Below is an overview video and detailed walk-through on how to easily level Cooking 1-525 in WoW. I'll be showing the easiest ways for players to level Cooking 1-525 and providing many options for smooth leveling as well as locations for farming materials and training. Please enjoy this Cooking leveling 1-525 guide and if you have any questions or feedback, feel free to post them on our forums.

• WoW Cooking Guide 1-525 Leveling: Updated for Patch 4.0.3a - Cataclysm
• Overview: Easiest and most profitable ways to level Cooking 1-525 in World of Warcraft!
  Estimated Leveling 1-525 time: 3.5 hours.
  Estimated Cost (without farming): 1,800g~2,200g
• Check out Fishing 1-525 Leveling Guide for a great profession to go with Cooking. Leveling both Fishing and Cooking at the same time can save you a lot of money and essentially make it free.

• Cooking Guide 1-525 Leveling Quick Sections

  Cooking 1-50 - Apprentice Cooking
  Cooking 50-125 - Journeyman Cooking
  Cooking 125-225 - Expert Cooking
  Cooking 225-300 - Artisan Cooking
  Cooking 300-350 - Master Cooking
  Cooking 350-450 - Grand Master Cooking
  Cooking 450-525 - Illustrious GM Cooking

WoW Cooking Guide 1-525 Leveling: Starting Out

• First, talk with any guard in a major city to find a Cooking trainer.
• Then head to the trainer and learn Apprentice Cooking and the available recipes. Leveling Cooking is extremely easy but on most servers you won't be able to simply power level it from the Auction House. In this video I will show a combination of power leveling the profession from the Auction House as well as farming overpriced meat.
• Cooking Trainers:
  Zamja - Orgrimmar
  Arnold Leland - Undercity
  Aska Mistrunner - Thunderbluff
  Daryl Riknussun - Ironforge
  Stephen Ryback - Stormwind
  Alegorn - Darnassus
  Awilo Lon'gomba - Dalaran (Horde)
  Katherine Lee - Dalaran (Alliance)

WoW Cooking Guide 1-525 Leveling | Cooking Guide 1-50 - Apprentice Cooking

• The first 40 levels of Cooking are pretty much freebies.
• Just buy enough [Simple Flour] and [Mild Spice] to make [Spice Bread] until it greys out at 40.
• From Cooking skill level 40 it gets a bit trickier and can be quite expensive buying mats from the Auction House. It's a good idea to open your Cooking recipe book and search for meat that will help you skill up. If anything is cheap buy it and use it to skill up. I bought some overpriced [Small Egg] to make [Gingerbread Cookie] and [Egg Nog]. Even though they're overpriced, it's Christmas and I can sell them for a bit more than the mats. Since it won't be Christmas forever, below is some alternatives.

  Cooking Levels: 40-50 [Spiced Wold Meat] - Drops from level 5~12 wolves the most: Mulgore, Dun Morogh, Silverpine Forest, Elwynn Forest. (green at 70)

• After reaching Cooking skill level 50, head back to the trainer and learn Journeyman Cooking and any other available recipes.

WoW Cooking Guide 1-525 Leveling | Cooking Guide 50-150 - Journeyman Cooking

• At 50 head back to the Auction House and check prices once again.
• The goal is to minimize farming time by buying cheap mats to level with. Once again though the Auction House is loaded with overpriced meat. For any of you lowbies out there, this can be a great way to make some gold by forcing us 80s to buy your insanely overpriced meat and fish.
• Since I don't want to waste so much gold leveling Cooking, I'm going to head out of time and farm up the mats I need. The best place to farm for mats that are needed in skilling up from 50-130 are on the west coast of Ashenvale at the Zoram Strand. Before heading there you want to make sure to pick up a [Recipe: Cooked Crab Claw] and of learned all available recipes. Alliance can buy [Recipe: Cooked Crab Claw] from Kendor Kabonka. Make sure to buy all available recipes as well. This is an Alliance only recipe but Horde can usually find it on the Auction House.
• What's cool about Zoram Strand is simply by killing one mob you will get mats for the three different recipes above that will skill you up to, or even beyond 130. It should only take 15-20minutes to farm up all the mats you need.

