Guild Wars 2: Guide to Ascending Your Cooking

BY: ALTHEA "BRISEADH" DAMGAARD

I spent a good portion of my game time figuring out the additions to cooking during the Labor Day Weekend. It didn’t take that long considering I had a lot of materials stock piled to work with. I also found the wiki helpful with its Gourmet Training page. I will not be putting the full details of how to craft each item in your journey to becoming a gourmet. It is my intent to give you the flow of how this works and give you some tips to help you out.

The first thing you have to do is reach 425. To do this I simply started playing with discovery with an added crafting booster. In short order I wound up at 441. Upon reaching 425 you get a mail from Sous-Chef Seimur Oxbone, whom you will find in your home instance, accessible from any of the cities. I know he is in the large building off to the left of the entrance area for the Charr home Instance of the Black Citadel. My chef is a Charr so it felt appropriate to go there.

Now you get to do some cooking because he wants a Chef’s Tasting Platter. I’m glad the wiki is well organized with a link to the recipe. I had only learned how to make one of the items that combine for the platter before, so I had to do discovery. The nice thing about discovery is the experience it added to my cooking in the process. Once you have it completed, run back to see him in your home instance for his opinion.

For those of us who don’t cook a lot, we had trouble finding the merchant who sold a Bottle of Rice Wine in order to make our Bowl of Risotto Base, that we needed for the Bowl of Truffle Risotto to put on our Chef’s Tasting Platter. The one in Lion’s Arch can only be found at night. I had a guild mate show me where the one in Divinity’s Reach worked and the next day I did the same favor for another guild mate. They are at an inn in the western end of the Ossan Quarter (see the pic below).

Now that your platter has met his approval, Sous-Chef Seimur Oxbone sends you off to the cooks of all five races to hone your skills further. You can track this with the Gourmet Training achievement found under General - Tradesmen or simply by searching for Gourmet on the achievement panel. While doing this it stayed as one of my most recent completed, so I could click on that to look at it, too.

There are seven things to do for each race and there is no restriction on which race you go to, but there are advantages to doing it in the order the wiki has them listed: Norn, Sylvari, Charr, Human and Asura. Each will have three items to cook and then four specialty achievements which are tasks, or the buying of things. Upon completion of each you will gain 10 points to your cooking level, so you gain 50 of the 100 points to get to 500 (the new max) just by doing this achievement series. I’ll describe each below in their own sections.

Norn Gourmet Training Tasks

Travel to Hoelbrak to the Trade Commons Waypoint. Find the cooking station via the blue kettle icon and talk to Reimar (Master Chef). Talk to her before you start cooking, and you have to cook at the station by her. She wants to watch you cook all three items. These items are: 

1. Bowl of Snow Truffle Soup
2. Sesame Roasted Dinner 
3. Sage Stuffed Poultry. 

As you make each one you will see an achievement announcement, for a couple seconds, pop up on the right over your minimap. You do not have to cook them in the order requested.

Once all three are made a chat will automatically pop up with Reimar giving you comments about your cooking. It isn’t bad, but she tells you the quality of your cookware is important. She sends you to Eirnar Blackforge, who is in Shelter Rock (northeast corner of Hoelbrak). A diamond with a gold crown will mark his location on the map. Talk to him and he will start you on your quest to get your cookware made by him. 

You have the option of crafting the items yourself or paying for them. Since two of them are once daily craftables you will have a time gate if you don’t have enough on hand, or the cost of the item on the trading post is beyond your means. On Labor Day (9/2) they were costing 5g to 5.5g. You can hand in the three items to make the cookware in any order. They are:

• 5 Deldrimor Steel Ingots (one per day crafting)
• 5 Dragonite Ingots
• 1 Spiritwood Plank (one per day crafting, but thankfully you only need one)

It will look like you are buying the completion and it will show you if you have enough of the items because they will be white. If you are missing anything, it will have a red number instead like in the picture below. I had everything handed in except the Dragonite Ingots, so I had to run and make a few more and return.

As you hand in each item your achievements will be updated. Once he has all three of the above items, he will tell you to come back later when he is finished. This is a two hour window. While waiting for him to get this done, move on to the next race, the Sylvari.

Sylvari Gourmet Training Tasks

It’s time to head off to the Grove and talk to Bhia in the Maker’s Terrace. Take Reckoner’s Waypoint and run northeast to the crafting station area. Bhia is the Master Chef standing near the cooking stations, marked on the map with a blue cooking kettle.

