In the World of Warcraft, cooking is a secondary trade skill. A player can only have 2 primary trade skills and it is usually one gathering and one that produces items that players can use, a player can have any number of secondary trade skills.
The player who takes up the World of Warcraft cooking trade skill may also choose to supplement it with fishing to gather some of the more difficult materials. And the added benefit of both of these skills is that it is secondary.
Cooking is a skill that can be used to reduce downtime. The items sell back at a small prophet to a vendor, but the primary use for the skill is to provide extra healing between combats. Unlike first aid, where a player can only be bandaged once per minute, players can make use of another cooked item as soon as the heal over time buff provided by the first piece of food wears out.
Other items that players with the World of Warcraft Cooking skill provide additional buffs in game such as boosts to stamina or strength. It is a nice addition to the skill, but it is not its primary benefit.
In the cooking trade skill, the process for getting started is the same for all other trade skills in the World of Warcraft. The player must first purchase training from an appropriate trainers. Cooking trainers can be found in all of the capital cities in the game and in many of the lower level areas. The profession follows the same skill levels as all other trade skills do. First and foremost 1-75 is beginner, 76-150 is journeyman, 150-225 is expert, and 225-300 is Artisan. To get over 300 skill requires the player to have the Burning Crusade enabled.
At 150 skill, the player can return to a trainer to learn the journeyman cooking level, but at 150 the player who takes up the World of Warcraft cooking trade skill needs to purchase to purchase a book. Alliance players may purchase this book from an NPC vendor named Shandrina in Ashenvale, and Horde players must purchase there copy from an NPC vendor in Desolace.
Usually the gathering trade skills of World of Warcraft ask for the player to complete a quest to get to the Artisan level. Both Alliance and Horde players who want to acquire the World of Warcraft cooking artisan skill level will begin with the quest at a different place depending on which side they are on, but the faction NPC for both will send the player to the neutral goblin city of Gadetzan. For the Horde players, the Artisan level cooking quest is obtained in Ogrimmar and Alliance players will head to Ironforge. Once the quest is obtained, both Horde and Alliance characters will go to Ironforge.
There is one thing a player should keep in mind that you need to make use of the cooking skill is a small campfire. Creating a campfire may be achieved by means of flint and tinder bought from a general goods vendor or a player may find it easier to use one of the many campfires that appear throughout the games zones. Once the player who takes up the World of Warcraft cooking trade skill has the essential ingredients gathered, he merely needs to find a small campfire and begin showing off his cooking skills.