If you take a look at the settler window, there's a tab for attributes. In there you can see their Metabolism and Hydration attributes. These indicate the amount of hunger and thirst drained each hour. Food and drink will mainly focus on buffing these values and make them positive. This means you'll refill the hunger and thirst values each hour. Foods differ by having higher refill values as well as longer durations. Some foods and drink provide other special bonuses if they're unique. For example, some drinks provide an energy boost too.
You should be able to see the buffs of the different foods and drinks from the blueprints window under production.
My next update will introduce a bunch more unique recipes for cooking and drink production. Look forward to it! :)