My current character is a Sous Chef at pay grade 5 (out of 6). I want her to become a Chef (or Head/Executive Chef). She has Expert Cooking, French, and Italian at 100% and people skills at 70%. The only qualification she lacks is cooking experience – only 95% instead of the required 100%. Cooking experience has been stuck at 95% for a long time.
Does anyone know why she can’t get the final 5% cooking experience?
Hey.
I think you can up your cooking experience by hosting dinner parties and watching the food channel on TV.
Good Luck. 8)
I am pretty sure that cooking experience can only be gained through working in a cooking job. The food channel and the food book increase skill (Basic Cooking, I think) but not cooking experience. My character has given plenty of dinner parties, but I’ve never seen that make a difference.
My character is now at pay grade 6 (max) as a Sous Chef, and the job description in the Career Details screen still does not show cooking experience gain as an effect. Every better job requires 100% cooking experience. It’s frustrating not knowing what the next step is and grasping at straws. Does she have to wait for a special event? Did she miss some experience by skipping over a job on her way up the career ladder? Does she have to increase her IQ to be able to learn the final 5%? The possibilities are endless, but I don’t want to spend hours going down blind alleys.
the dinner parties and tv only work for basic cooking, not the expert one. I just investigated. Its a bit of a fiddle. basically the lower chef jobs (beneath you) give cooking experience, but at your level (more managerial) you don’t get it. Basically You have forgotten what its like to cook because you rose through the ranks too fast 
Ironically, if you take a pay cut and work as a lower chef for a short period, you will rekindle your hands-on skills, and get it up to 100%
OK, I had her take a job as Chef de Partie, and Career Details shows her as gaining cooking experience from it. Thanks, Cliff!