FFXIV Culinarian Guide - Let's Cook Something Up!

FFXIV Culinarian guide

Culinarian (CUL) is one of the eight classes in the complex crafting/gathering system of Final Fantasy XIV. The other Disciples of Hand are armorer, blacksmith, carpenter, goldsmith, leatherworker, weaver and alchemist. Culinarians specialize in creating consumable meals and drinks that can have various temporary effects on their users. In this FFXIV Culinarian Guide, you will read everything that is important.

This class can make great use of the components supplied by fisher and botanist gathering classes. Culinarians are the only crafters who can create exclusively consumables and not a single type of equipment. To first become a culinarian, you have to hit level 10 on your combat class and visit the Culinarian's Guild in Limsa Lominsa. The primary tools of this class are skillets and frying pans, while the secondary tools are culinary knives.

The lack of ability to craft equipment items makes it so culinarians don’t have any clear synergy with the combat classes or jobs. There might be some of them who can use certain consumables better than the others, but in general, culinarians are useful for everyone, but nobody really prioritizes them as the most important disciple of hand. That being said, FFXIV allows for leveling all the jobs and classes on a single character and culinarians can bring some really valuable utility.

Being one of the crafting classes, culinarians use the three Crafting Attributes: Craftsmanship, Control, and Crafting Points.

Craftsmanship – responsible for the amount of crafting progress you generate with your actions

Control – increases the chance of crafting high-quality items

Crafting Points (CP) – they’re the resource used for performing certain crafting actions, the more you have, the more skills you can use

Table of Contents:

Crafting Process

Culinarian important skills

Culinarian Progression

Culinarian Leveling

Post level 50

Level 60

Final Fantasy XIV

Crafting Process

To craft anything you have to open your Crafting Log, select the correct item and click Synthesize. This will open the crafting screen for you. Explaining it might be crucial to understand the importance of certain crafting skills.

Progression Bar – to successfully craft an item you have to fill that bar using your synthesis skills

Durability – every use of synthesis skill will decrease the durability of the item that’s being crafted. If durability falls to 0 before you get 100% progression, the process fails

Quality Bar – filling this bar increases your chance of creating a high-quality product. Using HQ components will automatically fill a portion of it. Under this bar, you will see the current percentage of synthesizing a high-quality item.

Condition – a better condition of an item increases the efficiency of the quality of increasing skills. The item’s condition can be excellent, good, normal or poor. The condition can change after every action.

Culinarian important skills

The crafting skills can be divided into two types. Actions that fill one of the progression or quality bars and decrease durability, they also have a percentage chance of success. The other skills work more as assistance to the actions.

Crafting actions

All those abilities either increase the progression bar and have “synthesis” in their names, or increase quality and have the word “touch” in their names. Some of the examples are:

Basic Synthesis – increases progress bar with a 90% success rate, costs no CP, learned at level 1. You’re going to be using it a lot.

Standard Synthesis – advances progression bar with greater efficiency, has 90% success are and costs 15 CP. Learnt at level 31.

Basic Touch – increases the quality of an item with a 70% success chance. Costs 15 CP, you get access to it at level 5.

Hasty Touch – 50% chance of improving the quality of the crafted item. No CP cost learnt at level 15. The most repeatedly used skill when crafting HQ, because of its lack of cost.

Other useful skills

Master’s Mend – restores the durability of an item by 30, for 92 CP. Can be used since level 7

Steady Hand – increases the success rate of the next five actions by 20%. Unlocked at level 9, costs 22 CP.

Inner Quiet – grants a Control bonus with every successful quality increase. Useful for long crafting processes that include multiple uses of Hasty Touch. Available at level 11, the cost is 18 CP.

Reclaim – increases the chance of not losing materials after a failed crafting process to 50%. Costs 50 CP, but it can save you a lot of Gil when crafting difficult items. Unlocked at level 50.

Of course, there are a few other important culinarian skills, we are going to talk about some of them later. These are just examples of what a Disciple of Hand kit looks like to give you an idea about playing as a crafter.

Culinarian progression

As it is with advancing any profession in FFXIV, every few levels you’re going to get a new class quest. Completing your class quests regularly, as well as upgrading your gear, are the things you should always keep in mind.

Class quests

Unsurprisingly the culinarian quests require you to craft certain items. The list of the quests as well as the necessary products goes like this:

Anytime when it’s possible you should try and craft necessary quest items before you even hit the level at which you can accept the task. Doing these things preemptively will allow you to focus on the most efficient ways of leveling your culinarian.

