A Happy End
Location
Required Items
Rewards
What the allowance actually buys
One allowance here buys 828,030 EXP, the best of the 3 Lv 78 Culinarian tradecraft leves that record EXP: the runner-up manages 738,830 EXP, 11% less.
Across that rung the return runs from 258,410 EXP to 828,030 EXP per allowance — 3 distinct figures spanning 220%, so the wrong pick leaves 569,620 EXP of the allowance unspent.
On whether to wait: the best Lv 80 Culinarian tradecraft leve returns 724,620 EXP per allowance, 12% less than the best on this rung, while the Lv 76 rung behind tops out at 689,550 EXP.
At Lv 78 this data holds 27 leves paying EXP across 2 categories: the 24 Tradecraft ones average 955,432 EXP per allowance, the 3 Fieldcraft ones 2,129,178 EXP, which puts this leve 13% below its own category's average.
Paella ×3 is a Lv 79 Culinarian recipe, 2 steps deep through 1 intermediate, costing 12 units of raw material and 20 crystals.
Handing that in returns 69,003 EXP and 403 gil for every unit of raw material the order swallows.