Hey! Thanks for the question! My main inspirations are actually cooking manga like "What Did You Eat Yesterday?" (which this game pays homage to in the name) and "Sweetness and Lightning", and also from my own experiences since I'm the primary cook at home and I'm always thinking and planning what to cook throughout a week, chatting with my wife about her day and adjusting and shifting planned menus around based on how we're both feeling or what needs to get used up soon.
Masak-masak is definitely a part of Malaysian culture, and it's usually a lot more freeform, though my nephews do love looking through cookbooks and pretending to make the meals in them and following some sort of menu since the cookbooks are structured this way (mains, snacks, desserts, drinks etc). It's not dissimilar to "playing house" or just pretending to cook or clean or drive since that's what kids see adults doing :)