What determines which food skills are available?

Question

In previous Monster Hunter games, the logic of which food skills were available seemed more apparent. However, MHGen has changed up the cooking system. Skills seem to be determined largely by spices which you add, but what determines the selection of these?

Answer 1

The food you're ordering affects the skils you get from spices. More specifically:

• Food that grants no boosts will always offer Felyne Rider, Foodie, Gamechanger, Groomer, Lander, Specialist, and Weakener.
• Food that grants attack boosts will always offer Felyne Polisher, Slugger, Specialist, Sharpshooter, Temper, Bombardier, Black Belt, Slider, Escape Artist, Riser (Lo), and Groomer.
• Food that grants defense boosts will always offer Felyne Defender (Lo), Defender (Hi), Medic, Moxie, Acrobat, Feet, Combiner (Hi), Dungmaster, Oracle, Insomniac, and Weakener.
• Food that grants elemental resistances will always offer [Gatherer, Woodsman, Cliffhanger], [Gatherer, Courage, Escape Artist], [Supercat, Escape Artist, Lander], [Fisher, Cliffhanger, Lander], Escape Artist, Moxie, Trainer, and Combiner (Lo).
• Food that grants Dragon resistance will always offer Felyne Booster, Kickboxer, Carver (Lo), Insurance, Lucky Cat, Unlucky Cat, Explorer, Hostler, and Fighter.

This does not account for daily skills. There's also something different going on with the various "Dragon" foods, but I can't quite tell what.

Additionally, you can filter your food by just one of those categories, although lumping together elemental resistances and Dragon resistance, by pressing X. You can then also filter spices by offensive skills, defensive skills, or "Other".