Cook's Assistant

Cook's Assistant is the first RuneScape quest ever released. In the quest, players must obtain a bucket of top-quality milk, a super large egg, and a pot of extra fine flour. They need to give the items to the cook, who requires the ingredients to make a birthday 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.

A feast for a Duke
To begin the quest, talk to the cook in the Lumbridge Castle's kitchen, which is on the ground floor. He tells you that it is Duke Horacio's birthday, and he is supposed to prepare a cake for the celebration, but he has forgotten to bring some of the ingredients required for the cake. Thus, he requires you to bring him a bucket of top-quality milk, a super large egg, and a pot of extra fine flour.

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.

Top-quality milk
A bucket of top-quality milk may be collected from the Lumbridge cow field. To obtain the milk, simply use a bucket on the prized dairy cow. A bucket may be found near the cow.

Super large egg
To acquire 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 outside Fred the Farmer's farm, which is north of Lumbridge Castle and south-east of Mill Lane Mill, a local windmill.

Extra fine flour
Lastly, to obtain the extra fine flour, pick up some wheat from the field west of Fred the Farmer's farm. Leave the field, and head north-east 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 wheat with the hopper and operate the hopper controls, in order to cause the wheat to grind. Finally, head down to the ground floor and empty the flour bin by clicking on it.

Delivery
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:
 * 1 quest point
 * 300 Cooking experience
 * 500 coins
 * 20 sardines
 * Permission to use the Cook-o-matic 25, which has a lower chance 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 for completing
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, also contributed to the quest, while Nishal K did the QuestHelp and audio developer Ian Taylor worked on the audio for the quest. A rework of the quest was developed by RuneScape game designer Chihiro Yamada, the Quality Assurance was completed 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 updated 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.

Trivia

 * For the 2013 April Fools' Day, a video was released by Jagex showing the development of 'Cook's Assistant: The Musical', to emphasise how iconic the quest is.