Food made from cooking should give a minor bonus

[MAGIC]

Right now there doesn't seem to be any benefit from the foods made by the Cooking system. I think giving the player some temp hp based on the DC of the food recipe could be a nice benefit for the skill. The temp hp would only be gained after resting, so there's no stacking opportunities. A simple formula like temp hp based on the DC of the recipe would make it easy to implement as you wouldn't need to go through and individually add variables or properties to every item.

I think 1 temp hp per 3 DC would be a nice bonus. A basic DC5 cooking recipe would only give 1 hp, while a DC27 recipe would give 9 temp hp. The higher end recipes in the 37s would give 12 temp hp. A measurable bonus, but not crazy, and certainly something worth seeking out and paying for.

[Grouch]

You have not seen the heights of cooking my friend, you have lofty peaks yet to climb.

I also love the mundane food and its variety, have a FEAST.

[MAGIC]

I'm not really happy with it as a player who is trying to use it.

I spent  over 1000gp (not hyperbole, I can show you the spreadsheets) since the most recent changes that invalidated all of my recipes trying to relearn the base recipes I already knew in the candy & cakes  branches. Your idea to "suggest more food items" will wipe that all out and I'll have to start over again. This is a very punishing prospect since going by the response that I have gotten from my efforts in game I will never make that money back. Some of the food items you mentioned are in alchemy, not cooking.

If I'm lucky, a total of 5 players out of the entire playerbase will want to buy a single lollipop for 10gp or some other food for 25-40gp.

Most of the time when I run a shop or try to engage people, they click on my stall, and half a second later walk on by without saying a word. It happens faster than I can say "hello". I struggle to give them away. The truth is, outside of a very small minority of players, nobody is interested. And if there is no interest in it, it generates very little rp beyond my char just saying that she is a chef.

It is a huge gold and time investment with no benefit. I could just as easily just say that I'm a confectioner and candy maker without actually making any items, and it would have the same effect on rp and interactions.

Temp HP from food is only supernatural if you say it is. There are plenty of mundane items in the server that give mechanical, bonuses of some form or another, and nobody is up in arms about them being supernatural. Just say it is a morale bonus or health bonus from eating something beyond stale bread.

[Wench]

A cute suggestion to save on gold cost would be have someone that sells cooking supplies packs, you spend X amount of gold and get X amount of random supplies, make the cost less then the amount of stuff in the pack and maybe if possible have every pack randomized.

Consider a free use kitchen in Ticker that way people don't have to use supply to find one in the rings, or join a house, after all if it's supposed to be mundane then making it more common to jump into from the start isn't a bad option.