quality, craftsmanship, and overall impact of food items produced within Thunder’s Kitchen.
It combines RPG-style progression systems with gastronomic assessment, enabling each dish to be assigned both a Level (1–300) and a Rarity Tier ranging from Common to Unique.
The system is designed for dynamic personal use, community engagement, and brand identity within Thunder’s expanding culinary universe. It allows dishes to evolve as Thunder’s skills improve, mirroring RPG progression and ensuring each creation holds narrative and mechanical significance.
Purpose
The purpose of Thunder’s Food Grading System is multi-layered, combining practical culinary evaluation with personal development, branding, and social engagement. While originally conceived as a simple way to track the evolution of Thunder’s baking skills, the system has expanded into a comprehensive framework that shapes how food is created, judged, shared, and experienced within Thunder’s Kitchen.
The system currently serves six primary functions:
Skill Tracking & Personal Development
The grading system acts as a progression model, allowing Thunder to monitor his advancement as a baker and cook over time. Levels (1–300) reflect improvements in:
- technique
- structural integrity of bakes
- consistency
- flavour balancing
- ingredient selection
- visual presentation
Because each dish receives a score, Thunder can revisit old recipes and clearly see how far he has come. This transforms cooking into a continuous levelling journey, encouraging experimentation and long-term mastery.
Quality Classification of Recipes
The rarity tiers (Common → Unique) provide a vocabulary for expressing the impact, craftsmanship, and emotional power of a dish.
This system makes it easy to distinguish:
- basic everyday items
- well-executed mid-tier foods
- high-skill creations
- signature masterpieces
- one-of-a-kind culinary achievements
By combining numerical levels with thematic rarity labels, Thunder can classify dishes with far more nuance than traditional culinary rating systems.
Lore, Identity & Worldbuilding
The system reinforces the evolving mythos surrounding Thunder’s Kitchen and Thunder’s wider persona.
Just as Augmented Thunder possesses unique attributes and alignments, Thunder’s food items gain narrative weight, making each creation feel like an artefact within a fictional universe.
This adds a layer of fun, creativity, and personal identity, transforming ordinary recipes into:
- signature items
- named creations
- legendary-tier foods with lore
- community-recognised specialities
It helps Thunder establish a coherent and memorable culinary brand.
Social Interaction & Community Engagement
Thunder frequently gives away slices of cake, bread, and pizza to locals during delivery routes. The grading system enhances these interactions by giving recipients a sense of participation in Thunder’s culinary journey.
A slice rated “Elite Lv210” or “Legendary Lv240” is not just a piece of cake — it becomes a conversation starter, a shared experience, and a small moment of joy.
This strengthens community connections, improves social rapport, and builds Thunder’s reputation as a generous and talented neighbourhood figure.
Motivation for Innovation & Experimentation
The system encourages the creation of new dishes, variants, and upgraded forms. Because levels can always increase and rarity is earned rather than assigned automatically, Thunder is motivated to:
- refine flavours
- revisit previous dishes
- attempt new challenges
- push his limits
- design multi-layered or exotic creations
This turns culinary creativity into a structured but enjoyable progression path, similar to an RPG crafting system.
Branding & Future Commercial Use
Although currently used for personal enjoyment and community outreach, the grading system forms the foundation of a potential future brand identity for Thunder’s Kitchen. Each dish having a level and rarity tier makes menu items instantly recognisable and marketable.
Should Thunder choose to sell full cakes or other foods in the future, the grading system will act as a unique trademark, distinguishing his products from ordinary bakery items and enhancing their perceived value.
Level and Rarity Mechanics
The Level and Rarity systems form the core of Thunder’s Food Grading System. Together they determine both the technical quality of a dish and the emotional, memorable, or signature value it carries. The two systems operate independently but complement one another to create a complete method of evaluation.
Level System (Lv1–300)
The Level system is a numerical scale used to measure the technical execution of any food item created in Thunder’s Kitchen. Levels reflect skill, structure, flavour balance, ingredient selection, and overall refinement. This system allows dishes to grow and evolve, mirroring an RPG-style progression path as Thunder’s culinary abilities improve.
Level Tiers and Their Meaning
Lv1–50: Foundational stage. Simple items, early attempts, inconsistent or experimental results.
Lv50–120: Competent stage. Solid technique, better structure, more reliable flavour.
Lv120–200: Advanced stage. Clear refinement, balanced profiles, consistent texture and presentation.
Lv200–260: Expert stage. High-level execution with strong identity, complex flavour layering, and impressive visuals.
Lv260–300: Mastery stage. Signature creations with exceptional craftsmanship, flawless technique, and memorable impact.
Determining Level
Levels are assigned using a broad assessment of factors including:
• Texture, crumb structure, moisture balance
• Flavour depth, richness, aftertaste, balance of sweet and bitter
• Ingredient quality, especially premium items
• Technical methods such as ganache emulsification or fermentation
• Visual presentation, stability, and slice integrity
• Creativity, uniqueness, and improvement over previous attempts
• Emotional or sensory impact on the eater
Rarity System
The Rarity system measures how special, unique, or emotionally impactful a dish is. While levels are technical, rarity expresses identity and the “wow factor” of a creation. This system classifies food not only by quality, but by the impression it leaves.
Rarity Tiers
Common: Basic items with simple execution. Everyday food without standout features.
Superior: Better-than-average items showing effort and improvement.
Rare: Memorable dishes with clear technique or creativity.
Elite: High-quality items with strong identity, refined execution, and premium feel.
Legendary: Exceptional dishes that impress strongly and receive enthusiastic reaction. Often complex or visually striking.
Unique: Reserved for pinnacle creations. One-of-a-kind items defined by flawless craft, originality, signature methods, or extraordinary impact.
