i think cooking is great to learn, i have been grinding my skill & ive just hit 300, its a good profession to have simply becuase of, as u say, the buffs they give! +stamina, +mp5, +healing it all adds up!
i got stuck at skill lvl 280, and had to grind my fishing skill up from 150 > 280 (major head ache) just to catch the fish i needed to make the recipes to get to 300!

so beware! grind your fishing whilst doing your cooking leveling ;) big tip