Sole Survivor

One allowance here buys 20,330 EXP, which places it 5th of the 6 Lv 30 Culinarian tradecraft leves that record EXP. The best of them, Bloody Good Tart, This, returns 72,430 EXP for the same allowance, 256% more.

Across that rung the return runs from 17,230 EXP to 72,430 EXP per allowance — 6 distinct figures spanning 320%, so the wrong pick leaves 55,200 EXP of the allowance unspent.

On whether to wait: the best Lv 35 Culinarian tradecraft leve returns 79,780 EXP per allowance, 10% more than the best on this rung, while the Lv 25 rung behind tops out at 55,060 EXP.

At Lv 30 this data holds 52 leves paying EXP across 2 categories: the 48 Tradecraft ones average 44,832 EXP per allowance, the 4 Fieldcraft ones 275,323 EXP, which puts this leve 55% below its own category's average.

Baked Sole ×3 is a Lv 30 Culinarian recipe, 2 steps deep through 1 intermediate, costing 4 units of raw material and 7 crystals.

Handing that in returns 5,083 EXP and 29 gil for every unit of raw material the order swallows.

The record carries a repeats value of 2. This site reads that as 2 further turn-ins on the same leve — an assumption, because the source data defines no meaning for the field — which would put the ceiling at 60,990 EXP and 342 gil for the 1 allowance it costs, or 60,990 EXP per allowance.