Brain Food
Location
Required Items
Rewards
What the allowance actually buys
One allowance here buys 13,190 EXP, which places it 4th of the 6 Lv 20 Culinarian tradecraft leves that record EXP. The best of them, For Crumbs' Sake, returns 22,960 EXP for the same allowance, 74% more.
Across that rung the return runs from 11,880 EXP to 22,960 EXP per allowance — 6 distinct figures spanning 93%, so the wrong pick leaves 11,080 EXP of the allowance unspent.
On whether to wait: the best Lv 25 Culinarian tradecraft leve returns 55,060 EXP per allowance, 140% more than the best on this rung, while the Lv 15 rung behind tops out at 19,270 EXP.
At Lv 20 this data holds 52 leves paying EXP across 2 categories: the 48 Tradecraft ones average 17,352 EXP per allowance, the 4 Fieldcraft ones 113,304 EXP, which puts this leve 24% below its own category's average.
Gil ranks it differently: 102 gil per allowance is 5th of 6 on the same rung against 4th on EXP, with the best there paying 288 gil.
Walnut Bread ×3 is a Lv 18 Culinarian recipe, 2 steps deep through 3 intermediates, costing 9 units of raw material and 5 crystals.
Handing that in returns 1,466 EXP and 11 gil for every unit of raw material the order swallows.