A QUICK GUIDE TO COOKING!!

This isn't the actual guide, but the know-hows of cooking, all concentrated here for your convenience. Cooking requires DEX/LUK stats, therefore most people do the quest on a sniper for high stats. You may also do it on your Whitesmith or Creator if they are geared. Or if you're me, on your assassin cross, because they rock.

1st step: Do the actual quest! Link.
In the quest you will have to cook actual foods. I advice you to read on the whole guide before jumping up and cooking. If I love you enough, I may let you borrow my Chef Hat, as it is non-consumable. The common cooking ingredients can be bought from Cooking NPC, Fruit Gardeners, Meat, Milks Vendors, Tool Dealer, Sushi NPC, and some at Pet NPC. Other ingredients have to be farmed.

2nd step: Level up your cooking experience!
The more you cook, the more cooking experience you gain, capped at 2000. The experience affects your cooking chances. You will know you've hit the cap when you receive your Iron Chef achievement. Be aware that with failing attempts, you will lose some experience. You can not check it in-game, but you can check your chances on the CALC, on the right top side, select the drop down menu, and select the last option "Cooking Success Chances". The best way to gain experience is by cooking Level 1 INT food, as it is all made from NPC items, is the cheapest, and will leave you with hundreds of Grape Juice Herbal Tea which you can give to newbies in Prontera when they ask for help and handouts.

3rd step: Actual cooking
Check your desired recipe here The Menu. Books 1-5 are obtainable from the quest NPC (You may borrow one at a time, and exchange them as you desire, as long as you wear a Chef Hat, and give the NPC 10-20 pumpkins every time.) Books 6-7 are a common drop, and can be bought from vendors. Books 8-10 are rares, and I don't have any.
Next off, it is about The Cooking Kits. Stay away from the Outdoors Kit. Use the Home Kit for cooking foods that are plentiful, as you may buy them from the NPC. Use the Professional Kit for harder to obtain foods, and the Royal and Fantastic Kits for the level 10-9 foods. The Fantastic Kits offer a fixed 100% cooking chance.

4th step: A little about stats!
It's all about the DEX/LUK. Getting around 180-200 each is advised, and some will get even more. Priest buffs Bless and Gloria are a must, Attention Concentration from Box of Gloom (adds 4 dex), and Paladin's Gospel has a chance to add +20 to all stats, which makes a difference. Casual items for stats are , low level Foods, Rental Excalibur for +10 LUK, Fortune Sword for 5 LUK, Crystal Pumps 5 LUK, Celebration rings for +5 stats, Rosaries for +2 Luk, Kaho for 20 DEX, armor enchanted with LUK+3, and carded with Baby Leopard Card for another LUK+3. Then, you can get SQI and their bonuses, depending on your class. You may go for a Wild mid/top for more LUK. +9 Hood with Chung E card for +4 LUK, and there may be more stat bonus items I am not aware of. A new-ish item, Skeleton Manteau (10 TC) Gives +2 Dex, +2 Luk. Poporing, Poring and Siroma pets give +2 Luk.
Next, for some free Level 5 Vit/Dex/Luk stats! Yes, you may get a free buff daily of 5 DEX/LUK for your cooking, or any desire with a very short quest called the Brasilis Strange Hydra Quest
For more in-depth info about the actual cooking formula refer to GM Howl's post. While searching the forums, I've found another post about cooking. A cooking CALC, although I don't know if it's modified in TalonRO or not.

Final Step: Admit that you are le' Iron Chef, and that you're awesome!
The end goal, is the actual food, a consumables that gives stat bonus. The Value of Food, is the raw cost of the ingredients, the Cooking Kits, item's you've used, foods you've spent, unsuccessful attempts, and all your time spent, which is very valuable! All this calculated into a consumable.
That's it. Enjoy your cooking! Remember to have fun . I dedicate this guide to my lovely (and real!) niece <3

Some noteable foods:
(If you can carry them, they could fit in your build).

Foods that all their ingredients are NPC items:
Lv1 INT, Lv6 INT (Requires alcohol, which all ingredients can be bought, but you would still need a brewer).

Level 5 STR, Lady Lutie Pancake - Requires honey, which is cheap and the rest are NPC items.
Level 5 INT, Mastela Fruit Wine - Can be farmed with the lower headgear Mastela Wine Cup.
Level 5 DEX, Green Salad - Can be farmed with Luna Kaleet.

You may want to be aware, the cooking some of the low levels food can be wasteful, as they require some items that are also SQI ingredients and are more valuable then the actual low level dish.

Wow Azi, amazing!
Post on the tro forums if you want.