Gourmet Cooking skill

Unlocking level 1 takes 100 skill points, and reaching level 2 requires 1,440 more points. The point requirement grows steadily with each rank. By level 5, you need 12,580 total points.

The largest point jumps happen in the upper half of the skill. Moving from level 6 to level 7 takes 10,140 points, which brings your total to 29,920. Reaching the maximum level of 10 requires 21,120 points from level 9, for a grand total of 81,580 points.

Your Sim's current emotion changes how fast you earn skill points. Being Very Inspired gives a 1.6 multiplier, while Inspired gives a 1.4 multiplier. Even a Sad emotion provides a 1.2 multiplier.

You should avoid cooking while your Sim is mad, because anger slows down your progress. Angry drops your gain multiplier to 0.8, Very Angry drops it to 0.6, and Enraged lowers it to 0.4.

You can stack moodlets with emotions so their multipliers multiply together. The Artistic Endeavors and Farm to Table moodlets each multiply your skill gain by 3, while Creative Spark multiplies it by 2.5. General skill buffs also work here, such as Snaggle Flustered with a 4 multiplier, or Parental Guidance with a 3 multiplier.

Higher levels unlock new dishes, interactions, and career promotions. Level 1 starts you off with 26 recipes, while level 5 adds 20 recipes and level 7 adds 21 recipes. You unlock the Share Cooking Secrets interaction at level 9, and level 10 grants the Garnish interaction along with the Ambrosia and Baked Alaska recipes.

Two career branches require this skill for promotions. In the Chef branch of the Culinary career, you need level 2 to advance from career level 6, and level 8 to advance from career level 9. In the Food Critic branch of the Critic career, you need level 2 to move past career level 6, and level 6 to move past career level 9.

If you want to skip the grind, open the cheat console in Live mode by pressing Ctrl + Shift + C on PC or Cmd + Shift + C on Mac. Type testingcheats true and press Enter. Then enter stats.set_skill_level statistic_Skill_AdultMajor_GourmetCooking 10 to reach level 10 right away.