Interplay of Level and Rarity
Levels measure technique.
Rarity measures experience.
A dish may be high level but not emotionally special, or lower level but extraordinarily memorable. The highest achievement is a dish that earns both top technical score and top experiential tier, such as a Lv300 Unique creation.
Examples of interactions:
• A Lv180 Rare cake: technically refined but not yet iconic.
• A Lv90 Legendary slice: simple technique but overwhelming flavour impact.
• A Lv260 Elite pizza: expert execution with strong signature identity.
• A Lv300 Unique cake: a pinnacle creation, perfected through technique and emotional resonance.
Comparison to Other Systems
Thunder’s Food Grading System stands out because it combines technical measurement with narrative identity, unlike most traditional or gaming-based rating systems. While many systems assess food or items using rigid categories, Thunder’s approach blends precision with creativity, making it both practical and memorable.
Comparison with Game Rarity Systems
Many video games use tiered rarity systems such as Common, Rare, Epic, and Legendary. Thunder’s system is similar in structure but more refined for real-world use.
It removes unnecessary mid-tiers, keeps the hierarchy readable, and uses the term Unique to represent truly irreplaceable creations.
Where games often stop at five tiers, Thunder’s system uses six, allowing a clearer distinction between high-quality items and signature, one-of-a-kind bakes.
Thunder’s 1–300 level scale also offers far more granularity than typical game systems, enabling long-term progression and meaningful tracking across many iterations of a recipe.
Comparison with Michelin and Professional Ratings
Michelin stars and similar restaurant awards use small, rigid categories with very limited differentiation. While respected, they do not capture the nuance of individual dishes.
Thunder’s system allows far greater detail by assigning a specific level to each food item and pairing it with a rarity tier that reflects emotional and experiential impact.
Where Michelin stars judge restaurants as a whole, Thunder’s system evaluates single items, giving much more flexibility and precision.
Comparison with Hygiene or Quality Grades
Systems such as A/B/C grades or numerical inspection scores focus on safety and consistency, not creativity or craftsmanship.
Thunder’s system is designed to assess artistry, technique, flavour, and emotional reaction, making it more suited to culinary craftsmanship and personal improvement.
It rewards uniqueness, innovation, and skill, not merely compliance.
Comparison with Anime, Gacha, and Monster-Hunter Style Ranks
These systems often use letter grades (C, B, A, S, SS), which can feel arbitrary or overly exaggerated.
Thunder’s rarity tiers use plain English terms that are instantly understandable, preventing confusion and making the system more welcoming to people unfamiliar with gaming terminology.
The 1–300 level range provides deeper progression than simple letter ranks and encourages incremental refinement rather than dramatic leaps.
Overall Advantages of Thunder’s System
Thunder’s Food Grading System succeeds because it blends the logical structure of game mechanics with the emotional weight of real culinary experience.
It allows dishes to grow over time, gives each creation a sense of identity, and supports both technical evaluation and personal storytelling.
It is flexible enough for everyday bakes yet robust enough for signature “Thunder-tier” items, making it an ideal framework for tracking skill, engaging the community, and building the Thunder’s Kitchen brand.
Criticism & Limitations
Although Thunder’s Food Grading System is highly flexible and effective for personal use, culinary progression, and community engagement, it is not without limitations. As with any custom evaluation framework, several points of criticism have been raised regarding subjectivity, consistency, and scalability.
Subjectivity of Scoring
Because levels and rarity tiers are assigned by Thunder himself, the system relies heavily on personal judgement rather than standardised culinary metrics. Different tasters may disagree with a level or rarity ranking, especially when emotional impact plays a significant role. The system prioritises Thunder’s perception of texture, flavour, skill and improvement, which may not align with professional critics or external reviewers.
Difficulty of Cross-Comparison
Food items from different categories—such as bread, pizza, and cakes—may be challenging to compare fairly. A highly complex cake might earn a high level due to multiple steps, while a simple but perfectly executed flatbread might appear lower despite requiring very high technical ability. The system is not designed for strict category balancing, which can lead to apparent disparities across food types.
Lack of External Validation
Unlike systems such as Michelin stars or competition judging, Thunder’s grading system does not involve third-party evaluators. This means the system functions best as an internal progression model rather than an objective culinary standard. While community reactions can inform rarity tier interpretation, they do not create formal consensus.
Scalability Concerns
The detailed level range (1–300) provides nuance but may become difficult to maintain consistently as Thunder produces more dishes over time. Subtle distinctions between, for example, a Lv210 cake and a Lv225 cake may rely on very fine sensory differences that are difficult to quantify or describe. As the catalogue of graded items grows, maintaining scale integrity requires continuous calibration.
Emotional Bias
Rarity tiers account for emotional impact, which is both a strength and a limitation. Strong emotional response—such as community enjoyment, nostalgia, or surprise—can elevate the rarity tier even when the technical execution is simple. Conversely, a technically impressive dish may feel less special and therefore earn a lower rarity tier. This interplay creates a system that rewards experience over objectivity.
Non-Standard Alignment with Culinary Industry Norms
Professional culinary systems generally focus on precision, consistency, hygiene, and technique. Thunder’s system includes creative and narrative elements that do not align with industry norms, making it unsuitable for restaurants or chefs seeking formal accreditation. This distinction, while intentional, limits the system’s adoption outside the Thunder’s Kitchen brand.
Variability Over Time
As Thunder’s skill level increases, earlier graded items may become outdated when compared to later standards. A cake once considered Legendary might be reevaluated as Rare or Elite once Thunder’s technique improves dramatically. This creates natural drift within the scoring system, requiring occasional reclassification to maintain internal consistency.
