WoW Classic Cooking Leveling Guide (1-300)
What to craft at every Cooking skill level. Pairs with Fishing: half the recipes worth making are made of fish you caught.
7 steps take Cooking from 1 to 300. Ranks open at 75, 150 and 225, and each one needs a trainer visit before the next stretch; 15 trainers are listed below with coordinates checked against the 1.12 game data.
0 of 7 steps behind you.
Everything you need for Cooking 1–300
Classic Cooking trainer locations — Alliance and Horde
Showing the Apprentice rank
Go to a trainer who can take you to 75:
- Daryl RiknussunThe Great Forge, Ironforge
- Cook GhilmGol'Bolar Quarry, Dun Morogh
- Gremlock PilsnorKharanos, Dun Morogh
- Stephen RybackOld Town, Elwynn Forest
- TomasGoldshire, Elwynn Forest
- Crystal BoughmanLakeshire, Redridge Mountains
- AlegornCraftsmen's Terrace, Teldrassil
- ZarrinDolanaar, Teldrassil
Go to a trainer who can take you to 75:
- ZamjaValley of Spirits, Orgrimmar
- Eunice BurchThe Trade Quarter, Undercity
- Aska MistrunnerHigh Rise, Thunder Bluff
- SlaggHammerfall, Arathi Highlands
- Pyall SilentstrideBloodhoof Village, Mulgore
- MuddukGrom'gol Base Camp, Stranglethorn Vale
- DuhngThorn Hill, The Barrens
Cooking step by step, 1 to 300
- 1Learn the profession — ApprenticeDaryl Riknussun — The Great Forge, Ironforgeneeds character level 5
1 to 40: craft 1 × Charred Wolf Meat.
Trained, and the cheapest start there is: 1 x
Stringy Wolf Meat per cook. Wolves are everywhere in the low-level zones of both factions, so you will usually have a stack before you even train the skill.- 1×
Charred Wolf MeatOrange
Shopping list for 1–40
- 1×
40 to 75: craft 1 × Smoked Bear Meat.
1 x
Bear Meat. The recipe is sold rather than trained — Andrew Hilbert at the Sepulcher in Silverpine Forest for the Horde, Drac Roughcut at the Stoutlager Inn in Thelsamar, Loch Modan for the Alliance.If bears are inconvenient,
Boiled Clams at 50 works as a substitute and uses 
Clam Meat you pick up from clams along any coast.- 1×
Smoked Bear MeatNeeds 40
Shopping list for 40–75
- 1×
- 75Stop and train JourneymanDaryl Riknussun — The Great Forge, Ironforgeneeds character level 10
75 to 130: craft 1 × Crab Cake.
Trained, 1 x
Crawler Meat. Crabs line the shores of Westfall, Darkshore and the Barrens, and the meat is cheap on the auction house because almost nobody wants it.- 1×
Crab CakeNeeds 75
Shopping list for 75–130
- 1×
- 150Expert is not trained — buy Expert CookbookShandrina — Silverwind Refuge, Ashenvale
130 to 175: craft 1 × Curiously Tasty Omelet.
1 x
Raptor Egg. The recipe is a quest reward, and the eggs come from raptors in the Barrens, Arathi Highlands and Wetlands. Remember the Expert Cookbook here — without it you stop dead at 150.- 1×
Curiously Tasty OmeletNeeds 130
Shopping list for 130–175
- 1×
175 to 225: craft 1 × Roast Raptor.
1 x
Raptor Flesh, from the same raptors that dropped the eggs, so it is worth farming both at once and skipping a trip. The recipe is bought from a vendor.- 1×
Roast RaptorNeeds 175
Shopping list for 175–225
- 1×
- 225Artisan is not trained — do Clamlette SurpriseDirge Quikcleave — Gadgetzan, Tanaris
225 to 250: craft 1 × Undermine Clam Chowder.
2 x
Zesty Clam Meat and 1 x 
Ice Cold Milk per bowl. The recipe comes from Jabbey, the general goods vendor at Steamwheedle Port in Tanaris — the same trip as the next recipe, so buy both while you are there.- 1×
Undermine Clam ChowderNeeds 225
Shopping list for 225–250
- 1×
250 to 300: craft 1 × Poached Sunscale Salmon.
1 x
Raw Sunscale Salmon. Gikkix sells the recipe at Steamwheedle Port. If you fish, this stretch is free: Sunscale Salmon comes out of the water in Tanaris and Feralas. If you do not, the auction house is the faster route.- 1×
Poached Sunscale SalmonNeeds 250
Shopping list for 250–300
- 1×
Cooking is a secondary profession, so it costs you nothing but time — every character can train it alongside two primary professions. It turns the meat and fish you already pick up while questing into food that restores health out of combat and, from the mid-levels on, into stat buffs that hold their value all the way through raiding.
This guide takes Cooking from 1 to 300 on Classic Era. Each step names the one recipe worth spamming for that stretch, what it costs, and where the recipe comes from.
Where to train Cooking
Every capital city has a Cooking trainer, and they all teach the same recipes. The two most convenient are Stephen Ryback in the Pig and Whistle Tavern, Old Town, Stormwind for the Alliance, and Zamja in the Valley of Spirits, Orgrimmar for the Horde.
Two ranks are not taught by trainers at all:
- Expert Cooking (up to 225) — read the Expert Cookbook. Shandrina sells it at Silverwind Refuge in Ashenvale, Wulan at Shadowprey Village in Desolace. It needs 125 Cooking to use, so buy it before you get stuck.
- Artisan Cooking (up to 300) — a quest, described further down. It opens at 225.
Artisan Cooking — the Clamlette Surprise quest
Cooking stops at 225 until you finish a quest for Dirge Quikcleave, the meat and drink vendor in the Gadgetzan inn, Tanaris. You need 225 Cooking and to be level 35 or above to pick it up.
The hand-in asks for 12 x Giant Egg, 10 x Zesty Clam Meat and 20 x Alterac Swiss. None of it is hard to get, but the eggs come from Owlbeasts in Hinterlands and Winterspring and are the slow part — start collecting them before you hit 225 and the quest costs you nothing but the flight.
Recipes worth learning on the way
Levelling recipes exist to be spammed and forgotten. These are the ones people actually keep cooking at 300:
- Nightfin Soup — mana regeneration while sitting, the standard healer food for the whole of Classic.
- Runn Tum Tuber Surprise — +10 Intellect for an hour. The recipe drops from Pusillin in Dire Maul.
- Smoked Desert Dumplings — +20 Strength, trained rather than farmed.
- Monster Omelet — cheap, filling and made from the same Giant Eggs as the Artisan quest.
- Grilled Squid — +10 Agility, a raid staple for anyone who melees.
All of them use materials you already gather while levelling, which is the argument for taking Cooking seriously rather than pushing it to 300 in one evening and never opening it again.