Cook's Assistant is the oldest of the RuneScape quests, and is often one of the first quests completed by new players as it is fairly simple. Players can complete Cook's Assistant without leaving Lumbridge.
It was one of six quests available during RuneScape's launch. Although, Jagex mentioned in the March 2006 issue of the Postbag from the Hedge that Cook's Assistant was the first quest they started to develop.
The quest has become well-known in the player community as a "noob" or "newbie" quest. It is present in many jokes among players, as well as negative remarks. Jagex expanded on this by mentioning it in the 2008 Easter event, in which it was used to make the Chocatrice angry. "...It said you couldn't even do the Cook's Assistant quest", with "it" referring to the creature that the player wished the Chocatrice to turn to chocolate.
Storyline
Duke Horacio of Lumbridge Castle is having a birthday party, and the Lumbridge Castle cook is to prepare the meals and cake. He apparently has forgotten to purchase the ingredients for the cake and hasn't got enough time to get them himself, so is in need of an adventurer to get the items for him.
An adventurer comes across the worried cook, and offers to help. The cook says he is in need of only a few ingredients; a bucket of top-quality milk, a pot of fine flour and a super large egg. The adventurer sets off to collect the items from the local farms. Gillie Groats helps by directing the adventurer to her prized cow, which produces the top-quality milk. Millie Miller teaches the adventurer how to use the mill and create fine flour. The adventurer then finds the super large egg in one of the local farms, before heading back to see the cook. He is greatly pleased, and rewards the adventurer for the help.
Official description
| “ | The Duke of Lumbridge is having a birthday, but the cook forgot to purchase the ingredients for the cake. The Lumbridge castle cook is in a mess; he needs some ingredients and does not have much time. | ” |
Reworks
The quest has been reworked 2 times since its release. The second rework was implemented 15 December 2009. The entire reward for the quest was formerly only 300 Cooking experience and 1 Quest Point. The 500 coins and 20 sardines (noted) were added with the second rework. 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. This meant that players could finish the quest just by talking to the cook twice with the ingredients ready. Jagex most likely changed this to force new players to have a tour of basic facilities of Lumbridge and understand the quest system properly.
Development team
Original
- Developer: Paul Gower
- Conversion: Andrew Gower
- QuestHelp: Nishal K
- Audio: Ian T
Rework
- Developer: Chihiro Y
- Quality Assurance: Daniel G
- Graphics: Matt M
Second Improvement
- Developer: Fred M
- Quality Assurance: Dean O, James H
- Graphics: Alec , Giuseppe G, Daniel J
Walkthrough
| Start point |  Go to Lumbridge Castle. Talk to the cook; tell him that you will help.
|
| Official difficulty | Novice |
| Description | The Duke of Lumbridge is having a birthday, but the cook forgot to purchase the ingredients for the cake. The Lumbridge castle cook is in a mess; he needs some ingredients and does not have much time. |
| Length | Short (5 - 15 mins) |
| Requirements | None |
| Items required | |
| Enemies to defeat | None |
Starting Out
Starting point
To begin this quest, the player must talk to the cook in the kitchen of Lumbridge Castle's first floor. He will tell the player that he needs ingredients to make a cake for Duke Horacio for his birthday. He wants the player to retrieve a bucket of top-quality milk, a pot of extra fine flour and a super large egg, and to bring those items back to him. If you ask where the ingredients can be found, he will mark places on your world map in red, and if you have the quest set as your objective the area items are located is shaded blue.
Obtaining the ingredients
Before heading off to collect the ingredients, players should take the empty pot sitting on the table in the kitchen to collect the flour with. An empty pot may also be obtained at the mill where you will collect the flour. The bucket for collecting milk can be obtained from within the cellar through the trapdoor in the kitchen, or next to the cow where the milk is collected. You could alternatively buy both of these items in a general store. General store icon
Obtaining a bucket of top quality milk
To obtain the top-quality milk, players require a bucket and a prized dairy cow. Just left-click on the cow with a bucket in your inventory.
- The cow field is east of the River Lum. It is just south of the chicken farm. Here you must talk to Gillie Groats for advice on how to get top-quality milk, she will direct you to her prized cow east of her by the fence. There is a bucket beside the cow. You can then milk the cow for top-quality milk. You can also find other cow locations to milk for top-quality milk all around Runescape.
- Originally, you just had to get a regular bucket of milk from a dairy cow instead of top-quality milk from the prized dairy cow.
Obtaining a pot of extra fine flour
To make the flour:
- Pick some wheat from the field to the north-west of Fred the Farmer's farm.
- Head north along the road to the east of the field and you should find Mill Lane Mill, a windmill
. Go inside and talk to Millie Miller about making extra fine flour before you head up to the top floor so she can convert normal flour to extra fine flour. Put the grain into the hopper and pull the lever. Now head down to the ground floor and if you have a pot in your inventory, use it on the flour bin to get a Pot of fine flour.
Obtaining a super large egg
There are two locations a super large egg can be obtained near Lumbridge:
- Fred the Farmer's farm, north of Lumbridge and south of Mill Lane Mill. There is one super large egg respawn here. You can get here by walking north from the front of Lumbridge Castle.
- The farm to the north-east of Lumbridge, east of the River Lum. Cross the bridge going across River Lum North-east of the castle and follow the path north. After a little while, you will come across a chicken farm on the west side of the path. There is one super large egg respawn in this farm.
Now that all three of the ingredients have been collected, take them all back to the cook.
Congratulations! Quest complete!
Rewards
- 1 Quest Point
- 300
experience - Permission to use the cook's range, which gives players 50% greater chance of successfully cooking food below a certain level.
- 500 coins
- 20 sardines (If you have completed the quest before the update that gives you sardines you can claim them by speaking to the cook)
Music unlocked
- None, although players may unlock tracks from the outskirts of Lumbridge if they have not already.
Required for
- Recipe for Disaster
- Medium and Hard Lumbridge and Draynor Tasks
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