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