Changes

You are probably cooking too high or low difficulty food, (I've heard you can only cook x3 your Hot Cooking Level) at Cooking Level 1 cook a couple of 3-5 Difficulty Foods, to check the difficulty Right Click than then Examine the bowl it will also tell you what the food will turn out as. Try cooking lots of stews at once to gain cooking skill faster. Gaining cook skill is a mystery, although Rolf has posted on the forums the way it should work, what works for one player doesn't always work for another. Use trial and error to find what works best for you.