IMHO, mostly everyone later in game uses Hero pots, so alchemy is more needed. As for gathering, it should be about the same.
Some food you can get for free from house keepers, but everything lests shorter (HK food and pots are mostly 5 min buffs) and expires in 24 hours if not used. For HK food you know what you will get for level of cooking, but good luck getting pots you need. (I have 6 house keepers and still I can end up without clear thoughts pot

)
Just so you know, thanks to limits in design, you will not be able to have 1 toon gather, refine and produce pots/food at master level. For that you need 3 toons - 2 to gather and 1 to produce pots/food.