Cooking, like the other professions in the World of Warcraft, runs from skill 1 to 375 and you level it up by (drumroll please) cooking stuff! Well duh... :) So here are the cooking ranks, just like the other skills:

1. Level 1 to 75 is apprentice
   
2. 76 - 150 is journeyman
   
3. 151 to 225 is expert
   
4. 225 to 300 is artisan and
   
5. 300+ is Master
   

To get your skills above 150 you're going to have to do a little reading (homework!) Wait! Before you run off, it's pretty easy. Buy the Expert Cookbook from the vendor or the Auction House and read it.

You can find the expert cookbook at Shadowprey Village in Desolace (for the Horde) or at Silverwind Refuge in Ashenvale (for the Alliance.) it runs about a gold in price, maybe 2-3 gold off the Auction house.

Before you can get Artisan Cooking you'll need to bring your cooking skill to 225, so get to work.

Cooking 225+ requires the Artisan Cooking Quest: Head over to Gadgetzan (Horde and Alliance) for this quest. You'll need to speak to one Dirge Quickcleave at the inn, and the objective is Clamlette Surprise.

To finish it you'll need: 12 Giant Eggs, 10 Zesty Clam meat, and 20 Alterac Swiss. The Alterac Swiss is the easiest to get as it's buyable off a vendor named Ben Trias in the trade district of Stormwind City, Horde can buy it off the Thunderbluff inkeeper.

The second and third ingredients are gathered by killing Owlbeasts in the Hinterlands and Turtles in Tanaris, for the eggs and Clam Meat respectively.

If you don't want to bother hunting owlbeasts and turtles you should be able to buy all the ingredients off the auction house for a few gold.

For the truly dedicated, Master Cooking is available. Get yourself to Hellfire Peninsula and bring some cash to buy the Master Cookbook (only about 2g..)

visit Baxter, at the inn at Thrallmar, if you're horde. If you're Alliance you'll want to see Gaston in the kitchen of the Honor Hold inn. Either faction can also get the book from Naka at the Cenarian Refuge.

You'll probably want to pick up the fishing skill to compliment your cooking skill. It's a great source of material to buy up your cooking, plus it's a nice little money maker by itself.

Another important skill, though not necessary, is making campfires. Get yourself a flint and steel and some firewoord and you can cook anywhere. Otherwise most (not all) towns will have a fire pit or cooking table (in the inn) for you to use.

Ok, here's what you'll do to get your skill up. (You can find a list of trainer locations here.)

Beginnning characters can level their cooking skills as they go and fishing is a big help there. You catch fish and cook them up with the recipes you get from the trainer. Easy as can be.

Here's one route to follow to get your skill up. Recipes that are marked with an asterisk '*' appear in the MMO cookbook, allowing you to make them in-game and in the real world.

if you are higher level, and have the cash, you'll be able to find most of the ingredients listed below on the Auction House.

Alliance side (the Horde Guide is below:)

1. 1-40: Cook up the starter recipe, Spice Bread*. Get the flour and mild spices from the vendor and cook till your skill hits 40.
   


2. Get the boiled clams recipe and the crab cake* recipe from a trainer, head to Darkshore, and kill all the crawlers (or any sort) along the beach. Collect the clams and the crawler meat. Cook 'em up and get your skill to 75. You'll need to buy Journeyman cooking when you get the chance, before you hit skill 75.
   
   Alternatively, you can go fishing and catch a bunch of rainbow fin albacore and cook those.
   


3. Cook the crab meat till you hit 125. Then find a trainer and get the Goblin Deviled Clams* recipe, head to the Wetlands, and kill a ton of Bluegills. They'll drop the clams with the tangy clam meat. You'll want about a hundred pieces of the clam meat. Then cook till you hit 200.
   


4. Buy, beg, or steal the recipe Spider Sausage and head off to Dustwallow Marsh where you'll kill Darkmist Spiders (by a cave to the NW) and collect the white spider meat. Cook that till you hit 225. Then do the Artisan Cooking quests.
   


5. Once you're done with the Artisan quests, for 225 - 285 or so you'll be cooking eggs, specifically the Monster Omelet (1 x Giant Egg, 2 x Soothing Spices.) This might require a lot of eggs...
   


6. from 285 - 300 go for the Smoked Desert Dumplings (1 x Sandworm Meat, 1 x Soothing Spices) x 20. You get the recipe from a quest and a skill of 285 is required to get it.
   Note: You'll need to buy the master cooking book off of Father Malgor Devidicus located within Honor Hold/Hellfire Penninsula before you can go past 300 cooking skill.
   


7. 300 - 325 Ravager Dog* (1 x Ravager Flesh).
   


8. 325 - 350 Recipe: Roasted Clefthoof* (1 x Clefthoof Meat) x 35-40
   


9. 350 - 375 Recipe: Spicy Crawdad (1 x Furious Crawdad) x 30-40
   

Some people, for whatever reason, don't want to bother with cooking, but they like eating meals that buff Stam or other stats, or that turn them into pirates (Savory Deviate Delight.*)

They're quite willing to shell out gold for these items, too. Do a little Auction House research for finished recipes (and even raw materials,) especially at higher level, and you may be able to put your skills to another good (cash generating) use.

