Maybe if you could create your own recipes like alchemy or spell crafting in previous TES games, different ingredients have traits or effects and you can combine 2,3 or 4 to make the food you want.

If you could grow your own mats that would help. Lotro has a farming proffiiciency

1) all foods should scale with the user to provide level-specific boost. Each food should have a secondary effect that makes it special (puking after eating worms for non-dark elves? )
Maybe providing a hidden "buff" - 5-10% increased effectiveness in foods your character "likes" (a hidden stat generated upon creating a character), so you have something to experiment with, trying to find out which food gives you best boost.

2) increase caps for regens to AT LEAST double of what they are. Even though they increased regen in some patch in last few weeks, still +2 regen cap won't save anyone! It's downright PATHETIC that we (if we don't overcharge) regenerate about 39 magicka/stamina every second, while abilities need 240-360 every second (if chained).
Absurdly low caps are the reason why drinks are not used beyond lvl ~20.. hell, they are the reason every mage has to have warlock set and/or Spell Symmetry on his bar, and one of the reasons why every non-mage suck.

3) Add some flavor to drinks. For example make character block a few more % damage after drinking HP regen drink, reduce the cost of roll dodge and CC break after drinking stamina regen drink, and so on..