LOTRO Guides

Advancing in cooking isn’t all just collecting ingredients and pushing buttons. In order to advance through the tiers of Cooking and emerge a Grand Master, you must complete the following five quests.

Journeyman: A Taste of Skill, Part I

You get this quest from any Novice Cook (list). To complete this quest you must talk to Alken Chubb at Green Dragon Inn, Bywater in the Shire (31.80S, 69.64W). After you speak with him you will receive Craft Cook Complete Proficiency Tier I which allows you to advance to the next Cooking tier. Pretty simple, huh?

Expert: A Taste of Skill, Part II

You also get this quest from any Novice Cook (list). But for this quest you will be required to learn and use a new recipe, Serene Stew.

To get the recipe for Serene Stew and advance along this quest you must once again talk to Alken Chubb at the Green Dragon Inn (31.80S, 69.64W). It is a lot easier to to gather the ingredients for this quest before you talk to him.

Make sure to pick up 1x Water, 1x Cut of Beef and 2x Taters and 1x Shire Seasonings (for the Spiced Potatoes) before leaving your Novice Cook. You will also need a Yellow Onion which you can farm or buy from the Auction House. The difficult-to-get ingredient for this recipe is a sprig of Mountain Basil found on Weathertop in the Lone-Lands. Weathertop is located northwest of the Forsaken Inn.

For completing this quest you will receive Craft Cook Complete Proficiency Tier II.

Artisan: A Taste of Skill, Part III

To unlock the next cooking skill tier, Tier III, you will once again receive a quest from any Novice Cook (list). This time you must talk to Rollo Hamson who lives in Buckland near the Brandywine Bridge (31.79S, 62.67W). For doing this you will receive Craft Cook Complete Proficiency Tier III.

Superior: After completing the Artisan Quest, Rollo Hamson gives you the following quests, known collectively as The Short Order Cook quest.

• Fill Alken Chubb’s order at The Green Dragon in Hobbiton-Bywater (31.80S, 69.64W).
  • 3x Pork Sausage
  • 2x Vegetable Medley
• Fill Ruby Hollowbanks’ order at The Floating Log in Frogmorton(31.66S, 68.04W).
  • 3x Complete Hobbit Breakfast
  • 2x Blueberry Muffins
• Fill Rollo Bunce’s order at the The Plough and Stars in Brockenborings (27.64S, 68.08W).
  • 1x Mushroom Pie
  • 3x Stuffed Cabbage
  • 1x Spiced Apple Pie
• Fill Pansy Proudfoot’s order at The Golden Perch in Stock (31.98S, 63.79W).
  • 2x Marinated Chicken Cutlets
  • 3x Spiced Potatoes
• Fill Esmerelda Burrows’ order at The Bird and Baby, in Michael Delving (33.38S, 75.36W).
  • 2x Salted Beef Delights
  • 2x Shire rations

When you have completed all these quests return to Rollo Hamson to gain the trait that allows access to the Superior Ovens in Michel Delving. Completing this quests will also allow you to complete the next and final quest below.

Master: A Taste of Skill, Part IV

Jewel Underhill, the Expert Cook in Michel Delving (34.58S, 75.52W), will ask you to speak with Pasco Grubb in Michel Delving (34.6S, 75.6W). He wants you to cook a Roast of Heroes, which is composed of 1x Savory Seasonings and 1x Giant Boar Flank.

The Giant Boar Flank comes from the level 37 Giant Grey Stonehoof boar which you can find in the northern part of Giant Valley in the Trollshaws (6.6S, 34.8W). While the boar itself is not the hardest beast to defeat, this area is exceedingly dangerous so you should bring some friends.

And finally you will receive Craft Cook Complete Proficiency Tier IV, the top tier of Cooking in LOTRO.

Ered Luin, also known as Ered Lindon and the Blue Mountains, is the LotRO home to the Dwarf and Elf races. Like Bree-land and the Shire there are a good number of deeds to be completed here.

Like the Bree-land deed The History of the Dúnedain, Ered Luin has the deed Elf-Ruins Exploration which you can complete by visiting several areas representing ancient abodes of the Elves in the area. For completing this deed you will receive the Virtue Trait Wisdom+1.

• Nen Hilith (29.4S, 95.2W)
• Tham Gelair (27.5S, 94.4W)
• Limael’s Vineyard (26.2S, 95.9W)
• Dol Ringwest (24.9S, 95.0W)
• The Wardspire (17.8S, 90.1W)

To help find these locations, the direct link to the Middle Earth HQ map of Ered Luin is here.

Lore: The Blue Mountains

From Wikipedia entry on Ered Luin:

“The mountain range was broken during the war of the Valar against Morgoth, and at the middle of the range the sea broke through, creating a new terminus for the river Lhûn. In the middle of the gap, where the Lhûn met the sea, the Grey Havens of Mithlond of the Elven Kingdom of Lindon were built. When seen as the border of Lindon the Ered Luin were called Ered Lindon.”

From lotro.com’s Points of Interest:

“Hundreds of years before the events of The Lord of the Rings, the Elves of Lindon founded a refuge upon the slopes of Ered Luin, where wood for the White Ships was gathered and elven wine was made. Edhelion, it was called, and it was a place of contemplation and peace . . . until Skorgrím Dourhand, an evil Dwarf-lord descended from the kings who once ruled the long-ruined kingdoms of the Blue Mountains, led his people, allied with goblins and trolls, against this elven refuge”