Imagine a low level Paladin with 50 bases Defense who wants to use food that will help him tank. This would be great food for him to eat; it would boost his Defense by 30%, or 15. Once he gets more levels and has a base Defense much above 83, however, hell want to eat food with a higher Defense cap. Since this food will never provide more than 25 points of Defense, someone with a higher base Defense could get more cabal alz added if they used a different food with a higher cap.
 This simple graph from The Wondrous World of Cooking Vanadiel Tribune article displays the effect limits for a handful of Melee Attack Foods. As can be seen, the Grilled Hare starts off increasing the Attack the most for a new character who has very low base Attack. That food stops giving any extra benefits for characters who have 50 or greater base Attack, so characters with greater base Attack will want to use a food with a higher limit, such as Roast Mutton. This type of setup is used on all food effects that increase a status by a percentage amount. The charts below list the most efficient food to use for Melee Attack Foods, Melee Defense Foods, and Ranged Attack Foods. There are also a handful of powerful MP Foods that provide percentage based MP boosts. It is worth checking to see which food would prove most useful in these categories to your character before hitting the Auction House.