Review – ‘Star Wars: The Ultimate Cookbook’ Is a Charming Epicurean Adventure Made Just for Fans
The new culinary release, Insight Edition’s Star Wars The Ultimate Cookbook: The Official Guide to Cooking Your Way Through the Galaxy written by Jenn Fujikawa and Marc Sumerak releases on October 10th and is sure to delight those fans who enjoy spending time in the kitchen.
In a departure from traditional cookbooks, Fujikawa and Sumerak organized the recipes by location in the galaxy (Core Worlds, Inner Rim, Mid-Rim, Hutt Space, Wild Space, etc.) versus by meal (appetizer, entrée, dessert, etc.) . This decision alone makes the book feel fan-forward and immersive. It might risk alienating standard home cooks, but who is buying this book and isn’t a Star Wars fan anyway?
Throughout the book, our narrator and fictional recipe developer, Chef Strono Tuggs, affectionately known as “Cookie,” takes you on a comprehensive tour de galaxie. Cookie incorporates small details like the weather on a certain planet, or the friendliness of the local fauna. They share small memories alongside most dishes in an effort to continually evoke a homestyle-cooking narrative. I really enjoyed this story element to the book and I believe it successfully transitions the book from a cookbook about Star Wars to a Star Wars cookbook.
As part of my review, I cooked four recipes based on what sounded best to me with no real effort put toward comprehensive galactic travel, which means I ended up in the Mid-Rim twice. You’ll have to forgive me for that. However, there stands another testament to this book–there were enough recipes I wanted to try that I had to strike a few off my list to make this review more accomplishable. Check out the dishes I whipped up below!
Malastarian Fuel
A recipe from the planet Malastare (see: The Clone Wars Zillo Beast arc season 2, episodes 18-19), Malastarian Fuel is essentially a type of Horchata mixed with sweeteners and coffee. Cookie’s title for the recipe is a fun reference to the natural fuel mined on Malastare which is one of the only known natural substances to injure the Zillo Beast.
I drink my coffee black, so I’m not sure why I picked this one except that I’ve always been curious about making Horchata and figured I could expand my coffee horizons in the process. Needless to say, it’s not something I would make again, but if you enjoy a latte-like drink, this may be up your alley!
Shag Pabol Pasta
Pasta with pesto! Plus sauteed mushrooms! In this recipe, Cookie informs the reader that the Shag Pabol is a hyperspace trade route that runs through Hutt Space and passes by Toydaria. I freely admit I had to look this one up on Wookieepedia. The Shag Pabol hyperspace lane was “first mentioned in the new Star Wars canon on a supplemental item included in the deluxe edition of the 2018 reference book Star Wars: Smuggler’s Guide, which was written by Daniel Wallace.” Kudos to the authors for some seriously obscure references.
I didn’t cook this one, but I sure enjoyed eating it! It’s your basic basil pesto, which is always delicious, but the mushrooms improved upon the classic. Narratively, it’s a fun idea to liken an herb pesto with Toydarian indigenous algae. The next time this dish gets made in my house, I may have to put on The Phantom Menace in Watto’s honor.
Simmered Golden Pheasant
It makes sense that this recipe hails from Naboo, a world whose capital city contains grand architecture inspired by the likes of such palatial real world buildings as Hagia Sophia. Aptly named “Simmered Golden Pheasant” it is apparently a favorite of the royal court, and I believe is meant to inspire an aristocratic air. All told, it is essentially a Japanese curry. I’ve never met a curry I didn’t like, so I was happy to discover this.
If you decide to make this one, be patient when making the roux! It takes time for it to begin to brown, but it’s worth the wait. If you’ve ever had S&R Golden Curry sauce mixes, this tastes almost the exact same.
Cloud City Bread
The last recipe I chose to test was the Cloud City Bread from Bespin. At first I thought these would be like little pavlovas, but they turned out (even after baking 10 additional minutes) to be much softer and springier–cloud bread, indeed.
These are fun and easy! A perfect recipe to make with kids and encourage them to get creative by changing the color or adding in some freeze dried berries, or crumbled cookies.
All around, I really enjoyed both flipping through this cookbook and reading Cookie’s notes, in addition to making the recipes. You get more than 80 recipes and the selection chosen are generally tasty and will be palatable to most people. I also want to give credit to the fact that Fujikawa and Sumerak dove deep into the Star Wars archives for the narrative inspiration of these recipes, including references to novels, comics, movies, animation, live-action shows, video games, and more.
I do have a couple notes for areas of improvement. To start, outside of some visually-striking drink recipes, I thought the recipes were mostly basic and at times, lacked creativity. A recipe for your standard fridge pickle, a parfait, mac and cheese, a cheeseburger, to name a few examples. I’m sure they’re all perfectly delicious, but the cooking enthusiast in me wouldn’t be spending $40 USD on a book with those recipes. That said, it’s clear the intention with this cookbook was to make it kid-friendly, which often translates to more basic and familiar recipes.
This leads me to my second request, which is that I would have loved to try out some Star Wars-themed bar recipes. What, Cookie never sat back with a cocktail? I understand that this particular book was seemingly intended to be more family-centric and therefore it makes sense to leave alcohol out of the equation. For the cost, it’s something I prefer to have been included.
Star Wars The Ultimate Cookbook: The Official Guide to Cooking Your Way Through the Galaxy releases tomorrow on October 10 and will be available for $40 USD at most major book retailers. A special thank you to Insight Editions for the copy used in this review.
Let us know if you pick up the book and try out a new recipe! I’ll definitely test out another for the next big show premiere. Looking at you, Syndicate Snack Mix…
When she isn't watching her friends and family's eyes glaze over at the mention of The Clone Wars, she's at the park with her dog, Melvin, or on the couch with a book in one hand and a drink in the other. Physically, she lives in Ohio; spiritually, she lives in Naboo.
