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Q&A What challenges are there in writing a fantasy cookbook?

First, consider the characteristics of the fantasy element in a world-building sense. Then you have a baseline understanding of what your dragon steak is like. You could do a one to one comparison....

posted 5y ago by AGirlHasNoName‭  ·  last activity 5y ago by System‭

Answer
#3: Attribution notice added by user avatar System‭ · 2019-12-08T11:19:29Z (almost 5 years ago)
Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/43482
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/
#2: Initial revision by user avatar AGirlHasNoName‭ · 2019-12-08T11:19:29Z (almost 5 years ago)
First, consider the characteristics of the fantasy element in a world-building sense. Then you have a baseline understanding of what your dragon steak is like. You could do a one to one comparison. Dragon steak is the same as Bison steak. Thick, rich, hearty, earthy and grassy. Or you could decide its characteristics a little more individually. Dragon steak is tough and gamy like old mutton, but it has a natural smokey flavor and is surprisingly lean. Goes well with Worcestershire. Needs slow cooked.

Now, You can blurb about this the way a cookbook author might, but even if you don't it's important you know for your own consideration these minutiae. I would say that highlighting the _fun_ ingredients as if they were the star ingredient with a blurb does sound like a funner read and lets you put some of that world-building into the actually print.

Then you can construct dishes that contain these elements as well as other more traditional ingredients. If using the one-to-one approach you can even look up some common dishes and swap out ingredients.

One of the challenges with this is, even if you carefully construct what each ingredient is to you, it may not come across to the reader. Even with a blurb it might not be clear what Pikachu tastes like or even remotely what texture, shape, color, consistency, aroma. Perhaps for practice try blurbs about actual food as if you were trying to explain those ingredients to people who were unfamiliar with them. Then try looking at how other cookbooks have done so successfully.

I have yet to find a good example of a cookbook that speaks about ingredients it assumes the reader not to know but I will keep looking. But as I was searching I stumbled on [this little gem](https://www.webstaurantstore.com/article/53/how-to-write-a-menu.html) of a resource and thought I'd share.

#1: Imported from external source by user avatar System‭ · 2019-03-14T04:09:21Z (over 5 years ago)
Original score: 7