My current colony has three cooks and every one of them is skill 10 or above. Yet I still get messages of food poisoning and the cause is always "incompetent cook" when it's clearly the vast amount of filth in the kitchen causing the food poisoning. Perhaps it's the mods I'm rolling with, but the game seems incapable of distinguishing inherent skill from environmental factors, and I think the cooks deserve better.
would more than likely be from dirty environment, doesnt matter what the skill is gordan ramsey in a dirty kitchen would make a bad meal if the environment was dirty.
You maybe assosiate "incompetent cook" just at the skill level.
But more things influence the food poisoning chance.
Like viper mention the cleaness is a big factor too.
You should look some kitchen tv-show's like from Gorden Ramsey when you see sometimes kitchen the cook never done any cleaning so far.
Many people don't floor their kitchen because dirt/soil can't be dity.
At early state the metal floor is a good choise because it give a bonus at cleanness like sterile tile.
And if i remember right the gourmant trait lower the chance too.
as they said, its probably the kitchen. i have had several plays with 10+ skill cooks and no food poison ever... Until for some reason the kitchen gets dirty (cleaner down from injuries), and suddenly everyone becomes poisoned.
Having 10+ skill on your cooks is good, but if a cook is missing an arm or an eye, it might not be enough to avoid food poisoning.
And then there is a wierd game mechanic thatcounts food poisoning on "per stack" basis. So if you had 9 meals that were totally safe, and them a guest you had in your colony temporarily, decided to use his grand skill of 2 to cook 1 meal and botched, you suddenly have 10 meals each with a chance of food poisoning.