Cooking skill

You start at level 1 after earning 100 skill points. Reaching level 2 requires 1,440 additional points, bringing your total to 1,540 points. The point requirement grows steadily with each rank you gain.

A noticeable jump happens at level 5, which asks for 5,280 new points and 12,580 total points. By level 7, you need 10,140 points from the previous level, bringing your running total to 29,920 points.

The final levels take the most effort to complete. Level 9 requires 17,100 points from level 8, and level 10 takes another 21,120 points. You need 81,580 total skill points to finish the entire Cooking skill.

Your Sim's current emotion changes how fast you earn skill points. Being Very Inspired gives a 1.6 multiplier, while Inspired gives 1.4 and Sad gives 1.2. Avoid cooking while angry, because Angry drops your gain multiplier to 0.8, Very Angry to 0.6, and Enraged to 0.4.

Specific moodlets multiply your skill gains even further, and active multipliers stack together. The Artistic Endeavors and Farm to Table moodlets both provide a 3 multiplier, while Creative Spark gives 2.5. You can also get a 2 multiplier from Fluttering Bliss, Inspirational Flowers, or Savory Aromas.

Universal skill boosts help you level up fast as well. The Snaggle Flustered boost multiplies your skill gain by 4. Parental Guidance and Skilling on Up both offer a 3 multiplier to speed up your progress.

You unlock your biggest batch of recipes early on, with 59 recipes at level 2 and 46 at level 3. Reaching level 5 is a major milestone because it unlocks 27 recipes alongside the interactions to cook gourmet meals, experimental food, and gourmet pet recipes. Level 9 unlocks the Give Cooking Tips interaction, and level 10 unlocks the final 12 recipes, including Neapolitan Ice Cream.

Two careers require this skill for promotions. The Food Critic branch of the Critic career asks for level 3 to promote out of career level 4, and level 5 to leave career level 5. The Culinary career needs Cooking starting at career level 2, and its Chef branch eventually asks for level 10 Cooking to promote out of career level 9.

You can skip the grind by using the cheat console in Live mode. Press Ctrl + Shift + C on PC or Cmd + Shift + C on Mac, type testingcheats true, and enter stats.set_skill_level statistic_Skill_AdultMajor_HomestyleCooking 10 to max the skill.