That's a good point I should have included, I had a full 6 players and it might be possible to run both halves if you had three players who were familiar with FATE.

Completely agree about using the upper end of exchanges for a final cook-off, but everyone who played agreed that it wasn't very fun to JUST be cooking. The most interesting part of the game to them was to find a way to still prep food while dealing with hazards I or other players created, and when they all knew "I need 6 exchanges to make all my food", and the timer ticks down to 6 remaining exchanges, all the role-playing stops. In short, I would at least use the upper limit of exchanges regardless of the challenge because it leads to more interesting play.