Chef Archive
Thread: Chef = Massive Grind-Fest
After reaching chef, I have become totally dissapointed. Novice chef gets me like, 6 new recipes, all of which are crappier then my dom4 foods (with all my artisan experimentation points).
First of all, I cannot get money from chef. People dont seem to understand the importance of food, or, at least the people on Naboo on Tempest dont. Even after putting my vendor on the map, i have not sold 1 thing (I have 80 items on my vendor) since i set up shop 3 days ago. Not ONE thing! Im pretty convieniantly located, too.
Second of all, I can barely make any food. And in order to make food, I have to sit on my ass for HOURS just pointing and clicking. This is not the way cooking should be! Any plans on changing chef xp? This is insane... does anyone have any tips on grinding to new schematics? I mean, at my current rate of making wastril bread, it would take me MUCH more money then I could even DREAM of getting by selling my food.
Its pretty discouraging... I make it tochef, I set up a resturaunt, I stock my vendors, I invest a bunch of money into making this work, and SUPRISE! Time to spend hours pointing and clicking, practicing on bad food so I can finally make better food hopefully *someone* will buy! I
It seems that chefs all head immediatly for Tat Sunburns, as they appear to be the only food people ever buy... whats the point for going up the desert tree? Or the entree tree? And Why the hell is the best buffer located so low on the tree? Oh yeah, I forgot... its to prevent people from quitting chef so early after realizing it would take days straight of practice mode...
Maybe im doing something horribly wrong, but chef comes off as the most useless, boring, and underated crafting proffesion there is. Sigh.
Anyone know andy advertising tactics? I havent sold one thing in 3 days 
Signed, the worlds worst chef
I felt the exact same way, dont let it discourage you. Just work at it and it will come. I started off just like you have and struggled for quite a while. Im not even master yet, just 4/0/2/4 and im sitting on over 1.5 million credits and a careing customer base now.
You'll get there.
wow, thanks for the reassurance, ill keep at it 
And id just like to say:
I JUST SOLD MY FIRST THING! after 3 days, someone FINALLY bought some jawa beer! I am very happy
Well, as far as grinds go, from what I've seen all crafters have this, as well as the "novice elite item worse than Artisan". And I think Droid Engineer is still winning out in the useless race, since only a few modules of theirs (includable in any chassis) are in demand, and a droid is usually a one-time purchase.
Just remember that all chefs hit this hump, and most of us worked past it. For money, you can make some by making stacks of Wastril with as high quantity as you can, and rename it "Pet food". These usually sell for about 25-40 per use. You won't be seeing any decent profit until getting sunburn or veghash, but some of the lower-level foods do sell occasionally. Until then, survey missions are your friend. Find some 65%+ concentrations of gas, ore, or metal around your harvesters, and take missions for that resource type when you go to maintain and empty them.
For sales, I try to keep my overhead low by just putting stuff into the public bazaar. However, if you do have a vendor, a better location for it might be in an armorsmith's shop. Few players have the stats to naturally weara full suit of high-end armor without a buff of some kind. Unfortunately, with the stat bug still unfixed, they can't mix a couple foods and a couple of drinks to boost their secondaries. Although that may require a larger range of skills, since the Dom Arts recipes are light on secondary buffs.
Still, keep at it. Few classes have profession titles as cool as "Iron Chef" or "Expert Bartender". And, um, that Stewed Gwouch sure is yummy! The design for the chef appears hopeful, now if they can just get the implementation working to match it...
Having just recently finished the grind...Iagree its a pain. I found a few things that made it bearable though.
1. Sell what you can on the bazaar. I sold wastril bread (then stewed gwouch), no experimentation, crappy components on the bazaar.WB for 50cr, then later SGfor around 100cr. During the early grind I could barely keep up with purchases (had to grind in the cities and keep my bank full).As time went on, I expanded into other lowbie type foods (synthsteak comes to mind).
2. Branch out. If you can afford it, get a factory, make bofa treats (rename it to show it as pet food) and just pump out 1000 count. Depending on your server, you can sell them on the bazaar for 2500-3000cr per crate (25 per crate), so you can make decent cash that way also. I still sell 3-5 crates of pet food a day.
3. Tat Sunburns are a mainstay; make individually for bazaar selling until you have a factory, then make crates and sell the individuals from the crate on the bazaar...again depending on your server, you can sell them for around 1000-1500ish a stack (unless someone is seriously undercutting the market).
4. Build your own market. Make friends, give out samples, become involved in a PA, educate people about the value of using food. All of these will help create a market for you and your food. Eventually, you should have 5-10 regulars who buy often enough to make it worthwhile. Currently my food vendor is 3k meters from two cities...about halfway between Tyrena and Kor Vella. Evenin the wilderness I get 5+ sales per day.
5. Run artisan missions (with good weapon skill you get missions up to 1800cr). This is a good way to augment your cash flow. I usually spend 1-2 hours a week minimum running them to help out. I don't need the cash now, but its nice to be able to maintain a nice bank account.
6. People will want food you would not expect. I have regulars who like Ice Blaster, Vegarspine, and a few other "non-standard" sellers.
Hopefully some of this helps...most of it is common sense....especially once it was knocked into my head.