[Effedup]

Ok, as far as what foods to USE as a mage, I always go for + mp pies and couple it with whatever mp refresh drinks I can get my hands on...I want as much MP as I can get for a reasonable price (In gear as well, I always try to go +mp as much as possible since I'm elvaan and every little bit helps, taru will obviously have different considerations). In that regards the guide is decent...although there is a few things I didn't bother with crafting for my own use that I technically could've used for other, easier to craft synths.

Now, as far as skilling up cooking in order to make these foods yourself, it obviously leaves a lot out. Whereas a lot of the foods have a definite stats range where they are most effective (for instance, eating food that maxes out way higher than your skill levels is a waste of money since you can't get the full benefit of it), the mp refresh drinks don't apply to that, since you are going to refresh that set amount of MP regardless of your level and stats.

My main goal in levelling cooking was to be able to make my own foods and drinks and save myself the premium of buying it on the A.H...ESPECIALLY with the drinks, which can be marked up quite a bit and don't last long. Of the juices, the only two that I use on a regular basis are Pineapple Juice and Yagudo Drink. At cost, these two drinks cost about 250 gil and about 850 gil respectively (depending on price of the crystals and the materials...get your fame up it's worth it), saving me 300 gil on the Pineapple and 1k or more on the Yag drinks. As well as the money saved, it's easier to carry stacks of mats and crystals then loading up on drinks that don't stack, and making drinks as you need them. I often make them as I need them in a party, and when I'm done finish crafting out the stacks and sell the extras rather than carrying around mats for days at a time (with some exceptions)...I like to keep the amount of extranneous crap I carry around on a daily basis to a minimum.

I would make it a point to level your cooking to at least 60. I spent a lot of time researching prices of mats and what the end product sells for to vendors and the A.H., and have found that with a few exceptions you can level to 60 without losing any money at all in the long run, and even make some profits on some things if you need some quick cash. I tried using some of the various cooking guides on ffxiclopedia and such, but a lot of them are horribly out of date and synths that were huge profits and fast sellers back in the day simply aren't any more. Best bet is to simply do your research, avoid the really nasty synths, pre-60 every synth I skilled up on had 4 or less ingredients, and almost all mats were available from a vendor below AH prices, with the exception of some fish I needed at one point. Don't ever buy mats from the guild because they typically cost much more than the non-guild vendor does, and there's limits on the amounts you can buy in a lot of cases as well.

I have a mule in Sandy, Windy, Bastok and Jeuno, and that definitely helped a ton in getting the different mats (and being able to sell them for profit in Jeuno at anytime if they were a profitable synth that sold well)...if you're going to be travelling around to piece recipes together it's going to be slower going, but not impossible. If you're interested I've been keeping a log of what I've been crafting through the levels, the cost of the mats, whether to A.H. or vendor, break even points, etc...if you'd like a copy send me a PM ^^

Good luck!