  [Boiled Clams]
  [Crab Cake]
  [Cooked Crab Claw]

WoW Cooking Guide 1-525 Leveling | Cooking Guide 150-225 - Expert Cooking

• Once you hit 130 or higher, head back to the trainer and learn Expert Cooking as well as any available recipes.
• While you're in town, check the Auction House and see if you can buy any meat for cheap to level up with. If you can't, head straight to Arathi Highlands.
• After reaching Arathi Highlands, Horde can buy their recipes from Keena inside the Inn at Hammerfall and Alliance can grab a [Recipe: Roast Raptor] from Hammon Karwn in Refuge Point.
• Once you grab the recipes head out of town and kill all the Raptors around. They will drop Raptor Eggs and Raptor Flesh. Both of these will be used to level up to 225 atleast. At 225 pick up as many extra mats as you want and head back to a Cooking trainer and learn Artisan Cooking as well as any available recipes.

WoW Cooking Guide 1-525 Leveling | Cooking Guide 225-300 - Artisan Cooking

• From 225 to 250 you can either continue making [Roast Raptor] or learn something else like the [Monster Omelet] which requires [Giant Egg] and make that instead.
• After you get to 250 or more, or are at 225 and have atleast 25 x [Giant Egg], head over to Felwood and purchase either [Recipe: Juicy Bear Burger] or [Recipe: Charred Bear Kabobs] and [Recipe: Monster Omelet]. Horde can buy them from Bale on the mid-West side of Felwood and Alliance can buy them from Malygen in the North East.
• Once you've got the recipes, kill any bear within Felwood and they'll drop [Bear Flank]. You'll need atleast 25 to make it to the next step but I suggest getting as many as you can because the next part can be a little more time consuming to get mats.



• After you get to 275 or even 295, if you kept making the bear recipe until it greyed, hearth or get a port to Dalaran and train Master Cooking. Next, you'll need to cook some fish or do a quest for the only available meat recipe to get to 300.
• I suggest taking the fish route. [Recipe: Baked Salmon], [Recipe: Lobster Stew], and [Recipe: Mightfish Steak] can be bought in Feralas from Sheendra Tallgrass in Camp Mojachee for Horde or Feathermoon Stronghold from Vivianna for Alliance.



• You can search your Auction House beforehand for the raw fish. If you have around 200 fishing and a +75 lure, it shouldn't take long to fish in Azshara and get what you need to get to 300 if you can't find any raw fish on the Auction House.

WoW Cooking Guide 1-525 Leveling | Cooking Guide 300-350 - Master Cooking

• After hitting 300 or more you'll need to get some recipes from the Outlands to continue.
• Before heading there I suggest you check the Auction House and see what meat you can buy to save time with finding recipes all over Outlands. I was lucky enough to find some Barbed Gill Trout on the Auction House for cheap. These fish are great because they can be used in two recipes that will get you to 350.
• If you can't find any mats, you can always farm them. Ravager Dogs are very easy to make and can mostly be farmed in the South-West of Hellfire as pictured below. This will help you to get 300-325 skill levels.
Recipe: Ravager Dog



• Same as with the above, if you can't find any mats, you can always farm them. You can kill Talbuks and Clefthoofs all over Nagrand to make two different recipes. This will help you level 325-350.

Recipe: Talbuk Steak
Recipe: Roasted Clefthoof



• Once you get 350 or more in Cooking, head back to Dalaran and learn to be a Grand Master Cooking as well as any available recipes. This is where the leveling becomes insanely easy. Pretty much anything you make from here will be cheap as hell and plentiful when compared to the low level meats. You will also be able to sell what you make and possibly turn a decent profit. Check out my Northrend Cooking Gold Guide for tips on that.

WoW Cooking Guide 1-525 Leveling | Cooking Guide 350-450 - Grand Master Cooking

• Alright, so the easiest way to continue leveling Cooking from 350 is by heading to the Auction House and searching for each different fish or meat to level up with and see which is the cheapest and will sell the easiest.
• Basically, stay away from the ones that don't provide a buff like Smoked Rockfin and such. Even though they turn green around 382 you'll need to keep making whatever you choose until atleast 400.
• At 400 you have to buy a Cooking recipe from the vendor to level up to 450. Each of these recipes cost 3 x [Dalaran Cooking Award]. You can get them from the Cooking daily. They are also awarded for turning in a [Waterlogged Recipe]. This can be found in the Fishing daily award bag or bought on the Auction House. Prices range from server to server but expect it to cost around 200g. Once you gather up 3 x [Dalaran Cooking Award], buy a recipe that will be useful to yourself and make a popular food buff. You can find the most popular recipes in my Cooking Gold Guide. To make the best buff foods you'll need [Northern Spice]. On my server they are about 1g a piece, so head to an Auction House and pick some up.

