Zen Master Cook

After you reach level 575 in cooking (and are Exalted with [faction=1272]) & want to level to 600 fast WITHOUT leveling ANY of the Ways (such as Way of the Pot, Way of the Brew, Way of the Steamer, etc.) for the Zen Master Cook achievement, you can cook [item=86073] or [item=86074] all the way up to 600 from 575. Each of those recipes are located in the "Everyday Cooking" tab beneath all the Ways. Each time you create and cook the recipe, your cooking skill goes up one point, even as you near closer to 600 -- you will still keep racking up points and your the text label on all the food items will remain orange and never turn yellow, green, or white. However after reaching 600, they text will turn grey.

One of the benefits of leveling this way is that you don't have to waste a single Ironpaw token on 100 Year Soy Sauce until you decide to level the Ways later.

If you don't have any of the food items required for [item=86074] and are level 575 cooking, then you might expect to pay a leveling total of 60 Ironpaw tokens to buy the ingredients from [npc=64395] the stockmaster (Valley of the Four Winds: Halfhill Market 53.5, 51.1) (or go shopping at the Auction House). If you choose to do [item=86073] instead, you can expect to spend the same amount PLUS a leveling total of 35 gold for rice from Sungshin IronPaw who stands right beside [npc=64395].

Ironpaw tokens can be acquired in a couple ways. One way is by doing daily quests at the [faction=1272] market. Another way is to collect a stack of 10 Mote of Harmony to combine them into a Spirit of Harmony which can then be traded for an Ironpaw token at a Spirit of Harmony Vendor. There are two in Pandaria: [npc=66678] (Shrine of Seven Stars, Alliance territory) and [npc=66685] (Shrine of Two Moons, Horde territory).

You can get the [item=74657] and the [item=74658] from Gina Mudclaw, [faction=1272] quartermaster. She is located in the market up until you become Best Friends, and then she is located at Sunsong Ranch at your farm entrance.

[item=74657]:

5 Emperor Salmon
25 Striped Melon
25 Witchberries
1 Rice

Requires Cooking (500)
Requires [faction=1272] - Exalted
Requires Level 90 ... Restores 300000 health and (75000 / 5 * 20 sec) mana over 20 sec. Must remain seated while eating. If you spend at least 10 seconds eating you will become well fed and gain 300 hit for 1 hour. Max Stack: 20

[item=74658]:

25 Jade Squash
25 Pink Turnip
25 Juicycrunch Carrot

Requires Cooking (500)
Requires [faction=1272] - Exalted
Requires Level 90 ... Restores 300000 health and (75000 / 5 * 20 sec) mana over 20 sec. Must remain seated while eating. If you spend at least 10 seconds eating you will become well fed and gain 300 expertise for 1 hour. Max Stack: 20

I DID NOT master ANY of the Ways, and successfully received the Zen Master Cook achievement. It is costs 30 fewer gold to create [item=86074] than [item=86073] since you won't have to buy rice.

Right after getting the Zen Master Cook achievement, [npc=64231] offers a new quest called To Be a Master (rewards: 10 Ironpaw tokens and 1 gold 98 silver and 50 copper).

If you are pandaren you need to obtain 615 skill points in cooking to get this achievement.

Minimum level requirement: 80
(Skilling up the "normal" way to 525 and then gaining points with cooking dailies and darkmoon.)