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Cooking is a classic skill within The Sims franchise, andThe Sims 4is no exception. Your Sims can learn to cook amazing meals, or fail miserably and set the house on fire depending on their personal Cooking skill level. With a higher Cooking skill, Sims can even delve into the Gourmet world.
In this guide, we are going to take a look at how you can level up your Cooking skills. As with other skills, you can do this by cooking, but we have some additional tips since there is no ‘Practice Cooking’ option available for your Sims.
How To Learn The Cooking Skill
The first time your Sim cooks, they will gain the Cooking skill. This can be done byheading to a fridge and selecting a dish to make.It’s important to note that thisdoes not apply to preparing quick meals; those are just snacks.
We suggestmaking a cold dish(like Salad) to avoid starting a fire.
You can also learn cooking byreading the first volume of the Cooking skill books.In total, there are three of these books, with each one teaching you a bit more about cooking. This is a great way to level up cooking if you don’t want to spend any money, but it’s a bit more boring than getting in the kitchen and making a meal.
How To Level Up The Cooking Skill
To continue leveling up the Cooking skill, you just need tocontinue cooking.As mentioned earlier, there is no practice option, so you will need toselect dishes to make.
If you are in the Culinary career, you can practice cooking at work, although this may lower your work performance.
Simple dishes that can be made every day are a great way to level up your skill. For example, try having your Simmake pancakes every morning for breakfast!This will fill their hunger bar, as well as provide some experience.
We suggeststicking to individual meals while leveling up the Cooking skill.While the option to make a large platter filled with multiple servings sounds good, it means that overall,you will be cooking less.This isn’t ideal if you want to quickly level up the Cooking skill.
Cooking With Dietary Restrictions
Dishes can be sorted by their type, as well as dietary restrictions. For example, if your Sim is vegetarian,you can sort the dish menu to only show vegetarian options.
It’scompletely possible to level up your Cooking skill normallyif you are avoiding ingredients such as dairy or meat.
Simple Living Lot Trait
TheSimple Living lot trait poses a new challengeif you have theCottage Living expansion.With this trait active,you will not be allowed to purchase ingredients from your fridge;everything you cook with will need to be purchased from a grocery store or grown/found yourself.
This can be a bit of a pain to deal with, especially if you want to level up as quickly as possible. Thankfully,dishes like the BLT or Garden Salad can help you with this,as the ingredients aren’t too complex.
Overall, we suggest growing basic crops, taking care of farm animals, and going grocery shopping occasionally.This lot trait can make your game feel a lot more realistic;in real life, we can’t just spend a bit of money to instantly summon every ingredient needed.
Rewards For Leveling Up The Cooking Skill
In total, there are a lot of recipes, with some only being present if your cooking Sim is in a certain mood, such as Flirty or Playful.
Due to the wide range of foods, we won’t list them all here. When you level up the Cooking skill,be sure to interact with the fridge and select the option to make a new meal.This will pull up all options, including any recently learned recipes.
In general,leveling up your Cooking skill will cause dishes to be of higher quality. Additionally, with higher skills, you will have alower chance of causing a fire while cooking.
Below, you can see some abilities that you can obtain while leveling up the Cooking skill.
2
Combo Add (this is a visual cooking trick)
3
‘Talk about Cooking’ with other Sims
5
While cooking, the ‘Competent Cook’ moodlet can occur
6
Ability to do more tricks while cooking
8
‘Flavorize’ Stove (this increases the quality of the food you cook)
9
‘Give Cooking Tips’ to other Sims
Gourmet Cooking Skill
At level five of the Cooking Skill, youautomatically unlock the ability to make Gourmet food.This is a separate skill that starts at level one. Additionally, there is a new set of recipes that you can make, starting with dishes like Vegetable Tempura, Caprese Salad, and Garlic Noodles.
Leveling up the Gourmet Cooking skill comes with its own perks as well, which you can check out below.
Fancy Spice trick move
4
Cooked Food gives the ‘Delicious Dish’ moodlet
Sims can ‘Research Advanced Cooking Techniques’ on a computer
‘Share Cooking Secrets’ with other Sims
10
Garnish dishes, which increases their quality
What Is The Master Chef Aspiration?
The Master Chef aspiration focuses on cooking, with the ultimate goal of being a"master of the Culinary Arts".
As a reward for completing this Aspiration,your Sim will receive the ‘Fresh Chef’ trait.This will cause your little chef tomake the highest quality food.Additionally, thefood that is made will never spoil.This is great if you like to make a lot of food and store it in the fridge.
Below, you can check out each milestone associated with the Master Chef aspiration.
1
Create 3 types of Excellent Food
