Cooking not being recognized as leveled up

I bought recipes for level 55 cooking and grindeed from level 37 to 56 to use Wolf Surprise and Venison Surprise and any other recipe level 55 shows up as 'RED' for me.

Now the stat number on my cooking pot is 56, the green number inside the box for skills says that I'm +52.9 cooking Proficiency.

Is the number 55 for recipes associated with proficiency or level?

 

proficiency. proficiency gains decrease as levels increase: they're even at 50 but level 100 is only about 70 proficiency. you can get some temporary proficiency from expert stations, tools, and devotionals.