Foodies unite! It’s that time of year when those of us of the culinary persuasion turn up the heat and cook all the things. Cooking in World of Warcraft can be an exploratory adventure as well as a path to fine rewards; you only need take your pots and pans to special places. Here are our top five spots to chop and char in all of Azeroth.

#5 – The Pig & Whistle Tavern in Stormwind

Your first stop should be in one of your faction’s most prominent cities, where cooking trainers are all set up to initiate your progress, and there’s no finer place to cut your teeth on basic kitchen skills than the old Pig & Whistle.

Located in Stormwind’s Old Town, the Pig & Whistle(1) is full of people who want to help you work your way toward the Lunch Lady and then Short Order Cook achievements. Head right past the bar and down into Stephen Ryback and Erica Tate’s kitchen, where a great fire awaits your preparations of Kaldorei Spider Kabobs and Spiced Wolf Meat with ingredients that can be easily obtained in Elwynn Forest nearby.

Good for:
Easing into a life of hard work over an open flame
Enjoying your first pint
Getting back to work at the stove
Questioning your decision to make a profession out of cooking spiders

#4 – Fizzle and Pozzik’s Speedbarge

If you find yourself asking “what does this boat in a flooded zone have to do with cooking?” consider that culinary pursuits amount to more than mere levels in a secondary profession. This place has it all: gnomes, goblins, the constant threat of Southsea pirates, and an bartender named Daisy who used to start races back before the Shattering and now sells pretty much every kind of spiked beverage you might need. Seriously – if you’re looking to cook up recipes that require spirits, Daisy can probably sell you the spirits.

It’s out in the middle of the Shimmering Deep in Thousand Needles, right above where the Mirage Raceway used to be located when the area was called the Shimmering Flats. Get yourself setup near the bar, and don’t miss your opportunity to start a bar fight. Daisy is the only vendor in the game who sells Bottle of Grog.

Good for:
When you want people to see you on a speedbarge
Starting a fight – seriously you can do that here
Calling in the Brute Squad
I’m on the Brute Squad
You are the Brute Squad!

#3 – Silver Tide Hollow

A number of fine recipes in your collection are for seafood, so you should see your food cooking under the sea! Caretaker Movra is one of the few vendors in Azeroth who sells greasy whale milk(2), a requirement for the Drown Your Sorrows achievement, and sliced raw billfish, which is required for the Cataclysmically Delicious achievement. More importantly, there’s a beautiful bonfire to work with here.

Silver Tide Hollow is in the middle of the Vash’jir region known as the Shimmering Expanse. It’s a wondrous place for foodies, with an abundance of abyssal clams available from seemingly every enemy you might accidentally slay when you venture out into the water. Of course, abyssal clams are your source for blood shrimp, and you need blood shrimp to make hearty seafood soup and whitecrest gumbo, so do some venturing. Sometimes, a chef has to get his hands dirty.

Good for:
Recipes that require a lot of moisture
Putting that Under the Sea song in your head
Darling it’s better
Down where it’s wetter
Take it from me

#2 – The Filthy Animal

The name alone should confirm that this Horde establishment in Dalaran is perfect for putting together a prime pudding. When this area was max-level, this was both the main place for Horde characters to set their hearthstones, as well as the hub for cooks working their way toward obtaining a lovely chef’s hat.

Awilo Lon’gomba and Misensi are waiting for you downstairs in a fully stocked kitchen that still sees plenty of action from players who consider this a cooking spot worth returning to all these years later. Remember Chilled Meat and Rhino Meat? This is the place to take those, although Awilo seems to want meat that’s a bit more gnomish.

Good for:
Jokes about Gnomes as cooking ingredients
Pondering whether those are actually funny
Nervous laughter, anyway
Anxious embarrassment

#1 – Halfhill

The day the Alliance and Horde crashed into Pandaria and discovered this place was the day that cooking truly came of age. Pandaren Cuisine is possibly the best in all of Azeroth, and Halfhill is the center of all things edible. It’s a foodie’s dream come true, and many a hash slinger returns here from Draenor on a regular basis to pick fresh vegetables and season them with 100 Year Soy Sauce.

If you don’t yet have your Apron, Frying Pan, and Rolling Pin, make your way to the center of the Valley of the Four Winds and talk to the cluster of local Pandaren cooks to get started. You’ll be flipping tables in no time!

Good for:
Slowing down
Pounding rice cake
People named Ironpaw
Replenishing the pantry(3)

There you have it — the top five steamy foodie cooking spots in Azeroth. What hot location would you have included? Let us know in the comments below.

(1) Let’s face it – it’s a lot of fun to say “Pig & Whistle”. Pig & Whistle. Pig. And. Whistle.
(2) Short-listed for “Best Named Warm Drink of the Year, 2012”.
(3) Not a euphemism.