Split baking path completely
BK
Now that overall progression has slowed, cooking gains stars with little to do with them early on, other than take skills like butcher, gathering, and farming. This has the effect of cutting off a lot of people who would supply them.
Baking is strange in that it has a wealth of recipes that are "baked "+ingredient. Their current nutrition values put them in a strange place, that is more like a tier 1.5 than tier 2.
Adding an Adobe oven, and shifting those baked vegetables to be tiered with campfire cooking, would create a full split in cooking up the tech tree. It would help diversify early cooks' offerings, and provide an alternative to gathering and butchery.
It would likely need a few additional food assets to be made for good parity, but seems like a logical step toward better balance, and has a pretty light resource commitment to achieve.
Aki Ito
I think its odd that theyd be separated, they both use the same pool of resources and for the most part compete with niche too.
Baking should be designed with the idea that a cook would also want to go baker because it provides something cooking cannot provide. New food options when the current gives you a fine ratio of nutrients, while always appreciated for
flavor
since we have the taste mechanic, doesnt sound like it fixed the problem you just created two paths that both have free stars if they dont want to go other path.To open the idea further, I think baking providing timed temporary buffs and acting as a dessert/appetizer to your main meals and not ideal for food quality on it's own would let it fill a niche not yet in.