Making food can be a tedious process if you HQ every dish, but in order to maximize efficiency, you have to eat HQ food. Either food needs to be increased to three made per synthesis, or there needs to be an option to make up to 3-5 at the same time, similarly to the option to make multiple items that was in 1.0, or even just having multiple made at once like Alchemist's potions.

Another alternative would be to increase HQ food duration from 30 minutes to 60, or 90 minutes. That would be fair for the amount of work and time put into making sure you HQ everything. Another alternative would be to increase Meat and Mead II from 10 minutes to 30 minutes, though not everyone has access to Free Company buffs and increasing the overall duration of food would be best for everyone.