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Meeting the Critic (Levels 12-15)

If Wugachug was cold, Snowhill was colder. The small village north of Highroad Junction was completely encased in snow, and Ralsu would have to hunker down for a long winter to meet the approval of the finicky critic.

Lucca’s first task was a “double dog dare” to serve some fried starnut sticks and spicy vegetable stir fry. To get the ingredients, I spent some time harvesting in Perry’s Pasture again and then traveled east to the fields near Lakeshore.

Once I had gathered all of the necessary components I slaved over a hot stove to make the food. My persistence paid off because Lucca described my cooking as “decadent” and praised me because “halfway through the starnut stands out” and the food had a “nice, minty aftertaste.” I was a step closer to impressing Chef Bordon Cloo!

Lucca wanted me to practice more before sending me back to the academy in Sanctuary. He advised me to reach chef level 15 before going to meet his former mentor, a robgoblin named Glerga.

Family Recipes (Levels 15-20)

Glerga’s camp was northwest of Lakeshore, and she was a very entertaining teacher. She’d heard Lucca’s review of Ralsu’s talent and was eager to share some of her “family recipes,” which she mistakenly slipped she had stolen from someone else. This wasn’t the time for moral dilemmas, though. If her knowledge would help me get into the academy, I wanted to pick her brain.

Glerga charged me with making fried dumplings and gourmet goulash, which I did as fast as I could. I had to sell some of my old chef’s clothing and utensils to raise the funds for the large quantities of butter and sugar needed in her recipes.

When I had finished her tasks, I got the sense that she really didn’t know how to cook at all and had duped me into making the dishes for her so that she could profit from them. Why a seemingly upright citizen like Lucca would associate with a thieving robgoblin escaped me.

In the end, all was well. Glerga knew one of Chef Bordon Cloo’s personal favorite dishes and offered to teach me the recipe when I reached chef level 20. It seemed the path to culinary greatness did lie with a robgoblin.

Parting Thoughts

Reaching the level cap as a chef in Free Realms came easily for me because of the overarching theme of trying to get acceptance into a famous cooking school. The story and minigames propelled me forward, but the periodic needs to grind out a few levels were disappointing. Having already hit the level cap as a card duelist, I knew Free Realms was capable of delivering an experience from level one to twenty that focused solely on story. A final warning, Glerga’s quest at level 20 required a paid Free Realms account to complete.

Despite my gripes, the minigames involved in cooking keep it pretty fun. I had a deadline for this guide and probably pushed myself to grind more than I would have on my own, but it wasn’t nearly as painful as harvesting nodes all day long and then dropping items in a pot and hitting the combine button that we see in so many other MMOs. All in all, I look forward to pursuing the next set of cooking quests, and I hope to see some of the plot holes I highlighted in my tale filled in with later quests.