After reading suggestions about stews in the earlier post, I misread that as chef.

Then I thought, "Why not?" Perhaps you could train a villager to become a cook in rather the same way as doctors are at present. He could be taught to prepare stews (and perhaps other meals) more or less on his own, without needing to be dragged everywhere. Some of his meals could be good, some bad, rather as the stews are now, with his choice of ingredients random. However, as he worked his way up towards Master the meals could become more reliably good.