"I like children. If they're properly cooked."

– W. C. Fields

Why would anyone want to be a chef? Simply, it's huge money. Not so much for the food that players eat (even though I make respectable money selling cooked fish steaks and ribs), but for Tribal Paint. Since the champion spawns have been implemented, Tribal Paint has known an unprecedented success due to Baracoon the Piper. Since wearing paint prevents you from being turned into a rat, every champ hunter in their right mind make sure they wear the paint. Considering the paint automatically wears out upon death, the consumption of paint is very high. You will also require to be GM cook to be able to sign your name of the foods you prepare. Cooking is also required to make smoke bombs (though alchemist too can craft them). Your account must be upgraded to Samurai Empire to make the smoke bombs.

Cooking is really easy. All you have to do is cook, cook and cook some more. While fish steaks and rib are very good for gains, they are also very tedious to do because you will need to separate them to cook 1 rib or steak at the time. If you have a big pile of raw ribs in your backpack, they will all be cooked at once. You will get multiple gains from it but you would get better gains cooking them separately. Your best bet is with bread. Buy flour from the cook and water pitchers from the barkeeper. Make dough then use a skillet to cook the dough. You can go from 0 to GM making bread.