By the way, to complete a class quest or to level, you don’t really have to craft the items in question. You can find them, by them or get them from a friend, the NPCs only care about getting the stuff that they want. That being said, crating process (especially when you’re crafting an item for the first time) grants you really worthwhile experience and missing out on that is not optimal, so we recommend that you craft the required products by yourself.

Culinarian Levequests

And this optimal method most of the time will be Levequests. They are unique for every class, repeatable quests with really worthwhile rewards. The only limitation in doing them is the fact that they consume leve allowances. Every character gets 3 allowances every 12 hours and can stack up to 100 of them.

Levequests are the best source of quick experience gains for almost all of the crafting and gathering classes in FFXIV. If you’re developing more than one of these professions at the same time, make sure you use your allowances sparingly and optimally. Running out of them can slow you down or force you to take a break and play on some of your jobs for a couple of days.

Remember that turning in high-quality items will increase your rewards. If you struggle with running out of allowances, you can turn in exclusively HQ items to optimize your rewards. The downside is that it makes crafting more difficult and risky, so if you don’t have trouble with leve allowances, we recommend not worrying about it too much, at least until later levels. By the way, you can actually turn in bought items that had been crafted by other players. That being said, creating a process also provides some experience, so it's best to keep that in mind.

FFXIV CULINARIAN Leveling guide

Now let’s talk about the best things to do on different levels to make your progression as smooth and quick as possible.

Early levels

At the beginning of your culinary adventure, it might be a good idea to just go through your Crafting Log and use plenty of recipes for the first time, because it gives a great experience bonus. We recommend getting a Company-issue Engineering Manual to increase your experience gains by 50%. You’re not going to make much Gil from crafting in the early levels, so getting through them as fast as possible is a good idea. Crafting various items from the log with the exp bonus will get you to level 15 really fast. There’s no need to do Levequests yet, it’s better to save up some allowances for later.

For the class quests (skipping the level one) you’re going to have to bring these items. At level 5, the Grilled Trout that you can craft using 1 Fire Shard, 1 Water Shard, 1 Princess Trout and 1 Table Salt. For the level 10 quest you’ll need 2 Grilled Dodos, each of them can be prepared using 1 Fire Shard, 1 Water Shard, 1 Dodo Tenderloin, 1 Table Salt, and 1 Garlean Garlic. The level 15 quest requires Meat Miq’abob thay can be made using 1 Fire Shard, 1 Water Shard, 1 Dodo Tenderloin, 1 Ruby Tomato, 1 Paprika, and 1 Table Salt.

Level 15-20

For the level 20 class quest you’re going to have to prepare Dried Plums. To do that you’ll need 2 Fire Shards, 1 Water Shard and 1 Pixie Plums. This is also the moment when you can start looking at Levequests (although plowing through the Crafting Log still remains a good option).

The leves worth considering in this tier are Sweet Smell of Success that requires Lavender Oil, A Total Nut Job for which you’re going to need Walnut Bread and Flakes for Friends that asks you to bring Apple Tart.

Level 20-25

In this tier, we’re looking at level 25 class quest and level 20 leves. The former requires crafting an Aldgoat Steak with 2 Fire Shards, 2 Water Shards, 1 Aldgoat Chuck, 1 Garlean Garlic and 1 Table Salt.

Level 20 brings new viable Levequests that actually require the same products as the ones in the tier before. You can craft Walnut Bread for Brain Food and Apple Tarts for Picnic Panic. If you prefer doing leves that need some new meals and drinks, you can prepare Grape Juice for A Grape Idea or cook Salmon Meuniere for Feast of All Soles. The last one gives the biggest reward, but it’s also the most difficult one to do.

Level 25-30

For the next class quest – The Chefsbane Cometh – you have to cook an HQ Smoked Raptor, the components are 3 Fire Shards, 3 Water Shards, 1 Raptor Shank, 1 Olive Oil, 1 Sun Lemon, 1 Table Salt, and 1 Black Pepper.

To easily craft high-quality items you should consider using HQ materials. Without them, the process requires more time and sometimes a significant amount of luck. Crafting HQ products with normal quality components is definitely possible though. Just don’t get discouraged if you fail once or twice.

Fever Pitch requires crafting Chamomile Tea and it’s a great, easy spammable Levequest, so go for it if you have a lot of allowances. Another wonderful option is Whirled Peas for which you have to cook Pea Soup. Actually, this is a meal that you want to make a healthy supply of. It can temporarily increase for Crafting Point pool, which can prove to be really useful when going for some of the more difficult crafting attempts.

