Yeah, it felt like it. All those clicks... for nothing.
Skills too? And without any crafting skill? Man thats going to be a mess

Anyway, as in the first game, it would be better to find more recipe books sooner and it wouldnt hurt to get a few from, or buy them from cooks and bartenders.
If we could combine most of food items to get few different meals and potion ingredients with each other to get some kind of potions with two or more nerfed effects that would be swell.