If you are low on leve allowances but still want to level up your Culinarian, Final Fantasy Gold here is a good list of items that you can craft in order to earn experience points. This list primarily considers the cost and ease of getting ingredients; many of these recipes use ingredients which can be purchased completely off of NPCs.
Levels 1-4: Maple Syrup (1x Fire Shard, 1x Maple Sap)
Levels 4-6: Honey (1x Fire Shard, 3x Beehive Chip)
Levels 6-10: Sunset Wheat (1x Fire Shard, 4x Sunset Wheat). Save this for Pie Dough a few steps down.
Levels 10-12: Kukuru Butter (1x Fire Shard, 2x Kukuru Bean)
Levels 12-14: Tomato Sauce (1x Fire Shard, 1x Ruby Tomato, 1x Wild Onion, 1x Garlean Garlic)
Levels 14-18: Pie Dough (1x Fire Shard, 1x Sunset Wheat Flour, 1x Tablet Salt, 1x Mineral Water). You may want to save this for use in later syntheses as it is used in even high level items.
Levels 18-20: Meat Miq’abob (1x Fire Shard, 1x Water Shard, 1x Dodo Tenderloin, 1x Paprika, 1x Ruby Tomato, 1x Table Salt). Buy the Dodo Tenderloin off of the Guild Supplier. Sell these on the Market Boards for a slight profit.
Levels 20-25: Dried Prunes (2x Fire Shard, 1x Water Shard, 1x Pixie Plums. Buy the Pixie Plums on the Market Boards; sell the completed Dried Prunes on the Market Boards to break even.
Levels 25-32: Chicken Stock (3x Fire Shard, 1x Chicken Breast, 1x Wild Onion, 1x Coerthas Carrot). Buy the Chicken Breast off of the Tradecraft Supplier; sell or save for later use, as Chicken Stock has some value.
Levels 32-35: Acorn Cookie (4x Fire Shard, 3x Water Shard, 1x Rye Flour, 1x Table Salt, 1x Iron Acorn, 1x Mineral Water). You can buy the Rye Flour from the Whistling Miller in Gridania to save some time. You can either use these Acorn Cookies for the repeatable leve (recommended) or sell on the Market Boards, often at a slight profit over the ingredient cost.
Levels 38-42: Knight’s Bread (4x Fire Shard, 4x Water Shard, 1x Rye Flour, 1x Mineral Water, 1x Honey, 1x Midland Basil, 1x Chicken Egg). The Rye Flour can be bought at the Whistling Miller, while the Honey and Chicken Egg are available from the Tradecraft Supplier. The only item you have to buy off of the Market Boards to make Knight’s Bread is Midland Basil, making this recipe fairly inexpensive. Sell your completed Knight’s Bread for a profit.
Levels 42-50: Tomato Pie (6x Fire Shard, 5x Water Shard, 1x Pie Dough, 1x Wild Onion, 1x Ruby Tomato, 1x Midland Basil, 1x Cottage Cheese, 1x Table Salt). The Midland Basil is the only item you will have to buy off the Market Boards here, but the shard cost is still somewhat expensive. There are not many high level items that are cheap to cook, so you will want to take this opportunity to use the Tomato Pies you make in this level range to complete the level 45 repeatable leve at St. Coinach’s Find.
Ideally, you will want to wait for your repeatable leves beyond level 30. It is so much easier to just buy Cornmeal off of Littlejohn at The Whistling Miller in Gridania and turn it in for 5 fast levels than it is to try to grind it out during this level range. You can then use Apple Juice to go easily from 40 to 50 without crafting a single item or spending much gil.