This Cataclysm Cooking leveling guide will show you the fastest way how to level your Cataclysm Cooking skill up from 1 to 75 as inexpensively as possible.
Often the materials are based on a case that you will gain one skill point for each craft. This won't happen, so you will have to buy a few extra materials while you are leveling your Northrend Cooking.
Cataclysm Cooking Trainer
You can learn Cataclysm Cooking from Arugi (Horde) in Orgrimmar, or Robby Flay (Alliance) in Stormwind.
1 - 10
15 x [Darkbrew Lager] - 30 Skin of Dwarven Stout, 15 Jug of Bourbon
The reagents are sold by these vendors, don't buy them at the Auction House.
Cooking Daily Quests
From this point, every recipe will be purchased with [Epicurean's Award].
[Epicurean's Award] is rewarded for completing daily cooking quests. You will get a minimum of 3 [Epicurean's Award] a day, but some of the daily quests reward you with two, so you can actually get up to 5 a day if you are lucky.
You can get the daily quests from Katherine Lee (Alliance) or Awilo Lon'gomba (Horde) in Northrend Dalaran (not legion Dalaran). And from Marogg (Horde) or Robby Flay (Alliance) in Orgrimmar and Stormwind.
Once you have enough awards, you can visit Shazdar (Horde) in Orgrimmar or Bario Matalli (Alliance) in Stormwind and buy new recipes. One recipe usually costs 3 Epicurean's Awards.
10 - 25
Check the price of the items below at the Auction House and choose the one that is the cheapest and you can buy about 20-25 from it. If you have Fishing, you should catch Striped Lurker at Twilight Highlands.
[Striped Lurker] - [Recipe: Lightly Fried Lurker]
[Lavascale Catfish] - [Recipe: Lavascale Fillet]
[Blood Shrimp] - [Recipe: Whitecrest Gumbo]
[Monstrous Claw] - [Recipe: Seasoned Crab]
[Snake Eye] - [Recipe: Salted Eye]
The easiest item to farm is [Blood Shrimp] if you want to farm the reagents. Blood Shrimp can be found in [Abyssal Clam], which is dropped by most mobs in Vashj'ir.
25 - 50
Check the price of the items below at the Auction House and choose the one that is the cheapest and you can buy about 30-35 from it. If you have Fishing, you should catch Highland Guppy at Twilight Highlands.
[Highland Guppy] - [Recipe: Pickled Guppy]
[Blood Shrimp] - [Recipe: Hearty Seafood Soup]
[Giant Turtle Tongue] - [Recipe: Tender Baked Turtle]
50 - 75
Same as above, check the price of the items below at the Auction House and choose the one that is the cheapest and you can buy about 30-35 from it.
[Algaefin Rockfish] - [Recipe: Baked Rockfish]
[Basilisk "Liver"] - [Recipe: Basilisk Liverdog]
[Crocolisk Tail] - [Recipe: Beer-Basted Crocolisk]
[Blackbelly Mudfish] - [Recipe: Blackbelly Sushi]
[Deepsea Sagefish] - [Recipe: Delicious Sagefish Tail]
[Dragon Flank] - [Recipe: Grilled Dragon]
[Lavascale Catfish] - [Recipe: Lavascale Minestrone]
[Fathom Eel] - [Recipe: Skewered Eel]