Chef is one of the cheapest crafting skills. However, some of the popular guides out there do not make it so. This price hike could be simply due to their popularity: lots of people follow it and the ingredient prices go up.
After leveling two characters using these popular guides, I realised that I have lots of gathered ingredients that I make no use of. I decided to make my own crafting guide and use up ingredients that I have in my stash already.
What you need to know:
1. The level requirement for Chef recipes jump in steps of 25 levels. You can check them here.
2. Suppose you are Chef level 1. You need to cook 25 items with recipe level requirement of 1 in order to get to level 25 [i.e. get access to level 25 recipes]. Of course, criticals can reduce this number by a few. Then, cooking 25 items with level 25 recipe will get you to level 50, and so on.
3. The outcome of some recipes may be used as ingredients in other recipes of the same level or higher. For example Bottle of Simple Dressing is used in 11 recipes that range from level 25 to level 375. We can use this fact to reduce ingredient cost by reusing what we have already crafted.
How to create your own guide:
1. Start at level 375 recipes so that you can level from 375 to 400 using it. Decide which one you can make the cheapest based on the ingredients you have and the ingredient costs on Trading Post. In my sample guide below, I decided to make 25 Bowl of Peach Pie Filling to level from 375 to 400.
2. Then move to level 350 recipes. In the sample guide, I decided to make Raspberry Peach Bar because the ingredients used in making it allowed me to level from 75 to 100 and also from 325 to 350.
3. Next move to 325, followed by 300, 275, and so on.
This process is a bit time consuming compared to simply following one of the guides. However, if you are pressed for coins, then this way you can save yourself some.
Example Guide:
Ingredients:
From Master Chef (karma/coin):
Almond – 25
Bag of Flour – 75
Bag of Starch – 25
Bag of Sugar – 125
Basil Leaf – 50
Cheese Wedge – 25
Ginger Root – 25
Glass of Buttermilk – 25
Jar of Vinegar – 25
Jar of Vegetable Oil – 50
Jug of Water – 25
Riceball – 25
Tomato – 25
From merchant:
Recipe: Griffon Egg Omelet
From renown heart vendor (karma):
Cherry – 50
Peach – 100
Pear – 25
Pinenut – 25
Recipe: Trail Mix
From Trading Post (coin) or gather:
Blueberry – 25
Bowl of Baker’s Dry Ingredients – 25
Egg – 75
Green Onion – 25
Head of Garlic – 25
Onion – 25
Oregano Leaf – 25
Parsley Leaf – 25
Pile of Salt and Pepper – 25
Raspberry – 25
Stick of Butter – 125
Thyme Leaf – 25
Vanilla Bean – 25
Walnut – 25
Zucchini – 25
Chef level
1-25: 25 Ball of Dough (used later)
25-50: 25 Bottle of Simple Dressing (used later)
50-75: 25 Ball of Cookie Dough (used later)
75-100: 25 Bowl of Baker’s Wet Ingredients (used later)
100-125: 25 Pile of Ascalonian Herb (used later)
125-150: 25 Bottle of Ascalonian Dressing
150-175: 25 Stuffed Zucchini (Discover from: Rice Ball, Tomato, Onion, Zucchini)
175-200: 25 Handful of Trail Mix
200-225: 25 Bowl of Cherry Pie Filling
225-250: 25 Griffon Egg Omelet
250-275: 25 Ginger Pear Tart
275-300: 25 Bowl of Pesto
300-325: 25 Peach Cookie
325-350: 25 Raspberry Peach Compote (used later)
350-375: 25 Raspberry Peach Bar
375-400: 25 Bowl of Peach Pie Filling
Credit:
I used the following guides as aid:
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/crafting/Skye-Marin-s-Cooking-Guide-Oct-22
http://www.gw2wiz.com/index.php/cg1400menu/chef1400
http://www.guildwars2hub.com/guides/basics/guild-wars-2-chefcooking-leveling-guide-0-400
Happy cooking.