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[Tryptic]

I've had a chef since I started this fortress, and every single time he goes to cook something, he makes maybe 2 barrels worth of food, and then immediately cancels.

He's currently "Proficient", and I'm trying to get him to make dwarven syrup roasts.  I have 972 barrels of dwarven syrup.  I have him set to "Prepare Lavish Meal."  And every time I send him to make a meal, he does maybe 1, and then "Cancel Job".  Usually it's due to something lost/misplaced, or due to something being in use.

If I have multiple other things that he COULD make into meals is it possible that he's trying to grab one of those, and thus I should disable everything else?  I've never had this happen in any of my other forts, so it seems odd to me, but it's the only other thing I can think of.
Or is it something like his job level's too low?  Or something I'm not thinking of?

[IronBeer]

Is Dwarven Syrup enabled as a cookable food item? Try disallowing everything else, and only allowing the syrup for cooking. That should solve your problem.

[Derakon]

To my knowledge such cancellations should only happen due to rot or various "item moved" issues (e.g. caveins, water pushing things around, etc.). What are the exact cancellation messages you're getting?

And yeah, if you only want syrup roasts, then you can disable cooking for the other items from the Kitchen menu off of the 'z' stocks page.

[SquirrelWizard]

I've had this similar problem. From what I can gather your chef is doing this. "Hmmm... I think I'll use some plump helmets, plump helmets, dog meat, dwarven syrup, and cat meat in this recipe." while he's gathering the food, Urist McHungry eats the dog meat. This causes the Chef to throw his hands up in disgust and walk away.

How I fixed this, was I queued up multiple repeating cook lavish meals orders in the kitchen, so that way when he cancels one, he goes onto the next one on teh list.

[Derakon]

That shouldn't be possible. As soon as the cook decides what to use for the meal, all the items involved get tasked and can't be touched by other dwarves. Similarly, as soon as a dwarf decides to eat something, the item he wants to eat gets tasked and can't be used by your cook.

[Nahno]

That shouldn't be possible. As soon as the cook decides what to use for the meal, all the items involved get tasked and can't be touched by other dwarves. Similarly, as soon as a dwarf decides to eat something, the item he wants to eat gets tasked and can't be used by your cook.

I often see dwarves drinking booze in the kitchen, having the cook cancel the lavish meal he was about to make.
I suggest placing the kitchen further away from the rest of the fortress, than the (raw) food stockpiles.
Also, in this case, disallowing the other foods, or the ones that can be eaten raw, should do the trick.

[Malsqueek]

I it possible that the cook wants something that another dwarf is stand on while drinking/eating?

[Will087]

It's what SquirrelWizard said. Items are being snatched out of the kitchen before he can complete the meal.

Just make sure that food/drink is closer to the main mass of dorfs than the kitchen and the brewery.

[Ziusudra]

Maybe vermin with the VERMIN_EATER token are to blame.

[SquirrelWizard]

I dont thinks so, my army (read as the filthy little buggers who managed to claim dwarves before they could be delt with) of cat has done a major number on the vermin population, to the point where the food eating type vermin aren't around long enough to be responsible for the rampant canceled jobs at the kitchens.

also, I moved my dining area to another part of the fort, and there has been a gradual population shift towards there, I haven't had a canceled cook notice in a while.

[Dorf3000]

I've had a chef since I started this fortress, and every single time he goes to cook something, he makes maybe 2 barrels worth of food, and then immediately cancels.

He's currently "Proficient", and I'm trying to get him to make dwarven syrup roasts.  I have 972 barrels of dwarven syrup.  I have him set to "Prepare Lavish Meal."  And every time I send him to make a meal, he does maybe 1, and then "Cancel Job".  Usually it's due to something lost/misplaced, or due to something being in use.

If I have multiple other things that he COULD make into meals is it possible that he's trying to grab one of those, and thus I should disable everything else?  I've never had this happen in any of my other forts, so it seems odd to me, but it's the only other thing I can think of.
Or is it something like his job level's too low?  Or something I'm not thinking of?

It won't get rid of the messages, but you could use the Job Manager screen (j -> m) to queue up lavish meals in multiples of 30.  Then they'll be done at the kitchen once the manager has approved them.   You could also lock him in a room with a specialized syrup stockpile and a kitchen, and let him out when he's finished.

[Tryptic]

Thanks for all the replies.
Since I was working on Dwarven Syrup Roasts, and no one eats Dwarven Syrup anyway, I just set that to be the only thing cookable, like IronBeer suggested, and it worked just fine. 
Now I turn my attention to some of my Dwarven Wine, so I think I'll try the other suggestion of moving a stockpile of booze near the dining room, and see if that helps.

[Frogwarrior]

That shouldn't be possible. As soon as the cook decides what to use for the meal, all the items involved get tasked and can't be touched by other dwarves. Similarly, as soon as a dwarf decides to eat something, the item he wants to eat gets tasked and can't be used by your cook.

This is true. However, I noticed something subtle. When a cook wants to cook some booze, if you look at it in the Job screen, the barrels are tasked. But, when a dwarf wants to drink, the booze is tasked. So the cook grabs a barrel and carries it to the kitchen and goes off for more ingredients. But Urist McThirsty thinks "You know what would hit the spot right about now? Some Whip wine. Hey, there's a barrel in the kitchen. Score, nobody else is drinking the booze!" Goes over to drink the booze, and as a necessary step picks up the barrel, ruining the cooking job.