Fictional Food For Fictional People

 -The Menu of Myth of Legend-

Full disclosure, friends. I don't know much about cooking. I can make eggs, I can boil pasta, and I can grill like a motherf-I've got a very limited culinary skillset, to say the least. Which is why "Ravenous" was such a challenging book to write with proper balancing between cooking and fantasy adventures. It was a tough nut to crack. Or should I say, egg to crack?

Ha!

"Ravenous" is a story about Jack, a former knight who wants to become a famous travelling chef. He and his increasing band of friends take their makeshift food truck across a medieval continent plagued by goblins, vampires, and the occasional sea monster.

See, I wanted "Ravenous" not to feel too much like a run of the mill fantasy book, but also not too heavily based around cooking. I had to find a sweet spot in the middle. A real medium rare kinda story.

There are only about eight "Recipe Sessions" in the book. These are fictional meals prepared using the world's fantastical ingredients. I have posted about the formatting of these Recipe Sessions in a previous post here, but what I want to talk about here is the use of every recipe thematically. 

-Intense Chicken Gruel-

The first meal in the book is a gruel. A pretty standard food you'll find in your usual fantasy story. In this instance, the Intense Chicken Gruel is an upgraded version of a trademark Jack meal. Jack prepares it when a woman named Pepper brings a man named Colby to the food truck.

Colby had been poisoned and Jack's gruel had healing properties. Jack specifically notes how his gruel is useful for hunters who find themselves poisoned, frost bitten, or mauled by an animal. Not only is The Intense Chicken Gruel the first recipe we get in the book, it is the beginning of Jack, Pepper, and Colby's friendship.

-Hardy Aether Egg-

I meant it when I said I can make eggs. They're really one of my favorite foods. And Jack's sentiment is that they're one of the most malleable foods too. The Hardy Aether Egg is only the second Recipe Session in the book, but it's the first one where Colby and Pepper are involved in the business.

Basically, the crew sells out of all other foods they have and it seems they might not have enough food left to feed their customers, but Jack manages to pull together the bare minimum of ingredients to make some flavorful deviled eggs. This presents to both the other characters and to the reader that Jack is a resourceful guy, but also that you don't need a lot to get a lot. Value, flavor, and joy can all stem from the smallest things.

-Infinite Duck Roast-

What made the Infinite Duck Roast special wasn't the Spectra-Billed Fowls shoved within one another in order to make the dish, but the events surrounding it. To get the ducks, Jack took Pepper into the woods to hunt. This part of the book establishes Jack's respect for nature. Jack learned how to cook from his mentor Bleu, but he learned about hunting from a fairy named Bree.

Bree taught Jack to thank an animal before killing it, which he teaches to Pepper. Because the life of everything eaten becomes bonded to the life of whatever eats it. It is the philosophy of these characters that these animals deserve gratitude for being sustenance. Admittedly, I do skip past the part where they-possibly-thank every duck before shooting at it.

-The Everycake Cake-

Compared to the other recipes we've been talking about, The Everycake Cake is considerably more towards the end of the book. This meal comes after many harrowing challenges, high stakes rescues, heart-wrenching deaths and separations. Heavy stuff. By this point in the book, a fairy child named Camem was left with Jack by Bree (Bree had other important stuff to do and Jack is sort of like Camem's father).

To cheer Camem up and pull his friends together, Jack proposes making an Everycake Cake. It's just three or four cakes all stacked together, but each member of the party makes their own cake to contribute and Camem helps Jack make his. There's little moments where the characters throw flour at each other, feed the party's hungry horse a few carrots, and tease one another.

There are a lot of moments in "Ravenous" that focus on togetherness and finding comfort in one another. I value those things in fiction, I value those things in my life, and I wanted this story-with all its fantasy and absurdisms-to also be about those things.

-Here's Your Check-

So, yeah, I may not know a lot about cooking, but I know a lot about other things. I know we should be thankful that wildlife has provided us with food, warmth, and companionship. I know you don't need a fully stocked kitchen to make something delicious. I know when someone is hurt, or lonely, or they have nothing to be happy about, sometimes cooking can help.

Sometimes what you cook doesn't even need to be good, or clean, or orderly. Sometimes the act of making something for someone is a gift all on it's own. And it's a gift you can share and come together over.

Thank you for reading.

Be kind.