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[SebasMarolo]

so, most of my dwarfs are unfocused after a lack of decent meals... only because they insist on taking food from the prepared fish stockpile or the plants stockpiles instead of, oh, I don't know, the lavish meals stockpile right next to the friggin' tables on the legendary dinning hall! 

I've read that they only get good thoughts about meals if said meal contains something they like... but they dont even try them, they just grab a plump helmet or an anchovy.
is there a way to forbid all non-meals foods from being eaten, kind of how you can forbid certain things from being used in cooking? or to set the rooms containing ingrdients as... low priority or something? I've read about that, but found no explaination on how to do it. 

or some stockpile design to maximize the number of possible ingredients on my meals? maybe they like plump helmets and fish, but none of my meals contain those...

thanks in advance.

[steel jackal]

#1 dwarves get good thoughts from any quality prepared mood, the effect is multiplied if it contains something they like.
#2 dwarves usually go for whatever is closest to them at the time thats edible, try making your fish stockpile out of the way from normal routes, or better yet use designations to set the fish stockpile to restricted, that makes each step cost 25 points to walk through and so the pathing AI will think its a lot longer route then going to the prepared food stockpile

[PatrikLundell]

In 0.40.24 dwarves got good thoughts from high quality meals, and it might still work for stress/morale.
However, the 0.42.X needs system seems to require one of the very few (sometimes one) thing they like to satisfy the Decent Meals need. I've done some investigation by following what every dorf ate for a month or two, and my conclusions were:
- Favorite booze probably counts as Decent Meal. Most of the dorfs who liked some of the kinds of booze I have were not badly distracted (one or two was, but then some morons are distracted due to not hauling their asses to the very accessible temples for praying).
- I've seen a dorf go to the food stockpile, pick up a mug, and then pass by a fair number of barrels to home in on the Rye Beer one he liked.
- I've caught several dorfs eating their raw favorites. Now, I use a quantum stockpile for plants/fruit, so it might be they're able to search a single tile pile for what they want.
- Most can't be satisfied, since they want stuff I can't make, grow, breed, or trade for.
- I was able to catch a single dorf whose favorite ingredient (rutherer) was available as the main ingredient in a couple of meals, and the bugger had picked up something else.

I've also made a suggestion to adjust the food needs so there's a reasonable chance to meet them, at the suggestion board (http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=155850.0) that didn't generate much interest.

Since I think raw ingredients satisfying meal needs are more likely to be met than cooked meals, you may not want to make ingredients harder to get. Another alternative is to store everything in a single minecart quantum stockpile and see if they can pick up what they want if everything is on the same tile. I've heard storage out of barrels (but still in food stockpiles) increases the risk of vermin destroying the food, but haven't seen it myself.

[SebasMarolo]

#2 dwarves usually go for whatever is closest to them at the time thats edible, try making your fish stockpile out of the way from normal routes, or better yet use designations to set the fish stockpile to restricted, that makes each step cost 25 points to walk through and so the pathing AI will think its a lot longer route then going to the prepared food stockpile

How do I do that? I mean, without screwing up.

the fish stockpile is part of a 11X11 room, which is the ingredients stockpile. picture this: a seaside fishing platform, with a raw fish stockpile and a 3x3 down staircase. the staircase connects the raw fish stockpile to a fishery a couple levels below. the fishery is 11x11 too. all rooms are, and they are connected with 3x3 side tunnels or staircases. alright, the fishery feeds through a side tunnel the general ingredients stockpile, which is north of the fishery. the general ingredients stockpile is feed from the east with eggs from a poultry room on the same level, and with quarry leaves from a farmer workshop room on the east, same level too. to the north of the general ingredients is a still room, though they are not connected. the still room is connected to a plant stockpile from the west, which is feed from farms some levels above. the plant stockpile feeds the farmer workshop from the north.

Below the general ingredients stockpile is the Kitchen room. just four kitchens linked to the stockpiles above. I'm trying to put together a network of 1 square stockpiles without barrels to encourage my cooks to grab multiple ingredients, but I cant get my haulers to take the items off the stone pots. the kitchens feed a prepared meal stockpile 1 level below, and that last stockpile feeds smaller stockpiles located around the dining hall and tavern. so does the booze stockpile below the still room. also, none of the stockpiles cover the stairs., but they cover the whole room except for the side tunnels.

Now... should I set the whole ingredients and plants stockpiles rooms as restricted, stairs included, or should I only restrict the spaces containing the ingredients, leaving 1 tile wide "hallways" connecting the stairs to the side tunnels? (I would erase the stockpile on those 1 tile wide spaces, to keep dwarfs from picking up the ingredients stored there)
Also, since the kitchens are linked to the stockpiles, the restriction wont affect the cooks looking for stuff to roast, right?

Also, how do I designate routes?

[PatrikLundell]

The pathing restrictions steel jackal refers to are painted using 'd'-'o'-'r'. I was too lazy to visualize your layout, so I don't know if it will work, but basically, each tile you paint as restricted costs 25 points to pass through, while a normal tile costs 2 (so a 12 normal tile detour is "shorter" than to pass through a single restricted tile. Setting up tile costs won't affect getting stuff that can be fetched from only one place, so linked stockpiles should be unaffected.
I've heard excessive use of restriction can cause huge FPS losses because DF starts to examine rather convoluted routes, so restrictions should be used with moderation.
Also, it seems pathing costs are applied only to tiles crossed, not the destination tile. Trying to use restrictions to get dorfs to stand on tiles protected from evil rain while building turned out to be completely ineffective when the "DON'T STAND HERE" tiles were painted.

Finally, this function has nothing to do with (mine cart) routes.

[Triaxx2]

Dwarves used to ignore vertical distance for the purpose of pathing, so I swapped to an over-undersystem for storages. So you put your prepared meal stockpile directly above/below where it's going to be consumed. So one z-level above the dining room. That minimizes the distance for pathing purposes. The same applies to workshop spaces. Input stockpiles below, outputs above. Input one up for magma forges, outputs two.

[PopTart]

After a few months of cooking, your fortress's food stores should be 99.9% draltha spleen roasts and only 0.1% raw mussels. Just crank out a few thousand meals.

[Saiko Kila]

After a few months of cooking, your fortress's food stores should be 99.9% draltha spleen roasts and only 0.1% raw mussels. Just crank out a few thousand meals.

Edible plants/fruits are problem. If you disable them for cooking (to allow for brewing), then dwarf will eat that apple or strawberry instead of masterful roast, if the plant is one tile closer. The most sure option is to arrange a dead-end storage for food, so the dorfs come from one side only, and make a storage for roast closer to the entry, and storage for raw ingredients a bit further. I made such a swap recently and now almost all dwarves eat roasts.

[Shonai_Dweller]

Just out of interest, as I don't seem to have this problem yet (but two active thrrads seems to suggest it's a big issue), but are 'lack of decent meal' needs really overriding all of your dwarves other needs? What's his overall focus?
Are there some dwarves who don't need anything else but a decent meal of impossible to find ingredients?

[PatrikLundell]

Most of my dorfs get it after some time, but it does not have any visible effects, probably because I've tried to satisfy other needs, but if I understand it correctly, they become sluggish if too many needs are unmet. In my case it's more a matter of wanting satisfied dorfs in my fortress.
Some dorfs do not have some needs, but I haven't seen the extreme case of ones having only one.

[Saiko Kila]

Are there some dwarves who don't need anything else but a decent meal of impossible to find ingredients?

Don't think so. The number of needs is staggering, and I don't have a single dwarf with all needs met. There are too many "umeetable" needs, and even "meetable" are often not met, because the dwarf is occupied otherwise. The issue with meals is that it should be very easily met, with all these cooks and their roasts, and it often is not.

[Shonai_Dweller]

Most of my dorfs get it after some time, but it does not have any visible effects, probably because I've tried to satisfy other needs, but if I understand it correctly, they become sluggish if too many needs are unmet. In my case it's more a matter of wanting satisfied dorfs in my fortress.
Some dorfs do not have some needs, but I haven't seen the extreme case of ones having only one.

Before the list of individual needs, is one overall need value which is what really matters (same rule as Adventurer basically). No roast panda on the menu is sad, but overall if other needs balance out, it shouldn't matter much, if at all.
The list of individual needs is probably a bit misleading 'is unfocused because' probably actually only means 'lost some focus points because '.
100% satisfied dorfs is totally unrealistic (I need a big salary, and every day off work to play DF - yeah right) and hopefully isn't required by the game. Needs more Science to see what's actually happening, but I think some people are worrying too much. A Dorf with a long list is just one who likes lots and lots of different things and is therefore easier to satisfy. Hopefully...