Guild Wars 2 has increased the cooking profession to level 500 with a new patch. This comes with new buff food, which will give you greater advantages in battles. In this guide, we present you with the best selection.
What is new? Until August 27, 2019, cooks could only level up to 400. At this level, buff food could be crafted, which was particularly useful in raids, fractals, and World vs World.
Since the latest patch, cooking can now be raised to level 500, and new buff food comes along with it. With this, ArenaNet fulfills the second announcement from their roadmap. The first was the legendary runes and sigils:
Throughout the guide, we will introduce you to the individual steps on how to level up cooking and unlock the recipes for the buff food. Afterwards, we will reveal which buff food is the best.
Step 1 – Raise Cooking to 500
To even think about the new buff food, you should get your cooking to level 500. We will tell you how to do that as quickly as possible.
Cooking Level 400-440
First, focus on levels 400 to 440. The best way to do this is to craft a cup of lightly roasted coffee. You will need:
- 1× bag of coffee beans
- 2× pieces of charcoal
- 1× grinding stone
- 2× jug of water
You can obtain the recipe for the dish from heart traders in Path of Fire. Alternatively, nearly all old 400 recipes can be used to advance the cooking profession.
Cooking Level 440-450
At level 440, you will craft a chef’s tasting plate. You will need:
- 1× bowl of curry butternut squash soup
- 1× bowl of truffle risotto
- 1× plate of steak and asparagus dinner
To complete the last steps to level 450, it is easiest to create dragonite bars and bloodstone bricks. You will need these in the upcoming collection.
Cooking 450-500
For the last steps, you should complete the Gourmet Training collection. You activate it by bringing the chef’s tasting plate to Chef Seimur, who awaits you in your home instance from Cooking Level 425 onward.
The collection itself contains five task series, each oriented around one of the playable races. So you need to
- 7× tasks for Norn
- 7× tasks for Sylvari
- 7× tasks for Charr
- 7× tasks for Humans
- 7× tasks for Asura.
The first three tasks are different dishes that you have to craft next to the cooking NPC in the capitals. Tasks 4, 5, and 6 always differ slightly, and for task 7, you usually just have to return to the cooking NPC.
Overall, the collection is very simple, but not entirely cheap. You will need among other things:
- 5× Deldrimor steel bars
- 5× dragonite bars
- 5× ghostwood planks
- 1× Elonian leather patch
- 3× heat stone
- 10× bloodstone bricks
- 20 gold for various recipes
The great advantage of the collection is that each completion of a race series gives you 10 levels for the cooking profession as a reward. This way, you can level directly from 450 to 500.
On the website Guildnews.de, for which the author also writes, you can find a detailed guide to the collection.
Step 2 – Crafting Intermediate Ingredients
Before you can craft the new buff food, you will need some intermediate food items that are required for the new recipes.
You will need cultivated herbs, which you can only grow in your home instance or buy at the trading post. Additionally, these intermediate recipes require level 450 in cooking.
You will not need every one of these ingredients right away, but it is good to know how to craft them.
| Glass of Hollandaise Sauce | – 1× egg – 1× piece of butter – 1× lemon – 1× package of salt |
| Bottle of Simple Syrup | – 1× bag of sugar – 1× jug of water |
| Glass of Mint Parsley Sauce | – 1× cultivated mint leaf – 1× parsley leaf – 1× jug of vegetable oil |
| Glass of Orange Clove Syrup | – 1× cultivated clove – 1× bottle of simple syrup – 1× lemon – 1× orange |
| Glass of Salsa Side | – 1× tomato – 1× lime – 1× onion – 1× cultivated cilantro leaf |
| Pile of Clove Spice Mix | – 1× cultivated clove – 1× cinnamon stick |
| Glass of Sesame Syrup | – 1× bottle of simple syrup – 1× cultivated sesame seed |
| Plate of Eggs Benedict | – 1× egg – 1× glass of hollandaise sauce – 1× piece of cured meat – 1× flatbread |
Step 3 – Crafting the Buff Food
The new chef at level 500 now allows you to craft nearly 50 new food items. On the Guild Wars subreddit, you can find an overview of all recipes.
However, since we do not want to introduce all these recipes, we will directly tell you what the best buff food is.
The Best Buff Food for Berserker Classes
For berserker classes, the buff food “Plate of Chicken in Red Wine Sauce with Salsa” is recommended. You will need:
- 2× pieces of poultry
- 1× glass of salsa side
- 1× bottle of vintner’s wine
- 1× clove of garlic
It grants you the following stats:
- +100 power
- +70 precision
- 66% chance to drain life on critical hit
- + karma, experience points, magical detection, gold detection, and WXP
In general, all chicken in red wine sauce grants power and precision. If you only change the glass of salsa side, only the third bonus with life drain changes.
The Best Buff Food for Condition Classes
For condition classes, the pickled pepper meat flatbread is recommended. You will need:
- 1× flatbread
- 2× pieces of pickled meat
- 1× cultivated peppercorn
The buff food grants you:
- +100 condition damage
- +70 expertise
- -10% damage taken
- + karma, experience points, magical detection, gold detection, and WXP
In general, all pickled meat flatbreads grant condition damage and expertise. If you only change the cultivated peppercorn, only the third bonus with damage taken changes.
The Best Buff Food for Healers
Healers prefer long buff durations and additional healing. The buff food “Mint Crème Brûlée” is recommended. You will need:
- 1× bowl of ice cream
- 1× cultivated mint leaf
- 1× blueberry
- 1× raspberry
The buff food grants you the following stats:
- +100 concentration
- +70 healing power
- +10% healing for allies
- + karma, experience points, magical detection, gold detection, and WXP
In general, all Crème Brûlées grant concentration and healing power. However, here the mint bonus with healing for allies is the best side effect.
On August 30, we will learn more about the future of Guild Wars 2. We have already speculated about the announcement:
