The Ultimate Gamers Cookbook sets itself three challenges: the ingredients can all be sourced affordably at most supermarkets; the cooking methods should be simple enough to follow; and the recipes should “inspire themed events so you can look like a total boss when you host”. The first two it achieves very well, and we'll tuck into the food itself shortly. As for the theming (and the implicit fourth goal that all dishes can be eaten with one hand while gaming), it might want to tap X to retry.
I've used a few cookbooks and recipes based on video games in the past, and while they're usually a stretch, they at least make you feel connected to the game worlds. The Ultimate Gamers Cookbook is up against it as an unlicensed product, and therefore unable to name drop a planet from Halo or a town from Pokemon then put 'chicken' after it and call it a day, but it still doesn't feel all that inspired. Despite having Xbox and 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:PlayStation controllers, chess pieces, playing cards, virtual hearts, dominos, and regular spotted dice amongst the d20s, the majority of the recipes either lean on generic D&D naming conventions or don't try at all.
For every clever 'Wood for Sheep' or or 'Thyme to DDDDuel Decker', there are five 'Bard Sliders' or 'Druid Snacks' with no real explanation of how they appeal to either, buzzwords like 'PvP Tarts' or 'NPC (Non-Problematic Cheesecake)', or just something plain like 'Pancake Skewers'. They might fit most of the briefs the book lays out, but the gamer connection often feels tenuous at best.
Of course, many people will be picking this up mostly for the actual recipes rather than the in-jokes, and there the cookbook fares a lot better. However, it's still not perfect. The first recipe that caught my attention were the Pwnd Cones, which despite the name, seemed cool. They involved brining, seasoning, and frying chicken pieces before stuffing them into waffle cones and drizzling with a homemade sauce. I ended up making these twice, once following the recipe to the letter, and the second time using a far more simplified method of coating the chicken in egg wash and cornstarch rather than brining, buttermilking, breadcrumbing, and shallow-frying. My method was easier and cheaper (two goals of the book), and I preferred the outcome.
This gets to the book's only real issue on the cooking front - overcomplication. While brining a chicken is easy, it requires fridge storage, time to prep days in advance, and the strange ways the ingredients are clustered suggested that milk should be added to the brine. I knew this was for the buttermilk to be used later, but other cooks might reasonably have made the mistake of adding the milk to the brine, especially given the book encourages experts to avoid store-bought ice tea for the brine and to instead use tea bags.
This is not the only recipe which (if followed to the letter, at least) requires preparation a few days beforehand. The book fits the casual appeal of some more inventive recipes to spice up a gaming night buffet, so having to make half of the dishes through t🍸he week ahead of schedule might not be what some are looking for. However, despite not being all that loyal to its theme or connected to gaming in general, most of the recipes here would feel at home if served up alongside a Dungeon’s Master’s screen or on the coffee table during a FIFA tournament.
At times though, you can feel the book straining against the theme. The noodle recipe is interesting and straightforward, but in-keeping with the game night vibe it suggests serving from Japanese ceramic soup spoons, just nestling the noodles in there. The recipe serves 12, and not many are going to have 12 Japanese ceramic soup spoons lying around. As a result, there are a lot of repeated ideas (lots of skewers, lots of tarts, a whole chapter on mini-meals in jars), but I appreciated the flair and variety this offered. At my most recent game night I made three of the butter variants in the book, with chili lime butter, cinnamon butter, and bacon-bourbon butter, while also making the aforementioned cones, the book's meatball recipe, and a twist on the book's wonton nachos to allow for the fact that UK supermarkets don't seem to sell wonton wrappers as readily as US ones.
None of this took all that long or even much effort, and it all went down very well. I haven't made every recipe in the book and doubt I ever will - never will I ever serve cucumber hummus tarts in place of chicken wings at a game night - but there's a lot of variety to sustain a mix of occasions and I've adapted a couple of the most substantial recipes to be meals for two with some accompanying rice or potatoes rather than snacks for 12.
All in all The Ultimate Gamers Cookbook achieves most of its aims. It's a pretty solid cookbook that will offer a lot of variety and inventiveness, even if that doesn't extend to its naming conventions or its themes. The recipes can be tweaked fairly simply, and I suspect a lot of cooks will, but there is a range of beginner dishes in here too, as well as some more unique ones for anyone looking to add some flair. It's not a critical hit, but it's a good roll.