How do I gain cooking levels faster than normal?

I've been cooking the highest quality meal, which is cookies for me, but it's still taking a very long time. Is there any other way without actually having to cheat to get it to go up faster?

have you taken a cooking class at the restaurant? read the cookbooks at the library?

I've taken one cooking class, I wasn't sure if I could do it more than once and had forgotten to check. Thanks for that tip! Also, I've bought and read a lot of the books from the book store, but some of the ones I bought are grayed out, although I have leveled up so that could be part of the reason.

This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 05/08/12 06:49 AM

Never mind, I've mastered the cooking level. Now to work on fishing and gardening!

In the future, there is at least one of the more expensive stoves that boosts learning speed at least a little bit. Just hover your mouse of them and you'll see it.

Okay, thank you.

I don't consider it cheating if your Sim has the Natural Cook trait. That can also boost learning to cook. Reading recipes also gives a boost.

@GalacticGal: I like your signature.

Do not buy the skill books

Read them at the library your sims get a skill boost gain to get the skills faster there

Get the Tri-forge stove it gives you a boost in learning cooking. As soon as you can upgrade your stove do so, and if you don't mind mods you can use shimrod's mode to have buydebug cheat and get the fridge you get for level 10 culinary, that will nearly always give you perfect meals.

If you have Lunar Lakes, eating from the Tree of Prosperity boosts skills quite quickly.

If you have the Store Set "Technophobe No More", there is a ... um ... SimPad? that comes with the set. Your Sim can learn whatever skill they want from podcasts and/or reading on it (like a Kobo or a Kindle). Love it!

Jaline33 wrote:If you have Lunar Lakes, eating from the Tree of Prosperity boosts skills quite quickly.

If you have the Store Set "Technophobe No More", there is a ... um ... SimPad? that comes with the set. Your Sim can learn whatever skill they want from podcasts and/or reading on it (like a Kobo or a Kindle). Love it!

The problem with the tree of prosperity is that you get a random boost to one of 4 skills, and you can't always choose "Harvest" (which is the cooking one, IIRC). In my opinion, it would be faster to just raise a specific skill the old way.

I think the best use of the Tree of Prosperity is that you can use it while your sim is doing other things than specifically building skills.