SUPERNATURAL: THE OFFICIAL COOKBOOK / AUTHORS: JULIA TREMAINE / PUBLISHER: TITAN BOOKS / RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW
With the TV show Supernatural coming into its fifteenth and apparently final season, you would forgiven for thinking that every possible bit of spin-off media for the show has been done. You’d be wrong. Supernatural, The Official Cookbook is a comprehensive guide to cooking food inspired by the show.
In fairness, author Julie Tremaine has done an amazing job of going through the long running show and picking out multiple references to food. They do eat a lot of different things on Supernatural, and it’s not always the hearts of the unwary or in Dean’s case, pie. Food is an integral part of the show; it is, after all, about a pair of brothers who are constantly on the road solving supernatural crimes. Much of the show is spent either in a restaurant or someone’s kitchen. Typically, just before someone or something gets brutally killed.
Onto the recipes themselves; this is an American book, so everything is in cups. The conversion is trivial if you have an ounce of common sense. The method, however, is pretty basic. This is not a how to, they assume you can cook. This book is more about the food browsing than anything else. It’s crammed with ideas, all taken from the show; a passing comment about a smoothie gets its own entry, and we also get a fantastically calorific take on the infamous Elvis burger. They’ve gone in the right direction here; this is a book of nice food taken from scenes in the show. Anyone expecting something like ‘Carry on My Wayward Cream Bun’, ‘Mary Winchester Flambeau’, or any other awful pun based novelties will be disappointed. Instead, we get the recipe for Mary’s famous meatloaf and well as how to make those enchilada’s Death seems rather fond of.
Photographer Jessica Torres has crammed the cookbook with many pictures, taking care to mix in a touch of the strange into various photos. Still, the endless shots of food are bound to make even the strongest willed person a little hungry. We also have some lovely stills taken from the show, and more than enough eye-candy for fans of Sam and or Dean. We get plenty of quotes from the show and food based musings on how our heroes’ stomachs affect their cases.
Still, there’s enough information in these pages to provide an enthusiastic cook with a lot of fun. Be warned that this is basically a guide to American street food (as the brother’s tend to eat whilst on the road). As such it’s barely healthy stuff but each and every single pie does look delicious. Though this is really a stocking filler for the fannish cook in your life, it is also a good source of inspiration for those looking for devilishly delicious food that isn’t terribly healthy.