As with the Norn chef, be sure to talk to her first and then prep the three items she requests. They are:

1. Filet of Rosemary-Roasted Meat
2. Bowl of Artichoke Soup
3. Bowl of Poultry Tarragon Pasta

They do not have to be made in the order requested. Once you hand in the third item, a chat with Bhia will pop up automatically. She will tell you it is all right but the seasoning could be better. 

She will send you to see Mender Earie, who is in the grove at the Private Gardens. Run west from the crafting station and head for the tunnel in the northwest of this level. Mender Earie is a little way down the tunnel and his location is marked by a diamond with a gold crown in it.

When you talk to him, you will get credit for the Harvesting Lesson. Next, you need to go out into the world and find herb plants across Tyria until you get your first Varietal Herb Seed. I decided to work this in with the Charr’s need for certain cuts of meat to save time by multitasking. To the chagrin of some of my guild mates, I got a seed on the first herb plant I found outside the Village of Butcher’s Block in Diessa Plateau.

Upon acquiring a seed, return to Mender Earie. Now you must craft a Portable Composter for him. You will acquire the recipe from him. Run over to a cooking station, make it, and return it to him.

You will now be able to acquire your Garden Plot Deed at this point for your home instance. I’ll discuss how this will work for your Varietal Seed plantings at the end of this guide. NOTE: when this first came out, there was a known bug that would make your garden plot possibly show up with plants already growing. If you get this bug, you will have to wait until reset to clear out what grew and plant new seeds.

Charr Gourmet Training Tasks

This starts in the Black Citadel in the Canton Factorium by talking to Gurges Burnpaw, the master chef near the cooking stations, noted on the map with a blue kettle. Like the others he wants you to cook three items, which you can do in any order. Be sure to talk to him first and then make the items at a cooking station by him. The items are:

1. Bowl of Spicy Meat Chili
2. Plate of Lemongrass Poultry
3. Plate of Fire Flank Steak

Once you hand in the three items, a chat will start up automatically. He is not enthused with your items and quite rudely tells you they are roadkill coughed up by a buzzard. The text is not exactly that, I’ll let you read it in game because it stings all the more how it is worded there. He sends you off to Vaastas MeatSlayer in the Village of Butcher’s Block in Diessa Plateau. He will be marked on the map with the same diamond with a gold crown as the other specialists you were sent to.

When you get there to talk to him, if others are there, he may be moving over to butcher a cow for someone else. This is activated by talking to him and will give you the first achievement for his tasks. Next he will send you out to kill things for Cuts of Quality Red Meat and Slabs of Poultry Meat. (The Wiki says just Slabs of Red Meat, but you need Quality ones). The red meat can be acquired from wolves, deer and wargs around the village. It took me some killing to get my first piece, but once that happened I managed a few more drops. I went a little further west and slightly north to kill crimson moas until I got my Slab of Poultry meat. As noted with the Sylvari, it was during this killing spree that I also harvested herb plants for the Varietal Seeds.

Once you have both meats, return to Vaastas Meatslayer. He will now teach you his Charr Meat-Curing Techniques, which completes the training by the Charr. Be sure to keep at least one Cut of Quality Red Meat, because you will need it for part of your Asuran training.

Human Gourmet Training Tasks

Head to Divinity’s Reach and by the Commons Waypoint are the crafting stations. The cooking station, marked by the blue kettle, is west of this waypoint. You will find Sage (Master Chef) here. Talk to him first and then prepare the three items he requests at a station by him so he can watch. The items are:

• Bowl of Roasted Lotus Root
• Flatbread
• Chocolate Omnomberry Cake

If you do not have the Flatbread recipe, during your training, Sage will sell the recipe to you for 50s. Otherwise, this recipe is available from vendors in the Mists, Verdant Brink, Auric Basin and Tangled Depths. You can get their locations in the Wiki by drilling down into the Flatbread from the Gourmet Training page.

The order of hand in for these three items does not matter. Once all three are handed in, a chat will automatically start with how Sage thinks you can improve your cooking with a better oven. Your food came out baked unevenly due to bad heating of the oven. He sends you to see Luron the Baker who is along the Dwayna Low Road. His location will be marked with the diamond with a gold crown in it.

Luron tells you about his idea for a convection oven. However, he needs three Heat Stones for this. You can opt to craft or buy these. They were already available on the trading post and I watched the cost drop 5g a piece in two days from 25g to 20g, since they are a one time need only. 

If you want to make them yourself, you have to go to Dry Top and have the map to Tier 3 in order to buy the Heat Stone Recipe. You can find it on the first three tabs giving you different ways to buy, based on the number of geodes you have and if you gained recognition while doing events on the map. I went for the first tab that required 76 geodes and 12s plus change. The Heat Stones need to be crafted by a max (500) Tailor, Armorsmith or Leatherworker and you can only make one a day like other ascended mats. 

