The latest recipe for video-game fun: cooking. A smorgasbord of cuisine-based games are just hitting stores. They let you slice and dice like a pro, with no cleanup afterward, and include celebrity chefs as well as the latest in a line of popular "Cooking Mama" games.

Cooking games, which range from those that have you chop against the clock to others that show you how to prepare specific recipes, have seen sales rise from about $5 million in 2006, when Majesco served up the first "Cooking Mama," to $40 million last year, says Jeremy Miller of DFC Intelligence.

Celebrity chef Jamie Oliver (of Food Network's "Jamie at Home") admits he's not much of a gamer. Still, he liked the idea of creating "What's Cooking? With Jamie Oliver" (Nintendo DS) when Atari approached him.

The game is "basically about being fast. That relates to the reality of cooking, so that is not a bad thing," Oliver says. "But you also can put (the DS) in your pocket and have your own shopping list. It's like publishing a book digitally."

Other recent additions:

Iron Chef America: Supreme Cuisine (Destineer; for Nintendo Wii, Nintendo DS): You can challenge Mario Batali, Cat Cora and other Iron Chefs in Kitchen Stadium.

Personal Trainer Cooking (Nintendo, Nintendo DS): Not really a game, but a cooking coach with 240-plus dishes from around the world. Also creates a shopping list.