For those saying we need to take out eating in combat, please also contact WotC to eliminate part of the chef feat in UA. Apparently someone in WotC thought it was a good idea to eat food and gain Temp hit points as a bonus action. (granted you spend a short rest cooking and you can only make so many according to your proficiency) The chef also allows you to cook to gain additional 1d8 during a short rest.
Chef (UA)
Time and effort spent mastering the culinary arts has paid off. You gain the following benefits:
Increase your Constitution or Wisdom score by 1, to a maximum of 20.
You gain proficiency with cook’s utensils if you don’t already have it.
As part of a short rest, you can cook special food, provided you have ingredients and cook’s utensils on hand. You can prepare enough of this food for a number of creatures equal to 4 + your proficiency bonus. At the end of the short rest, any creature who eats the food and spends one or more Hit Dice to regain hit points regains an extra 1d8 hit points.
With one hour of work or when you finish a long rest, you can cook a number of treats equal to your proficiency bonus. These special treats last 8 hours after being made. A creature can use a bonus action to eat one of those treats to gain temporary hit points equal to your proficiency bonus.
A way it COULD work was to make a limit on the amount of temp hit points gained per food and make it unstackable which means that 7 hp you gained, cannot be gained again until its all lost. I still dont recommend it.
So, you can eat food in combat. Does it make the game easier, absolutely. Does it break your immersion? Sure it might, so does the Witcher and almost every other rpg. Does 5e have it? YES check UA under chef feat
