Cook's Assistant

Cook's Assistant is the first RuneScape quest ever released. In the quest, a player must obtain a bucket of top-quality milk, a super large egg, and a pot of extra fine flour. He or she must give the items to the cook, who needs the ingredients to make a cake for Duke Horacio.

It was one of the six quests available during RuneScape's launch, and was originally developed by Paul Gower. It has since gone through a rework and another improvement which introduced different ingredients and additional rewards.

Starting out
To begin the quest, a player must talk to the cook in the kitchen of Lumbridge Castle's ground floor. He says it's the Duke's birthday, and that he has forgotten the ingredients to make a cake for him. He needs the player to obtain a bucket of top-quality milk, a super large egg, and a pot of extra fine flour, and to bring the items back to him.

Obtaining the ingredients
Before heading off to collect the ingredients, a player can take the empty pot sitting on the table in the kitchen to collect the flour with. The bucket for collecting the milk can be obtained in the Lumbridge cow field, east of River Lum and south of the chicken farm, next to the prized dairy cow from which the top-quality milk can be collected. One could alternatively buy both of the items in a general store.

Obtaining a bucket of top-quality milk
To obtain a bucket of top-quality milk, a player can go to the Lumbridge cow field. One must take a bucket and use it on the prized dairy cow to obtain the milk.

Obtaining a super large egg
To get a super large egg, a player can visit Fred the Farmer's farm, north of Lumbridge Castle and south-east of Mill Lane Mill, a windmill, and pick up the super large egg there. He or she can also get one in the chicken farm north-west of Lumbridge Castle and west of River Lum.

Obtaining a pot of extra fine flour
A player should pick up some wheat from the field west of Fred the Farmer's farm, leave the field, and head north to Mill Lane Mill. He or she must talk to Millie Miller about making extra fine flour before climbing to the top floor, so she can convert normal flour into the extra fine one. A player has to use the grain with the hopper, and operate the hopper controls, which will cause the grain to grind. One should head down to the ground floor, and empty the flour bin by clicking on it.

Completion
He or she should take the ingredients back to the cook in the castle. A player must talk to the cook, and give him the ingredients to complete the quest.

Rewards and music unlocked


Upon completion of the quest, a player is awarded a quest point, 300 Cooking experience, 500 coins, 20 sardines, and permission to use the Lumbridge Castle range, which burns less food than any other range in RuneScape. If someone has completed the quest before the update that awards 20 sardines and 500 coins, he or she can claim them by speaking to the cook.

A player may unlock some music tracks around Lumbridge if he or she is exploring the areas for the first time in the process of obtaining the ingredients.

Required for
Cook's Assistant is required to complete the quest Recipe for Disaster, and medium and hard Lumbridge and Draynor Tasks. It is also one of the requirements in order to buy a Lumbridge painting.

Development and release
Cook's Assistant was first released on 4 January 2001 on the launch on RuneScape Classic, the same day the Restless Ghost, Demon Slayer, Romeo and Juliet, Shield of Arrav and Sheep Shearer quests were released. It was originally developed by Paul Gower, one of the co-founders of Jagex. Andrew Gower, another co-founder, originally did the conversion, while Nishal K did the QuestHelp and Ian T did the audio for the quest.

The quest has been reworked since its release. The rework was developed by Chihiro Y, the Quality Assurance was done by Daniel G, and the graphics were done by Matt M.

Another improvement was implemented on 15 December 2009. The 500 coins and 20 sardines rewards were added with it. The improvement also changed the type of ingredients that were required. Beforehand, the player only had to bring an ordinary egg, bucket of milk and flour to the cook, which meant that players could finish the quest just by talking to the cook twice with the ingredients ready. The second improvement was developed by Fred M, the Quality Assurance was done by Dean O and James H, and the graphics were done by Alec V, Giuseppe G, and Daniel J.

Reception and sequel
In a 2007 poll, 3% of players voted that Cook's Assistant was their favourite novice quest. In another poll in the same year, 50% of players voted that it was the first quest they completed. A sequel to the quest, Recipe for Disaster, the one hundredth quest, was released on 15 March 2006.