Cook's Assistant

Cook's Assistant is the first RuneScape quest ever released. In the quest, you must obtain a bucket of top-quality milk, a super large egg, and a pot of extra fine flour. You must give the items to the cook, who requires the ingredients to make a cake for Duke Horacio.

This quest was one of the six available during RuneScape's launch, and was originally developed by Paul Gower. It has since gone through a rework and another improvement which introduced different ingredients and additional rewards.

Starting out
To begin the quest, talk to the cook in the kitchen of Lumbridge Castle's ground floor. He tells you that it's Duke Horacio's birthday, but that he has forgotten the ingredients to make a cake for him. Thus, he requires you to bring him a bucket of top-quality milk, a super large egg, and a pot of extra fine flour.

Obtaining the ingredients
Before heading off to collect the ingredients, it is advised to take the empty pot sitting on the table in the kitchen to collect the flour with. The bucket for collecting the milk can be obtained in the Lumbridge cow field, east of the River Lum and south of the chicken farm, next to the prized dairy cow from whom the top-quality milk is collected. One could alternatively buy both of the items in a general store.

Obtaining a bucket of top-quality milk
A bucket of top-quality milk may be obtained from the Lumbridge cow field. To do this, simply use a bucket on the prized dairy cow.

Obtaining a super large egg
To obtain a super large egg, visit the chicken farm in Lumbridge, east of the River Lum, and pick up the super large egg there. The egg can also be found in Fred the Farmer's farm, which is north of Lumbridge Castle and south-east of Mill Lane Mill, a local windmill.

Obtaining a pot of extra fine flour
Lastly, to obtain the extra fine flour, you should pick up some wheat from the field west of Fred the Farmer's farm, leave the field, and head north to Mill Lane Mill. Speak to Millie Miller about making extra fine flour before climbing to the top floor, so she can convert regular flour into the extra fine kind by realigning millstones. Use the grain with the hopper and operate the hopper controls, in order to cause the grain to grind. Finally, head down to the ground floor and empty the flour bin by clicking on it.

Completion
To wrap up, take the ingredients back to the cook in the castle. Speak to him for the final time, and give him the ingredients to complete the quest.

Rewards


The following are rewarded to you upon completion of the quest:
 * A quest point
 * 300 Cooking experience
 * 500 coins
 * 20 sardines
 * Permission to use the Lumbridge Castle range, which has a lesser ratio of burning food than other ranges.

If you have completed the quest before the update that awards 20 sardines and 500 coins, you can claim them at any time by speaking to the cook.

Required to complete
The completion of Cook's Assistant is a requirement to complete the following:
 * Recipe for Disaster
 * Lumbridge and Draynor Tasks:
 * Medium: "A Meal Fit For a Duke"
 * Hard: "Have your Cake and Eat It"

Development and release
Cook's Assistant was first released on 4 January 2001 on the launch of RuneScape Classic, the same day The Restless Ghost, Demon Slayer, Romeo & Juliet, Shield of Arrav and Sheep Shearer quests were released. It was originally developed by Paul Gower, one of the co-founders of Jagex. Andrew Gower, another co-founder, originally did the conversion, while Nishal K did the QuestHelp and Ian T did the audio for the quest.

The quest has been reworked since its release. The rework was developed by Chihiro Y, the Quality Assurance was done by Daniel G, and the graphics were done by Matt M.

Another improvement was implemented on 15 December 2009. The 500 coins and 20 sardines rewards were added with it. The improvement also changed the type of ingredients that were required. Beforehand, players only had to bring an ordinary egg, bucket of milk and flour to the cook, which meant that they could just finish the quest by talking to the cook twice with the ingredients ready. The second improvement was developed by Fred M, the Quality Assurance was done by Dean O and James H, and the graphics were done by Alec V, Giuseppe G, and Daniel J.

Reception and sequel
In a 2007 poll, 3% of players voted that Cook's Assistant was their favourite novice quest. In another poll in the same year, 50% of players voted that it was the first quest they completed. A sequel to the quest, Recipe for Disaster, was released on 15 March 2006.