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+--- Thread: News - Putting the Epic in Epicurean: Inside the Official Destiny Cookbook (/thread-96343.html)
News - Putting the Epic in Epicurean: Inside the Official Destiny Cookbook - xSicKxBot - 07-23-2020
Putting the Epic in Epicurean: Inside the Official Destiny Cookbook
<div style="margin: 5px 5% 10px 5%;"><img src="https://www.sickgaming.net/blog/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/putting-the-epic-in-epicurean-inside-the-official-destiny-cookbook.jpg" width="1920" height="1280" title="" alt="" /></div><div><p> Have you ever wondered what Dark Motes taste like? How about<br />
Vanilla Blades? What might a meal inspired by Izanagi’s Burden be like? Or cookies<br />
based on Gjallarhorn? Would they be sweet? Bitter? Perhaps even… exotic? </p>
<p>
The recent release of the <i>Destiny: The Official Cookbook </i>is<br />
Bungie’s attempt at answering these kinds of pressing questions. Whether you’re<br />
a budding gourmet or someone whose idea of a meal is putting in an order with<br />
your delivery service of choice, there’s something here for every level of culinary<br />
skill. The book, which was released this week and is available on the Bungie<br />
Store now, features dozens of recipes inspired by the worlds, characters and,<br />
yes, sometimes, even the weapons of Destiny 2. From Radiolarian Pudding to<br />
Infinite Forest Cake; Traveler Donut Holes to spicy ramen (naturally!), there’s<br />
lots of culinary treats to prepare and enjoy, and no shortage of goodies for<br />
Destiny lore connoisseurs along the way. </p>
<div>
<img src="https://www.bungie.net/pubassets/pkgs/138/138720/Cookbook_01_story_1.jpg?cv=3983621215&av=2773019493"></div>
<div>
Recently we spoke with some of the people who have been<br />
instrumental in bringing the Official Cookbook to life, discussing what it’s been<br />
like combining the worlds of epic sci-fi action and epicurean delight. </div>
<div>
“There’s nothing more wholesome than preparing a meal,” said<br />
Bungie’s Lorraine McLees, art lead in Consumer Products. “It’s something we can<br />
all relate to.” </div>
<div>
Lorraine has been with Bungie for more than 20 years and her<br />
list of artistic contributions to the worlds of Bungie is formidable. (The Halo<br />
logo? Yeah, that’s her work). Considering her long history with the company,<br />
Lorraine remembers the days when members of the Bungie team would spend<br />
holidays together instead of traveling to visit family. “We used to host<br />
Thanksgiving. We had big gatherings; there were probably like 60 of us.”</div>
<div>
Those makeshift family holiday dinners were the origins of<br />
the Destiny cookbook concept, she said. “We collected a whole bunch of recipes<br />
from everybody. I gave them [recipes] that I cooked for folks, even bringing it<br />
to the office and cooking.”</div>
<div>
Though that original concept of a home-sourced version of a<br />
Destiny cookbook never really took off, the inspiration stuck around. At one<br />
point the team considered sharing a small collection of Festival of the<br />
Lost-related recipes but that project eventually fizzled too. It was only<br />
relatively recently that the idea of a traditional Destiny cookbook took its first<br />
steps towards publication, thanks in no small part to the plethora of<br />
appearances that food and drink make in Destiny 2 lore. </div>
<div>
Lorraine remembers seeing a similar gaming-related cookbook<br />
(the World of Warcraft cookbook) and immediately seeing the possibilities in<br />
the Destiny universe. After all, you don’t need to dive too deep into the lore<br />
to see references to food and drink. “We have spicy ramen; we talk about a<br />
bunch of different foods,” Lorraine said. “Devrim Kay talks about making tea.<br />
There’s something about making food and how it makes [the world of Destiny]<br />
into something you can relate to.”</div>
<div>
So with full confidence that the world of Destiny held<br />
plenty of possibilities for fueling a full-fledged collection of recipes, it<br />
was perfect timing when one of Bungie’s longtime officially licensed partners,<br />
Insight Editions, came up with a pitch for an actual cookbook. Even better,<br />
they already had the right person on board to make the dream of a Destiny cookbook<br />
a reality. </p>
<h2>CULINARY CREATOR</h2>
<p>Victoria Rosenthal isn’t just a fan of videogames, she’s an<br />
author and amateur chef who loves to showcase her various cooking skills and<br />
gaming-inspired recipes on her <a href="http://www.pixelatedprovisions.com/">website</a> and <a href="https://www.twitch.tv/pixelatedvicka">Twitch<br />
channel</a>. As the author of the <i>Fallout:<br />
The Vault Dweller’s Official Cookbook</i>, Victoria has mastered the art of<br />
marrying delicious-yet-approachable recipes with content that is built from the<br />
rich narratives of games, making her an obvious choice to take up the mantle<br />
for hungry Guardians everywhere. </div>
<div>
Though her cooking credentials were well in-hand, the<br />
challenge for Victoria was in finding the right menu of recipes. Thankfully<br />
both she and her husband are Destiny fans, and they immediately tackled the problem<br />
by diving deep into the narrative, poring through game entries, Web lore, the<br />
