WoW Forever Cooking Guide 1 to 300: Fishing Route, Food XP and New Recipes

Cooking runs from 1 to 300 in 4 ranks. Trainers teach Apprentice and Journeyman, the Expert Cookbook opens Expert at skill 125, and the Clamlette Surprise quest opens Artisan at skill 225. A fishing route of 4 fish takes you from 1 to 225, and cooked food now adds 5% XP from kills, so Cooking pays back while you level.

Rank	Skill	How you learn it
Apprentice	1 to 75	Cooking trainer
Journeyman	75 to 150	Cooking trainer
Expert	150 to 225	Expert Cookbook: 1 gold, Cooking 125 and level 20
Artisan	225 to 300	Clamlette Surprise quest: Cooking 225 and level 35

Every unlock on the way to 300, by Cooking skill:

Cooking skill	What opens
1	Brilliant Smallfish
25	Peace Tea, Venomous Smoothie
50	Longjaw Mud Snapper
90	Journeyman Campfire
100	Bristle Whisker Catfish, Royal Tea, Slimy Smoothie
125	Expert Cookbook, Root Tea, Mrrggl Smrrthle
140	Cookie's Feast
175	Mithril Head Trout
180	Triage Tea, Calcified Smoothie
200	Expert Campfire, Sunny Tea, Spicy Smoothie
225	Clamlette Surprise quest
250	Sage's Tea, Wicked Smoothie
300	Iron Oven

4 things changed from the Classic route to 300:

• Food pays XP. Cooked food adds 5% XP from kills while the Well Fed buff is on you.
• Ranks add character levels. The Expert Cookbook needs level 20, and the Artisan quest needs level 35.
• New teas and smoothies. 6 teas join the recipe list, and smoothies are bought with Merchant's Favor.
• Campfire kits and the Iron Oven. A camp holds 3, 5 or 10 objects, depending on the kit.

The fish route and the skill ranges are the Classic ones. The 1 to 60 route that goes with it is in the leveling guide.

Launch is 4 November 2026 at 3:00 PM PST. The beta runs to 21 October at a level cap of 30, and nothing from it carries over to launch.

Cooked food adds 5% XP from kills while the Well Fed buff is on you, and the buff lasts 15 minutes. On a kill worth 200 XP that pays 210. 1 to 60 is about 150 hours of play, so a buff you keep up through the kill-heavy stretches adds up.

Eat before a dungeon pull, a grind or an elite quest, and eat again when the 15 minutes run out. Check the Well Fed buff on your bar after each meal. Cooking is cheap to start: the Expert Cookbook costs 1 gold, and the rest of the cost is the fish.

Cook the fish you catch on the way. The route to 225 uses 4 dishes, 1 for each skill range:

Food	Cooking skill	Cooked from
Brilliant Smallfish	1 to 50	Raw Brilliant Smallfish
Longjaw Mud Snapper	50 to 100	Raw Longjaw Mud Snapper
Bristle Whisker Catfish	100 to 175	Raw Bristle Whisker Catfish
Mithril Head Trout	175 to 225	Raw Mithril Head Trout

From skill 225 the launch route moves to dishes such as Undermine Clam Chowder and Spotted Yellowtail, and they are cooked food too.

Pair Cooking with Fishing, because the route is fish and the 2 skills level side by side. No race or class has an edge in Cooking, so every character follows the same route.

The Well Fed buff itself and the other profession changes are in the professions guide. Foods for 225 to 300 are in the launch route below.

The route from 1 to 225 burns 282 fish and 1 book. Catch the fish yourself with Fishing, or buy them from the Auction House. Fishing your own costs time and no gold, and the Auction House costs gold and saves the hours.

Item	Amount	Used for
Raw Brilliant Smallfish	52	Cooking 1 to 50
Raw Longjaw Mud Snapper	55	Cooking 50 to 100
Raw Bristle Whisker Catfish	120	Cooking 100 to 175
Raw Mithril Head Trout	55	Cooking 175 to 225
Expert Cookbook	1	Expert rank at skill 125, 1 gold

Bristle Whisker Catfish is the biggest stack, with 120 of the 282 fish. Start Fishing at the same time as Cooking, so the next stack is ready when you need it. Each dish also needs its recipe from a vendor, and the route table below lists who sells it.

A full 1 to 60 order includes Cooking and Fishing to 300, so a Pro levels both skills for you.

Follow the table from top to bottom. Each row is a skill range, and you cook that dish until your skill reaches the end of the range. The book row is a stop at skill 125, in the middle of the Catfish range.

Skill	Recipe	Count	Raw fish	Recipe from
1 to 50	Brilliant Smallfish	52	Raw Brilliant Smallfish	Alliance: Catherine Leland, Stormwind. Horde: Sewa Mistrunner, Thunder Bluff
50 to 100	Longjaw Mud Snapper	55	Raw Longjaw Mud Snapper	Alliance: Tharynn Bouden, Goldshire. Horde: Naal Mistrunner, Thunder Bluff
100 to 175	Bristle Whisker Catfish	55 + 65	Raw Bristle Whisker Catfish	Alliance: Catherine Leland, Stormwind. Horde: Naal Mistrunner, Thunder Bluff
125	Expert Cookbook	1	1 gold	Alliance: Shandrina, Ashenvale. Horde: Wulan, Shadowprey Village in Desolace
175 to 225	Mithril Head Trout	55	Raw Mithril Head Trout	Alliance: Tansy Puddlefizz, Ironforge. Horde: Shankys, Orgrimmar

Buy each recipe when your skill reaches the start of its range: the Catfish recipe at 100 and the Mithril Head Trout recipe at 175. At skill 125 you also need level 20 and 1 gold for the Expert Cookbook, which sells in Ashenvale for the Alliance and in Desolace for the Horde. The coordinates are in the trainer table below.