WoW Cooking Guide 1-525 Leveling | Cooking Guide 450-525 - Illustrious GM Cooking

• At 450 you have to buy Cooking recipes from the vendor in Orgrimmar or Stormwind to level up to 525 if you're looking to spend the least amount of time. If you already have a good stock of recipes from Wrath, you can level up a little bit using those if you find enough mats on the Auction House or don't mind farming them. If not, continue as normal with the Cataclysm recipes. Each of these recipes cost 3 x [Chef's Award]. You can get them from the Cooking daily found in Orgrimmar from Marogg for Horde or in Stormwind from Robby Flay for Alliance. Once you gather up 3 x [Chef's Award], buy a recipe from Shazdar for Horde or Bario Matalli for Alliance, that will be useful to yourself and make a popular food buff or if you wish to save some cash or powerlevel with materials from the Auction House, choose something that has enough to make something you select from below that is listed on the Auction House.
• 450-475: Make 30-36 of anything listed below.

  [Recipe: Lurker Lunch] / [Recipe: Lightly Fried Lurker] - 30-36 x [Striped Lurker] - Fish in Twilight Highlands or Mount Hyjal
  [Recipe: Lavascale Fillet] - 30-36 x [Lavascale Catfish] - Fish in Uldum or Deepholm
  [Recipe: Salted Eye] - 30-36 x [Snake Eye] - Kill Brinescale Serpent in Kelp'thar Forest (Vashj'ir).
  [Recipe: Whitecrest Gumbo] - 30-36 x [Blood Shrimp] Kill things in the Shimmering Expanse (Vashj'ir).
  [Recipe: Seasoned Crab] - 30-36 x [Monstrous Claw] - Kill crabs (pincers) in Kelp'thar Forest or Shimmering Expanse (Vashj'ir).

• 475-500: Make 30-36 of anything listed below.

  [Recipe: Tender Baked Turtle] - 30-36 x [Giant Turtle Tongue] - Kill Seabrush Terrapin in the Abyssal Depths (Vashj'ir).
  [Recipe: Pickled Guppy] - 30-36 x [Highland Guppy] - Fish in the rivers of Twilight Highlands.
  [Recipe: Hearty Seafood Soup] - 30-36 x [Blood Shrimp] - Kill things in the Shimmering Expanse (Vashj'ir).

• 500-525: Make 35-40 of anything listed below.

  [Recipe: Lavascale Minestrone] - 35-40 x [Lavascale Catfish] - Fish in Uldum or Deepholm.
  [Recipe: Skewered Eel] - 35-40 x [Fathom Eel] - Fish on the beaches of Uldum.
  [Recipe: Severed Sagefish Head] / [Recipe: Delicious Sagefish Tail] - 35-40 x [Deepsea Sagefish] - Fish on the beaches of Twilight Highlands or Uldum.
  [Recipe: Blackbelly Sushi] / [Recipe: Mushroom Sauce Mudfish] - 35-40 x [Blackbelly Mudfish] - Fish in the river of Uldum.
  [Recipe: Grilled Dragon] - 35-40 x [Dragon Flank] - Kill any Drake/Dragon in Deepholm or Twilight Highlands.
  [Recipe: Crocolisk Au Gratin] / [Recipe: Beer-Basted Crocolisk] - 35-40 x [Crocolisk Tail] - Kill any Croc in the rivers of Uldum.
  [Recipe: Basilisk Liverdog] - 35-40 x [Basilisk "Liver"] - Kill Basilisk in Deepholm.
  [Recipe: Baked Rockfish] - 35-40 x [Algaefin Rockfish] - Fish on the beaches of Twilight Highlands.

• Finally, finish up leveling to 525. That's pretty much it for leveling Cooking. What ever you don't plan to use, list on the Auction House and you'll get some of your money back.
• It's super fast to level Cooking 1-525 and if you have easy access to most of the mats, it should only take a few hours to max out.
• Congratulations WoW Gamer!! You now have 525 Cooking! Check out Northrend Cooking Gold Guide for a written and video guide detailing how to make gold with Cooking. Also, check out Fishing 1-525 Leveling Guide for a great profession to go with Cooking. Finally, you can check out the forums for more tips and tricks as well as ask questions about anything you wish to know.