You have to make three Heat Stones for Luron to complete this task. Even though they are made by an Armorsmith, Tailor or Leatherworker, your cook must hand them in to Luron. 

Then you will get to travel to Mount Maelstrom to enhance the Heat Stones in a pool of boiling-hot magma. You will see your character catch on fire doing this. Travel to Magmatic Waypoint and then run up the mountain toward Hellmount Falls POI (Point of Interest). You will see the diamond with the gold crown north of the POI to help you find it with ease. Return to Luron with your very hot Heat Stones.

Next he will want 10 Bloodstone Bricks to finish your oven. One has to wonder about all this Bloodstone stuff being used in cooking. At least, this is in the oven, but it seems dicey.

Once you hand in the Bloodstone Bricks, he will tell you the oven will be delivered, but not to rush him or he will take twice as long. All you have to do is pop into a home instance and watch the delivery man carry a crate to your old oven. After he does a little work, your oven will expand into the brand new Bloodstone Oven. This will complete the Human Gourmet Training.

Asura Gourmet Training Tasks

Travel to Rata Sum via the Accountancy Waypoint and head into the southern crafting area to the cooking station denoted by the blue kettle on the map. Talk to Prazz and he will give you three things he wants you to make as he watches. Use one of the cooking stations by him and make the following three items in any order:

1. Bowl of Tropical Mousse
2. Bowl of Truffle Sautee
3. Omnomberry Ghost

Once you have all three made a chat will Prazz will automatically pop up. He will discuss what you need to do to improve your techniques because he is satisfied for once! He sends you off to talk to Gastronome Plikk.

I simply ran out of the crafting area and turned right to get to the down ramp into the southern part of the lowest level. She is usually just a drink vendor, but while you are working on your Gourmet Training, she will talk to you about that and be marked with the diamond with a gold crown on the map (my pic above was after I was done with this part). 

You must buy the license for Plikk’s Immersion Circulation System for 5g. Then you must make a Filet of Sous-Vide Meat using the Cut of Quality Red Meat you got when training with the Charr. Return to her with this meat. Once you do, you will need to buy the next two things for 5g each to finish your Asuran training. Those two items are licenses for her Plikk’s Fluid Gas Infuser and Plikk’s Food Form Manipulator.

I found the Asuran part the fastest but make sure you have 15g when you are ready to visit Plixx for this part of your training.

Growing Your Varietal Seeds

Once you have completed the Sylvari Training you will have a garden plot added to your home instance. If you haven’t bought any with gems, this will be your first. You can have up to three plots holding four plants each. The plants are ready to harvest after reset each day, so gardening should be part of your routine for completing your dailies. Be sure if you want your plants that you harvest are in your own garden and not someone else’s. You can only harvest one home instance garden a day. I know some people, like myself, have shared in the wealth of friends that have full home instances and could forget we have something in our own now to tend to.

You acquire the seeds while harvesting herbs, wherever you roam in Tyria. You will then need to put the seeds into pouches to be used for your planting. This is where your Portable Composter comes into play. You must make food of various tiers and break them down in the composter.

At a cooking station the Varietal Seed Pouches you can make will show up in a section called Consumables. Each pouch requires the proper Varietal Seed and A Pile of Enriched Compost. The Pile of Enriched Compost is made from 5 Piles of Compost Starter bought from a Master Chef and an Exquisite Extract of Nourishment. The latter is made with four types of Extracts of Nourishment acquired by putting food of various tiers through your Portable Composter. You will need the following to make your Exquisite Extract of Nourishment:

• 5 Fine Extracts of Nourishment
• 5 Masterwork Extracts of Nourishment
• 5 Rare Extracts of Nourishment
• 10 Exotic Extracts of Nourishment

Once you have your seed pouch, you can go to your home instance and plant it in an Open Soil in your garden. At the next reset time of the game, you will harvest it and hopefully have a new one to plant if you plan on continuing your ascended cooking career. All items grown from Varietal Seeds will produce Cultivated versions of the herbs required for the gourmet cooking recipes.

Conclusion

This was fairly easy to do even with some of the cost and the time gating. You have the option to buy or make, so are not entirely stuck with needing coin except for the Asuran that wanted five gold for each of her three licenses.

I am sure in the near future there will be guides on the cheapest ways to make your compost and other things. I hope my walk through of how I did it with the help of the Gourmet Training page on the wiki helps you out if you have not tackled this already.

Now to begin the discovery of those Ascended Feast recipes. I may write about tips for this and the best ways to compost, but I have to figure that out first.

Good luck in your future gourmet endeavors.

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