Ascended cooking is here! With the max cooking level raised to 500, you can now prepare feasts of special ascended foods for you and your friends — but this isn’t as easy as grinding at the cooking station alone. You’ll need guidance from the infamous Sous-Chef Seimur Oxbone, who will send you on a journey to master the culinary arts.
Unlocking the Collection
First, you must reach cooking level 425. This triggers a mail from Seimur in which he wants to see if the rumours about a new rising chef is true. Make him a Chef’s Tasting Platter (the recipe is unlocked automatically) and show him what you got.
Make the Chef’s Tasting Platter at the cooking station using the following discoverable foods:
- Bowl of Curry Butternut Squash Soup
- Bowl of Truffle Risotto
- Plate of Steak and Asparagus Dinner
- Omnomberry Bar
He’ll be waiting for you in your home instance and can easily be found by looking for the collection icon on your minimap. Next to him will be your brand new cooking station.
Once you’ve given him the Chef’s Tasting Platter, the Gourmet Training collection will be unlocked. Your mission now is to complete five cooking questlines — one for each race. These can be done in any order, but we recommend the following due to timegates and certain requirements:
Norn — Charr — Asura — Human — Sylvari
Finishing each questline awards 10 cooking levels, so there’s no need to level up beyond 450.
A note on using boosters: To level crafting faster, you can use an item booster or a heroic booster. On top of this, you may use a crafting booster. For a free crafting boost, speak to Nathan the Bartender in your Guild Hall.
Norn
First speak to Master Chef Reimar near the Trade Commons Waypoint in Hoelbrak to learn about the heartiest of meals, the norn specialty dishes.
Cook for her the following:
An important note: You cannot buy any of the foods the master chefs ask you for in advance. You must cook them while the correct chef watches.
Reimar is pretty impressed with you, but she lets you in on a little secret: these public cooking stations aren’t the best quality. Seek the help of Einar Blackforge near Shelter Rock Waypoint so that he can make better cookware for you.
He’ll need:
Einar will ask you to come back tomorrow (that’s 2 hours for you and me) and he’ll have made you the ‘finest cookware your eyes have ever gazed on.’ A new buff called ‘Waiting for Einar’ will let you know how much time you have left when you hover over it.
Charr
Speak to Master Chef Gurges Burnpaw near Factorium Waypoint to learn about the meatiest and spiciest of meals, the charr specialty dishes.
Cook for her the following:
Gurges finds your spices balanced, but thinks the quality of your meat is terrible. You’ll need to speak to Vaastas Meatslayer in the Village of Butcher’s Block to learn a better meat cutting technique.
Before he can demonstrate the proper technique, he’ll need to wait for a shipment of cows from the nearby Bovarin Estate. This is an escort event that starts southeast of his location.
Once the cows reach him, there will be some event dialogue and finally Vaastas will walk over to each cow and slaughter them. Make sure you’re nearby to observe.
Practice the new cutting technique by killing creatures that drop slabs of red meat and slabs of poultry meat. For the red meat collection item, you’ll in fact need to wait for the random drop a ‘cut of quality red meat’ to show that you truly know your stuff.
You could go to the fields outside Beetletun in Queensdale where cows and moas can be found easily.
Once you have both meats, visit Vaastas again to finish the charr questline. He’ll give you a few more quality cuts of red meat. Keep them, as they’ll be useful in the asura questline.
Asura
Speak to Master Chef Prazz near the Accountancy Waypoint to learn about the sweet asuran speciality dishes.
Cook for him the following:
Prazz will be so impressed that he thinks you’re ready to leave common kitchens behind and ascend to the next level of cooking. You’ll be asked to seek Gastronome Plikk near the Auxiliary Waypoint who’ll sell you the the ‘Plikk’s Immersion Circulation System’ for 5 gold.
Test it out by cooking a Filet of Sous-Vide Meat. The recipe is unlocked automatically, but you’ll need to have a cooking level of 450 to make it.
Once you’ve done that, return to Plikkand she’ll be impressed enough to let you buy two more of her inventions: Plikk’s Fluid Gas Infuser and Plikk’s Food Form Manipulator. Again, each costs 5 gold.
Fun fact: If you visit your home instance, you’ll find each of the three asuran inventions at your new cooking station.
Human
Speak to Master Chef Sage near the Commons Waypoint to improve your baking techniques while studying human specialty dishes. At the end of his dialogue, you’ll need to buy the new recipe for Flatbread.
Cook for him the following:
Sage will find some inconsistencies in the dough and send you to Luron the Baker, found in Dwayna Low Road, to make you a better oven. Luron will ask you for three Heat Stones — which can only be crafted once a day. If you don’t want to wait, you can buy them off the trading post.
And if you want to take your time with this, feel free to skip ahead to the Sylvari questline for now.
When you try to give the heat stones to Luron, he’ll tell you that they’re not hot enough and ask you to take them to a pool in Mount Maelstrom to increase their potency. You’ll find the pool of ‘Boiling-Hot Magma’ northeast of Magmatic Waypoint. Dip the Heat Stones in and return to Luron.
Next, Luron will ask for 10 Bloodstone Bricks. Yes, friends — there is indeed a culinary application for bloodstone dust. Once you’ve delivered the bricks, go to your home instance and install your brand new bloodstone oven. You might want to keep an eye on poor Seimur there.
Sylvari
Speak to Master Chef Bhia near Reckoner’s Waypoint to complete your studies with the sylvari specialty dishes.
Cook for her the following:
Bhia comments that your dishes are underseasoned. She suggests you visit the gardener who supplies her with fresh spices. Go find Mender Earie north of Gardenroot Tunnel. After speaking to him, he will teach you how to harvest Varietal Seeds.
Having observed him, go out to Tyria and harvest herb nodes until you find some Varietal Seeds of your own. I found mine at Arkjok Farmlands in the Domain of Kourna. Once you have your seeds, return to Earie.
Once you’ve shown him your seeds, he’ll teach you how to make a Portable Composter which can decompose food for you. When you decompose (ie. salvage) food, you will yield Extracts of Nourishment which is a component of ascended cooking.
Return to Earie with the Portable Composter to finish the sylvari questline. He’ll be kind enough to set you up with a garden plot for your home instance and some seeds.
Back to Norn
By now, Einar should be done with your new cookware. Return to him at Shelter Rock and finish the collection.
Congratulations on completing your Gourmet Training!
Special thanks to Jalinar from Chronicles of Tyria for compiling the research for this guide.
Virtually Interrupted 