Just want to thank the OP for this thread.

I've tried in the past to level cooking on a character and grew bored long before I got anywhere near 300.
In comparison, doing this yesterday got me to 300 in no time, at no cost (I think the quests more than covered it)

I also found that you don't need to go to outlands to get the training for the next level. I just went to the cooking trainer in the inn in dalaran (I'm alliance) and bought the skill from them.

I may spend a bit of time on friday just killing a load of turkeys to get as close to 350 as possible.