Maybe they meant the proper Cooking mechanic? I mean we could cook but it was super limited and we heard that Food plays a much bigger role later on, so that could've been what they were referring to on Discord.
Oh yeah, there are several tiers of foodstuffs, depending on the biome in which they're found. Bonuses grow accordingly.
There are lots of secrets buried under the ground, but cave systems à la Minecraft / Terraria aren't one. At least not in the existing biomes, and not in their existing shape. We recently increased the height of the map to be able to actually add more, bigger and cooler caves to a later biome we're working on.
I think it was a CM just replying to a comment in Discord at one point when I just happened to be on and saw it, so my guess is MANY didn't realize the Survival mechanic wasn't active in the Demo.
Not sure what comment this was specifically, but actually, Enshrouded has very light survival mechanics, and those were in the Demo already. We don't have a hunger meter or thirst or sleep... all the negative parts associated with the upkeep of a bunch of gauges. Food and rest give players various buffs, Valheim would be the closest game in terms of mechanics.
Very interesting, thank you for sharing!