going for the gourmet achievement had me wondering, are there any items that reduce hunger or speed up hunger cooldown? i've been using the cleansing pools almost every day to clear Melu's hunger at least once. ;~;

I'm afraid not. The pool is the only way.

for the sake of complete info, there is one other way. But it involves battle, a pet who is at least tier 6 (who is NOT the gourmand pet), and 18M sP outlay. which may curse your non-battle pets with hunger (among other things).

Much easier and simpler to use the pools.