Level 30-35

Cooks and Book which is the level 35 class quest, requires high-quality Ratatouille. It has a quite complex recipe, the ingredients you’re going to need are 4 Fire Shards, 4 Water Shards, 1 Ramhorn Zucchini, 1 Wizard Eggplant, 1 Laurel, 1 Ruby Tomato, 1 Lavender Oil and 1 Garlean Garlic. This one might be a little bit difficult since it requires so many different mats and getting the HQ version of all of them might be a challenge.

True Grits is a great multiple turn-ins Levequest. It requires crafting Conrmeal from 3 Fire Shards and 3 Millioncorn. It’s also a good idea to spam crafting Cornmeal for your own use since it’s a culinary ingredient. It can even be used to craft another leve item in this tier – Cornbread which is the objective of Gegeruju Gets Down.

Level 35-40

The next class quest is called Diplomacy of the Skillet and requires crafting three high-quality items. Black Currant Tart consists of 4 Fire Shards, 3 Water Shards, 1 Pie Dough, 1 Blood Currants. To craft Pastry Fish you’ll need 5 Fire Shards, 4 Water Shards, 1 Pie Dough, 1 Raisins, 1 Desert Saffron, 1 Mirror Apple, 1 Almonds and 1 Table Salt. The last item is Chamomile Tea, you might have done it already for a lower level leve, but its components are 2 Fire Shards, 2 Water Shards, 1 Chamomile, 1 Mineral Water and 1 Honey.

Feeding Frenzy is a great repeatable leve in this tier. It requires turning in Acorn Cookies. While Winter of Our Discontent is a great single Levequest. It asks for preparing a Mugwort Carp.

Level 40-45

For A Taste of Home which is the level 45 culinarian class quest, you’re going to need HQ Dzemael Gratin. The recipe for it is 5 Fire Shards, 5 Water Shards, 1 Popoto, 1 Eft Tail, 1 Sweet Cream, 1 Nutmeg, 1 Garlean Garlic, and 1 Black Pepper.

The aforementioned Pastry Fish is also the objective of a really good Levequest called Pagan Pastries. Another good option for this tier is The Perks of Life at Sea that requires Jerked Beef.

Level 45-50

To complete the level 50 class quest – Revenge of the Chefsbane you will have to craft four high-quality items and each one of them has a pretty difficult recipe. To cook an Eft Steak you’re going to need 6 Fire Shards, 6 Water Shards, 1 Eft Tail, 1 Sour Red, 1 Cider Vinegar, 1 Laurel, 1 Garlean Garlic and 1 Black Pepper. Beef Stew consists of 6 Fire Shards, 6 Water Shards, 1 Buffalo Sirloin, 1 Sunset Wheat Flour, 1 Wild Onion, 1 Sour Red, 1 Mineral Water and 1 Black Pepper. To make Trapper’s Quiche you’ll have to use 6 Fire Shards, 6 Water Shards, 1 Eft Tail, 1 Apkallu Egg, 1 Cream Cheese, 1 Pie Dough, 1 Midland Basil and 1 Nutmeg. Finally, the Crowned Pie is made of 6 Fire Shards, 6 Water Shards, 1 Pie Dough, 1 Mirror Apple, 1 Cinnamon, 1 Almonds, 1 Maple Sugar and 1 Tiny Crown.

The Levequests worth considering in this tier are Drinking to Your Health and Red Letter Day. The first one requires crafting Mulled Tea, while the second one's objective are cups of Rolanberry Lassi.

Post level 50

Post level 50 you can still do Levequests if you really want to, but there are some new, significantly better methods of collecting experience on the crafting classes. We’re talking about Beast Tribe Quests and Scrip Turn-ins system. Let’s explain exactly what they are.

Moogles Beast Tribe Quests

These are some extremely easy and cheap daily quests that can work wonders for your experience gains. The only drawback is the method of unlocking them. To do it, you have to complete a frustratingly long chain of sidequests. They all predominantly take part in The Churning Mists. The first one is given by Mogleo and it’s called A Pebble for Your Thoughts. The chain will then lead you through a total of 19 more quests.

We know that it seems excessive (well, it probably is) but at the same time, it’s definitely worth it. After you endure all of those tasks, you will finally get access to the sweet Moogle dailies. Make sure that you do them regularly and you will get some fast and easy levels.

Scrip Turn-ins

Scrip Turn-ins are another important source of rewards that requires unlocking. Don’t worry though, it’s not even close to the Beast Tribe shenanigans – in this case, it’s just a single quest. It’s called Inscrutable Tastes and you can get it from Morgayne in Ishgard.

After that, you can craft the items that are on the list of Rowena’s House of Splendors. The important thing is that you will have to use the skill Collectable Synthesis because you don’t want to craft regular items, you want to create collectibles. The mechanics of the crafting process are identical, but instead of increasing the quality, you’ll be increasing collectability.

