By the way, the old man does give a cooking tutorial in the Great Plateau, but you have to seek him out for it. Cooking is encouraged there as a way to deal wit

By the way, the old man does give a cooking tutorial in the Great Plateau, but you have to seek him out for it. Cooking is encouraged there as a way to deal with the cold to access one of the shrines. You can either cook hot peppers to make something to keep you warm or you can find a special recipe in a cabin; if you make the recipe for the old man (determining in the process the unknown third ingredient), he'll give you a warm doublet which will prevent the cold from damaging you.