Allow food to be kept for 30 minutes (even across dead)

[bluerei]

You seem to miss the point. The risk versus reward of food isn't there. It gives you a nearly negligible amount of stats, and it costs a ridiculous amount of gil. even without relying on even 1 star foods they cost 3-5k gil. It basically adds a 5k gil death penalty to every time you die. That isn't even remotely close to the value they give, which is the biggest problem.

If the game was supposed to have a more substantial death penalty, it should be everpresent, not as something that basically makes culinarian useless job.

Not missing the point at all. Keep the risk there. Don't want to lose on 5k? Then prepare yourself before battle and try to survive to the best you can. Don't eat it if you feel you'll die. That's what I'm saying. This suggestion is taking out another consequence of dying, in which death already is more of an annoyance than a consequence in this game.