Under the Spotlight­—Gaming Cookbooks

Cooking is an essential part of my life. Although I can’t spare more time for it these days and lean into the Grandiosas and Dr. Oetker Ristorantes of the seemingly endless pizza market of the Finnish grocery stores, I still like to cook good meals when I can find the time. Four months ago or so, when I was drinking at a friend’s house, they offered to make me a drink from the book Lovecraft Cocktails by Mike Slater. The cocktail was pretty good, and I glanced at the pages it came from. It was printed on a fancy glossy paper and the art, drawn by the author himself, was phenomenal. At that point, I started to think that I had never really read game cookbooks, even though I like to cook and game­—also I’m a sucker for good merch. Then I decided to read some gaming cookbooks, and I managed to finish three of them.

The first book I decided to look at was Stardew Valley’s cookbook, creatively named The Official Stardew Valley Cookbook, written by ConcernedApe and Ryan Novak. The art of the book gives off a very cozy vibe, mimicking the general atmosphere of the game itself. As an avid Stardew Valley player, I immediately felt like the book captured the game’s spirit rather well. The narrator of the book is the Queen of Sauce, the character in the game, whom you learn the recipes from. The book also promotes fresh recipes and suggests that you use fresh vegetables and fruits from the garden if you can, in true Stardew fashion. The different recipes are grouped into four different categories: Spring, Summer, Fall, and Winter. Most of the recipes also exist in the game, but they are mostly regular recipes. Instead of teaching you how to cook an omelet and roasted parsnips with baby arugula, the book teaches you how to make a “Farmer’s Lunch.” However, the book also explains what a Farmer’s Lunch exactly connotes in culinary jargon. Thematically, the book is fun to read and the art is cute, but aside from these, it is just a regular cookbook. Fun to have around, but if you are a seasoned home cook, I doubt you’d learn anything groundbreakingly new.

After I finished reading the Stardew cookbook, I moved on to The Ultimate Final Fantasy XIV Cookbook: The Essential Culinarian Guide to Hydaelyn by Victoria Rosenthal. Let me say this first, I love the narrative design of the book. Our narrator is Gourmand Gyohan, soon-to-be-famous Namazu culinarian, in his words, not mine. Gourmand Gyohan, together with their moogle companion Mogria, share the recipes they collected around the world. The food they share with us is like Stardew’s cookbook and is actual food items from the game itself. The recipes are a thematical reimagination of different Asian dishes, mostly inspired by Japanese cuisine. So instead of making Japanese-style omelets, you are making Dodo Omelettes from the region of La Noscea. The style of the book reminded me of the quest window of the game and made me feel like making these recipes was a quest in itself. Although I also have to say, I didn’t like the visuals of the book very much, as they were too sharp in some places—and I’d also appreciate more hand-drawn art of game characters and better photographs of the food. However, it was an enjoyable read, even though the recipes are again, like The Official Stardew Valley Cookbook, just renamed real-world recipes that mostly already existed before.

 

The finale of my cookbook journey was reserved for Heroes’ Feast: The Official D&D Cookbook by Kyle Newman. The best kinds of roleplay instances always happen in taverns, so I was very excited to read this book, in hopes of it inspiring the roleplay of our tavern sessions. The recipes they provide are, quite similar to FFXIV’s cookbook, and are named after the food in the books, but they are just slightly changed versions of regular food recipes. The narrative design is built on examining the different recipes of different inns, belonging to different races like Elves and Dwarves. The photoshoots of the recipes are also themed around this, so photographs in different sections look like they were taken in different taverns, and they look beautiful. The art style and the formatting of the book also resemble their Dungeons & Dragons books. Before they dive into the recipes, they supply the reader with the lore of the food. These small bits of lore were quite enjoyable to read and taught me more about the different universes and places in D&D.

After reading all these cookbooks, I think one shouldn’t really expect groundbreaking recipes or world-changing experiences from them. Most of them look pretty in your libraries, they are well-themed, their art is beautiful, and they are very fun to read. If you are looking for a whimsical experience while cooking or reading about cooking, I’d highly recommend you grab a cookbook of one of your favorite games.

 

Credits:

Featured image taken from TheGamer, original link: https://www.thegamer.com/best-video-game-cookbooks/

The Official Stardew Valley Cookbook image taken from Penguin Random House, original link: https://stardewvalleycookbook.com

The Ultimate Final Fantasy XIV Cookbook: The Essential Culinarian Guide to Hydaelyn image taken from Square Enix Store, original link: https://na.store.square-enix-games.com/the-ultimate-final-fantasy-xiv-cookbook

Heroes’ Feast: The Official D&D Cookbook image taken from Mox Boarding House, original link: https://www.moxboardinghouse.com/heroes-feast-the-official-d-d-cookbook/

 

 

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