Destiny Grimoire books, and more to find succulent clues. </div>
<div>
“We started doing big dives into the lore,” Victoria said,<br />
“There’s lots of little mentions of food. Obviously spicy ramen is a very<br />
obvious one but if [Cayde-6’s aviary chum] Colonel [is] sticking around, she<br />
has to be providing eggs. There has to be more recipes there! And then [Bungie]<br />
came out with The Dawning and I was like, ‘Oh perfect! Thank goodness, the<br />
dessert section is covered!’”</div>
<div>
The central narrative of the Destiny cookbook<br />
centers around Eva Levante, who acts as host, guide, and curator for the reader<br />
through the various locations and recipes that the book introduces. Along the<br />
way, readers will enjoy entries from important Destiny 2 characters like Ana<br />
Bray, Amanda Holliday, Zavala, and more. </div>
<div>
The recipes themselves are organized<br />
thematically or by location; for example, treats like Chocolate Ship Cookies<br />
and Burnt-Edge Transit are found in the “The Dawning” section, while hearty dishes<br />
such as schnitzel, German potato salad, and French Onion soup are tucked in the<br />
“EDZ: Trostland” chapter. There’s an assortment of urban fare in the “City<br />
Life” section, such as Gyoza, Bulgogi Burritos, as well as “Exotic” foods such<br />
as the aforementioned Izanagi’s Burden, and even an Ace of Spades recipe (only this<br />
time, the results don’t become a Banshee-44-approved hand cannon).</div>
<div>
International variety is a core component<br />
of the recipe lineup, and it’s a notion that is supported by a deep cut lore entry<br />
from the first Destiny Collector’s Edition: The City Library. As Lorraine<br />
explains, “It’s kind of like the Library of Alexandria, where all the books<br />
that ever existed would be copied and brought to the city. All of the<br />
literature that exists in our solar system.” </div>
<div>
“There would have been specific sets of<br />
foods from the 1,000 nations that flocked to or sheltered under Traveler.<br />
[Those people] would have brought their recipes as well. There’s thousands of<br />
them and Eva would have had selected a few that were easy to make, with<br />
ingredients that were easy to find.” </div>
<div>
“[Victoria] actually surprised us with<br />
the manuscript with some of the things she suggested putting in there,” said<br />
Lorraine. “We asked her to cite a lot of sources and she did. She’s already<br />
done her homework and had found these angles for how to approach the fiction.”</div>
<p>
It shouldn’t come as a surprise to hear<br />
that Victoria is a Destiny 2 player herself (a Warlock main, for the record).<br />
And, in addition to collecting and providing the recipes, and writing all the<br />
character entries, Victoria also took all of the photographs that<br />
grace the cookbook’s pages. An avid photographer, she said this project pushed<br />
her skills in new directions, whether it was setting up attractive shots<br />
of large meals (a tricky proposition when compared to more traditional<br />
Instagram-like shots of single servings), to making sure the photos themselves<br />
felt like they were pulled from the world of Destiny 2. </p>
<div>
<img src="https://www.bungie.net/pubassets/pkgs/138/138720/Cookbook_02_story.jpg?cv=3983621215&av=2773019493"></div>
<div>
Sometimes that meant working with some<br />
fantastic props. “We got a Sunshot [replica] to visit us at home. The moment I<br />
opened the box I was like, ‘Oh my gosh, this gun is huge.’ We took it out and<br />
tried to take pictures with my corgi Kanji but he was spooked by that thing.<br />
That was one of those moments where you’re like, ‘This is really cool.’”</div>
<div>
Whether you’re an old hand around the<br />
kitchen or you don’t know your balloon whisk from a basting spoon, there’s<br />
something for you to try in the book. Victoria suggests starting with something<br />
like buttermilk biscuits, or the banh mi burger; the former is one of her<br />
guilty pleasures, the latter, a friendly introduction to Vietnamese cuisine.<br />
“It’s in burger form so instead of beef patty, it’s a pork patty, there’s pâté<br />
in there; there’s pickled vegetables and cilantro. You get the taste of bahn mi<br />
but it’s a burger, something that’s a little more approachable.”</div>
<div>
Research, writing, photography,<br />
check-ins, more research, more writing. There’s a lot that goes into the making<br />
of something like <i>Destiny: The Official Cookbook</i>. Alongside all that hard work,<br />
however, there’s some fun, too: namely trying out the recipes. “Everything gets<br />
eaten (beforehand),” Victoria said. “I typically [have] a crew of people I’ll<br />
have come in for the weekend. [I’ll say] ‘Hey I’m making this set of meals,<br />
please come eat some food because I have a lot.”</div>
<div>
And hopefully lots of leftovers. </p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><i>Destiny: The Official Cookbook</i> is<br />
available for purchase now on the Bungie Store (<a href="https://bungiestore.com/products/coming-soon-destiny-the-official-cookbook">U.S.</a>, <a href="https://eu.bungiestore.com/products/coming-soon-destiny-the-official-cookbook">E.U.</a>) </p>
</div>
</div>
https://www.sickgaming.net/blog/2020/07/22/putting-the-epic-in-epicurean-inside-the-official-destiny-cookbook/