In Rowena’s House of Splendor there will be an item for every level in the 51-70 range. Each of the items will have three levels of collectability. The first one is easiest to craft, but it grants you the lowest rewards. The third one is the most difficult, but turning it in will give you the most experience Gil and Crafting Scrips.

The list of items changes once a day, but during this time window you can turn in as many collectibles as you want. The concept is somewhat similar to Levequests, but with more valuable rewards and without the soft time-gating of allowances. We definitely recommend unlocking it as fast as possible and using this system. This is the fastest way to get to level 70, but it’s more expensive than Beast Tribe Quests.

50+ Class Quests

As far as the high-level class quests go, at level 53 you have to craft two items. HQ Ishgardian Tea consists of 4 Fire Crystals, 3 Water Crystals, 3 Coearthan Tea Leaves, 2 Yak Milk and 1 Maple Sugar. Sohm Al Tart requires 4 Fire Shards, 3 Water Shards, 3 Dark Chestnuts, 2 Highland Flour, 1 Sweet Cream, and 1 Maple Sugar.

Level 55 quest demands three HQ items. Beet Soup is made of 4 Fire Crystals, 3 Water Crystals, 2 Magma Beet, 2 Loaghtan Chump, 2 Pearl Sprouts, 2 Sprigs of Mist Dill, 1 Sour Cream and 1 Abalathian Rock Salt. To bake a Kaiser Roll you will need 4 Fire Crystals, 4 Water Crystals, 2 Sesame Seeds, 3 Highland Flour and 1 Yak Milk. To make a Grilled Sweetfish you have to use 4 Fire Crystals, 3 Water Crystals, 1 Sweetfish, and 2 Volcanic Salts.

For level 58 you’ll cook HQ Cockatrice Meatballs for which you’ll need 5 Fire Crystals, 5 Water Crystals, 3 Cockatrice Thighs, 2 Cyclops Onions, 1 Tomato Sauce, 1 Flatbread and 1 Abalathian Rock Salt.

Level 60 is again three HQ items. Morel Salad consists of 6 Fire Crystals, 5 Water Crystals, 2 Morel, 2 Emerald Beans, 1 La Noscean Lettuce, 1 Young Cielddalaes Spinach, 1 Olive Oil and 1 Sesame Seeds. For Deep-Fried Okeanis you will need 6 Fire Crystals, 5 Water Crystals, 3 Okeanis Tails, 1 Highland Flour, 1 Dalamud Popoto, 1 Olive Oil and 1 Abalathian Rock Salt. To cook Marron Glace you’ll use 5 Fire Crystals, 5 Water Crystals, 3 Dark Chestnuts, 1 Cooking Sherry and 1 Birch Syrup.

Level 60

At level 60 you can unlock a set of dailies associated with another Beast Tribe. It will also require finishing a chain of quests, but this time it’s slightly shorter. It starts with Courage the Cowardly Lupin and it contains 11 more quests. Similarly to Moogles’, Namazu Dailies are really cheap and easy to do.

At the same time, you’ll unlock another option for collectible turn-ins. It’s called Rhalgr’s Reach Custom Deliveries and you can unlock them by completing a quest called None Forgotten, None Forsaken.

Level 60+ Class Quests

Post level 60 class quests are really easy, they will provide you with all the special quest ingredients to all the required dishes. Everything you’ll need is some crystals. The recipe for every single one of them is 2 Fire Crystals, 1 Water Crystal and the quest item they give you.

This FFXIV culinarian guide should bring you to level 70 really quickly and efficiently. Now you can focus on creating the consumables that you’ll need. You can also craft meals and drinks to sell them to other players. That being said, culinarian is usually not the most profitable of the Disiples of Hand, but they’re still a useful class to have.

Final Fantasy XIV

Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn (FFXIV: ARR) is an MMORPG developed and published by Square Enix. Players can take part in a fascinating main story and travel through all the wonderful locations in the continent of Eorzea. The game already had two major expansions: Heavensward and Stormblood, with a third one - Shadowbringers coming out really soon!

The game offers multiple crafting and gathering classes as well as the combat-focused jobs. The players can specialize and become: Paladin, Warrior, Dragoon, Bard, Monk, Black Mage, White Mage, Summoner, Scholar, Ninja, Astrologian, Dark Knight, Machinist, Samurai, Red Mage or Blue Mage.

However, before you're able to pick up a job, you first have to level up your combat class. This is the beginning class that you select during your character creation. The options are Conjurer, Arcanist, Thaumaturge, Gladiator, Marauder, Archer, Lancer, Pugilist, and Rogue. 

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