Why Cooking?
After all, you can buy various foods from the vendors all over Azeroth and Northrend. The foods will heal you up by some amount over 30 seconds or so. Since they’re so readily available why bother with cooking?
For the buffs and the gold. While some foods only heal you (or restore mana) there are many others that will buff your stamina and other stats. At the lowest level you can get something like Herb Baked Egg, which buffs 2 stam and spirit for 15 minutes. At the highest level you can create feats which will heal, restore mana, and buff your entire party for with 90 Stam and 90 in their best stat.
Some recipes are selling for very high prices. Grab them from a vendor and check prices on the AH. You may be shocked. Buying and reselling recipes is a great way for lower level characters to make some pretty good gold.
Foods that provide buffs, or the raw ingredients to certain foods, also command high prices. Clam meat, for example, is way up there at times. Check prices for the ingredients, check WoWhead.com for what drops that ingredient, then go farming.
There is no level requirement for cooking. Go ahead and level your level 1 character to 450, if you like. While there is no level requirement for higher level recipes you will still need to get those recipes via the daily quests. Like any other skill you will still need to train up at the appropriate skill levels.
- 1-75, Apprentice Cook, Requires level 1, Train up at 50+
- 76-150, Journeyman Cook, Requires level 1, Train up at 125+
- 151-225, Expert Cook, Requires level 1, Train up at 220+
- 226-300, Artisan Cook, Requires level 1, Train up at 275+
- 301-375, Master Cook, Requires level 1, Train up at 350+
- 376-450, GrandMaster Cook, Requires level 1, Train up at 425+
- 451-525, Illustrious GrandMaster Cook, Requires level 1, but…, Train up at 425+
Like the other professions there used to be various quests to obtain certain recipes. Pretty much all of these have been removed from the game. Your trainer has enough recipes to get you going, but there are many more from other vendors and from the daily quests.
Note that you will need to do some of the Daily Cooking Quests in Dalaran when you are in the 400 range. At 450+ all of the recipes are obtained through the Cataclysm daily cooking quests. These are provided by the quest giver in Stormwind or Orgrimmar. Hand the awards in to the Sous Chef next to the quest giver to get your recipes.
Sneaky tip: If it’s the right time of year and you do the Pilgrim’s Bounty quests then you can easily and cheaply level your cooking to 430 or so , skip almost everything else below, and head straight to Dalaran for the cooking quests. Of course, this will leave you with a LOT of leftover Turkey and fixins… 
| Skill | Item to be created | Requirements to make one item |
| 1-40: | Spice Bread | Simple Flour Mild Spices |
| 40-70: | Spiced Wolf Meat | Stringy Wolf Meat |
| 40-80: | Smoked Bear Meat | Bear Meat |
| 80-130: | Either of the Following Recipes: | |
| Boiled Clams | Clam Meat Refreshing Spring Water |
|
| Crab Cake | Crawler Meat | |
| 130-175: | Curiously Tasty Omelet | Raptor Egg |
| 175-225: | Roast Raptor | Raptor Flesh |
| 225-250: | Monster Omelet | Giant Egg |
| 250-285: | Either of the Following Recipes | |
| Juicy Bear Burger | Bear Flank | |
| Clamlette Magnifique | Zesty Clam Meat | |
| 285-300: | Smoked Desert Dumplings | Sandworm Meat |
| 300-325: | Either of the Following Recipes | |
| Ravager Dog | Ravage Flesh | |
| Buzzard Bites | Buzzard Meat | |
| 325-350: | Any of the Following Recipes | |
| Talbuk Steak | Talbuk Venison | |
| Roasted Clefthoof | Clefthoof Meat | |
| Warp Burger | Warped Flesh | |
| 350-400: | Any of the Following Recipes | |
| Rhino Dogs | Rhino Meat | |
| Shoveltusk Steak | Shoveltusk Flank | |
| Kungaloosh | 2x Tundra Berries Savory Snowplum |
|
| Note: The recipe for Kungaloosh is obtained at the end of a quest chain. | ||
| 400-415: | Either of the Following Recipes | |
| Rhino Dogs | Rhino Meat | |
| Shoveltusk Steak | Shoveltusk Flank | |
| 400-450: | Critter Bites | 2x Chilled Meat Northern Spices |
| Note: This Recipe is obtained through daily cooking quests | ||
| 415-435: | Darkbrew Lager | 2x Skin of Dwarven Stout Jug of Bouron |
| 425-450: | Blackened Surprise | Toughened Flesh |
| 450-525: |
Beyond this point every recipe is purchased using Chef’s Awards from earned from the daily cooking quests provided by the quest giver in Stormwind or Orgrimmar. Hand the awards in to the Sous Chef next to the quest giver. |
|
| 450-475: | Any of the Following Recipes | |
| Lavascale Fillet | Lavascale Catfish | |
| Whitecrest Gumbo | Blood Shrimp | |
| Lightly Fried Lurker | Striped Lurker | |
| Lurker Lunch | Striped Lurker | |
| Seasoned Crab | Monstrous Claw | |
| Salted Eye | Snake Eye | |
| 475-500: | Either of the Following Recipes | |
| Hearty Seafood Soup | Blood Shrimp | |
| Pickled Guppy | Highland Guppy | |
| 500-525: | Any of the Following Recipes | |
| Baked Rockfish | Algaefin Rockfish | |
| Blackbelly Sushi | Blackbelly Mudfish | |
| Mushroom Sauce Mudfish | Blackbelly Mudfish | |
| Grilled Dragon | Dragon Flank | |
| Skewered Eel | Fathom Eel | |
| Lavascale Minestrone | Lavascale Catfish | |
| Delicious Sagefish | Tail Deepsea Sagefish | |
| Severed Sagefish Head | Deepsea Sagefish | |
| Basilisk Liverdog | Basilisk “Liver” | |
| Beer-Basted Crocolisk | Crocolisk Tail | |
| Crocolisk Au Gratin | Crocolisk Tail | |
Congratulations on your 525 Engineering skill!
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