In addition to tips for making gold from fishing and cooking, Valkor's Gold guide has hundreds of other tips to rake in the WoW gold.

Bats, Spiders, and Bears, oh my! If you're Horde (and why wouldn't you be?) here's one route to take to become the master chef:

1. from 1 - 40 make the spice bread* recipe that you get from the trainer, same as for Alliance. Spice Bread (1 x Simple Flour, 1 x Mild Spices) x 50
   


2. 40 - 75, you'll be cooking up those bears, but they wanted to eat you anyway, so it's ok: Smoked Bear Meat (1x Bear Meat) x 60
   


3. Rat burgers! From 90 - 125.. oh wait, it's Dig Rat Stew*, not burgers. (1 x Dig Rat) x 40
   


4. 125 - 175 you're going to be lion hunting. You'll want the meat for your Hot Lion Chops (1 x Lion Meat, 1 x Hot Spices) x 60
   


5. 175 - 200 is Roast Raptor* (1 x Raptor flesh, 1 x Hot Spices) x 30
   


6. for 200 - 225 you'll be cooking up some yummy Spider Sausage (2 x White Spider Meat) x 30
   


7. For 225 - 285, just like the Allies, it's the Monster Omelet (1 x Giant Egg, 2 x Soothing Spices) x 80. Since Giant Eggs are hard to find and since recipe will go green long before 285, you might want to go for Filet of Redgill and/or Undermine Clam Chowder*. Ingredients for both of these are a lot easier to find than the Giant Eggs for the Monster Omelet.


8. 250-285: Break out your fishing rod and catch a mess of Nightfin and Sunscale Salmon. You're going to make Nightfin soup and/or Poached Sunscale Salmon. These two go yellow at 275 so will be good to take you up to the next item.
   


9. From 285 - 300 cook up some Smoked Desert Dumplings (1 x Sandworm Meat, 1 x Soothing Spices) x 20. To get this recipe:
   1. Go see Calandrath in Cenarion Hold (51, 39) in Silithus
   2. Accept quest: Desert Recipe. Note: You must already have cooking 285 and be level 54+ to get this quest.
   3. Go to 37, 45 (which is west of Cenarion Hold) and right click on open book that is on crate to complete the Desert Recipe quest.
   4. Accept "Sharing the Knowledge" quest and return to Calandrath to complete the quest and have the recipe: Smoked Desert Dumplings put in your recipe book.
   Depending on how lucky you are you might have to kill a lot of beasties to get enough meat to level your skill.
You'll kill tons of Dredge Strikers and Dredge crushers, or the sandworms North East of Cenarian Hold.


10. Next is the famous Ravager Dog* to get your skill from 300 to 325+. (1 x Ravager Flesh)
    • Get the master cooking book from Baxter, at the Thrallmar Inn, in Hellfire Penninsula to open up your 300+ cooking skill.
    • Buy the Ravager dog recipe* at Thrallmar, from Cookie One eye.
    This is a nice recipe for three reasons: 1) +40 to attack power and +20 to Spirit, 2) you don't need anything other than the meat and a fire, and 3) There are lots of Ravagers to the west, they have a high drop rate for Ravager Meat, and they're easy enough to kill.
    


11. 325 - 350 Get the recipe: Roasted Clefthoof* (1 x Clefthoof Meat) x 35-40. This one boosts Str & Spirit. Like the Ravager Dog it just needs the meat. You can get the recipe in Nagrand: Horde can pick it up from Nula the Butcher in Garadar, Alliance can get it from CrestUriku in Telaar. Get the meat from all the various clefthoof beasts in the area (around a 25% drop) and from Banthar's (lower drop rate.)


12. 350 - 375 go for the Spicy Crawdad (1 x Furious Crawdad) x 30-40. Alliance can pick up the recipe from Innkeeper Baribi at the Allerian Hold Inn. She sells both [Recipe: Golden Fish Sticks] and [Recipe: Spicy Crawdad] in unlimited quantities. Each sells for 3G. Horde can find the same recipes from Rungor in Stonebreaker hold. As for the furious crawdads you can either buy them off the auction house or fish for them from the highland mixed pools found in the lakes of Terrokar Forest, at night. The catch? Most of these lakes are only accessible if you can fly. Thottbot has lots of details, in the comments, on how to catch these crawdads.

Congratulations on your 375 cooking skill!

* Do you want to make these recipes in real life? See the next section:

* Many of the recipes found in the World of Warcraft are also found in the Original MMO & WoW Cookbook! Dozens of in-game recipes are brought into the real world!

Delight your real life guildies with a real world meal of Goblin Deviled Clams, Runn Tum Tuber Surprise, and Savory Deviate Delight.

Finish them off with Gooey Spider Cake for dessert!

You're not limited to just these recipes: the MMO Cookbook has over 60 recipes covering desserts, appetizers, soups, breads, and main courses.

You can get your own copy of the MMO Cookbook, and start feeding real WoW food to your real life family and friends, right here.