Skill-ups come from cooking the dish of the range you are in, so keep the 4 stacks in your bags and cook between quests.

2 campfire kits fall on this route. The Journeyman Campfire opens at skill 90, and Cookie's Feast follows at 140. Both are covered with the other kits in the campfire section.

Rather skip the fishing? A Pro levels Cooking from 1 to 300 on your level 60 character from $58. Pick Cooking in the profession list, and the order starts on 4 November. A full 1 to 60 order includes Cooking to 300, which you can see on the leveling page.

The beta caps characters at level 30 since 1 October, and the Artisan quest needs level 35, so 225 to 300 cannot be tested before launch. 225 to 300 keeps every Classic skill range, so the plan below is the Classic-range plan until we check it on live realms.

Dirge Quikcleave in Gadgetzan gives the quest Clamlette Surprise at /way 52.6 28.0. It asks for a Giant Egg, Zesty Clam Meat and Alterac Swiss, and your quest log shows how many of each. Finishing it opens the Artisan rank, which takes Cooking from 225 to 300.

The plan lists 5 foods for 225 to 275 and 2 foods for 275 to 300:

Skill	Cook (Classic-range plan)
225 to 275	Undermine Clam Chowder, Spotted Yellowtail, Monster Omelet, Tender Wolf Steak, Filet of Redgill
275 to 300	Poached Sunscale Salmon, Nightfin Soup

We check this range on live realms between 4 and 11 November, and this page moves with what we find. In launch week we read 3 things: the item counts of the quest, the food list for 225 to 300 and the skill ranges.

Until then, 1 to 225 is the part to prepare. The fish, the book and the recipes above are the ones to stock.

Cooking trainers teach Apprentice and Journeyman. Zephras Isle, the Skyborne starting zone, has 2 of them, and each later rank has its own source. The Skyborne guide covers the island.

Rank	Who	Where
Apprentice and Journeyman	Cooking trainers	Zephras Isle: Zerril Softbreeze in Shen'dar Village, Nyalah Brightfire in Valanaar
Expert	Expert Cookbook vendors	Alliance: Shandrina in Ashenvale, /way 49.6 67.0. Horde: Wulan in Shadowprey Village, Desolace, /way 26.2 69.8
Artisan	Dirge Quikcleave	Gadgetzan, /way 52.6 28.0

The Expert Cookbook costs 1 gold and is tradable, so another player can sell it to you. Check the faction in the table, because the Alliance and the Horde have different vendors.

Plan the 2 stops around your level. Level 20 and Cooking 125 open the book, and level 35 and Cooking 225 open the Artisan quest. Both levels sit inside the 1 to 60 route, so you pass them while you level.

Forever adds 12 new drinks to Cooking. 6 teas sit on the skill ladder from 25 to 250, and 6 smoothies are bought with Merchant's Favor.

Tea	Cooking skill
Peace Tea	25
Royal Tea	100
Root Tea	125
Triage Tea	180
Sunny Tea	200
Sage's Tea	250

The recipe for Peace Tea drops from the Frostmane Seer, and the recipe for Royal Tea drops from the Windshear Geomancer. The other 4 teas come with the skill ladder.

Smoothies add Spirit. Kalsey Sanden sells them to the Alliance and Aza'bek to the Horde. Each smoothie needs its Cooking skill and its price in Merchant's Favor, and the prices come in 3 tiers of 30, 60 and 90.

Smoothie	Cooking skill	Merchant's Favor
Venomous Smoothie	25	30
Slimy Smoothie	100	30
Mrrggl Smrrthle	125	30
Calcified Smoothie	180	See the vendor
Spicy Smoothie	200	60
Wicked Smoothie	250	90

Merchant's Favor is spent through the Azeroth Commerce Authority (ACA) and Durotar Supply and Logistics. Forever adds dozens of new Cooking recipes in all, and these drinks are part of that list.

Cooking skill unlocks campfire kits. A camp object is a buff or a workshop that 1 player adds to the campsite, and each player adds 1 object. A bigger kit lets the camp hold more objects, and 2 cooking objects join them.

Object	Cooking skill	What it does
Basic Campfire	Every character	Holds 3 camp objects
Journeyman Campfire	90	Holds 5 camp objects
Expert Campfire	200, from a Blueprint	Holds 10 camp objects
Cookie's Feast	140	Drops from Cookie in the Deadmines, 1-hour shared cooldown
Iron Oven	300, from a Blueprint	Needed for advanced recipes, 1-hour shared cooldown

A Cook adds something to the camp at 4 stops: skill 90, 140, 200 and 300. The Expert Campfire at skill 200 raises the camp from 3 objects to 10 for everyone at the fire.

Cookie's Feast and the Iron Oven need a campfire nearby. Campfire placement and fire locations are in the camping guide.