- See also: Drugs and alcohol, Food and drink, and Dwarven diet
Dragon Age: The Official Cookbook: Tastes of Thedas is a cookbook taking the reader through recipes featured in or created for the Dragon Age universe. It is described as containing over 60 recipes with flavorful lore and full-color photography. It was published on October 17, 2023.
Overview[]
The cookbook is narrated by a Fereldan character named Devon, whose mother was cook to the Cousland family. Devon describes traveling across Thedas to compile the recipes contained within the book, sharing stories relevant to each entry that reference game events and characters. The recipes are formatted to have an image, a lore blurb explaining the recipe in-universe, and then the recipe itself, covering a variety of dishes for different skill levels and occasions.
Sections of the cookbook include:
- Introduction
- Starters and Refreshments
- For the Road
- Soups and Stews
- Main Courses
- Sides
- Sweet Delights
- Baked Goods
- Drinks and Potions
The cookbook references multiple companions and characters, makes references to memorable lines of dialogue, interactions, or jokes, and works off of the established BioWare default world state. It covers recipes from the Anderfels, Antiva, Avvar, Chasind, City elves of multiple nations, Dalish, Orzammar, Ferelden, multiple Free Marches city states, Orlais, Rivain, Seheron, and Tevinter.
Development[]
The cookbook was announced December 8, 2022 by Insight Editions for pre-orders as Dragon Age: The Official Cookbook, however it was taken down and later re-posted on December 15, 2022. While published by Insight Editions, it is distributed by Simon and Schuster.
The official release date of October 17, 2023 was announced on June 13, 2023.
On June 27, 2023 the final version of the cover, along with six sample pages were released and the title changed to: Dragon Age: The Official Cookbook: Tastes of Thedas. Though, this change wasn't universal across all listings as only Amazon received the sample pages and the new cover was only applied to a couple listings.
Amazon released a preview of the table of contents, intro, and the Starters and Refreshments section prior to the publication of the book. A preview was not offered by any other platform. This preview revealed the cookbook has a total of 72 recipes.
Contents[]
Several hints to the world state of the cookbook can be gathered by references made in the accompanying lore text. These include:
- Cassandra Pentaghast is referenced as the current Divine.
- Bethany Hawke is named as a friend of Varric's, while Carver Hawke is not mentioned at all, implying that Hawke is a rogue or warrior.
- Varric's nickname for Hawke is rumored to be "Waffles", suggesting Hawke to have a diplomatic personality.
- The Warden is a Cousland warden.
- Alistair is king of Ferelden.
- All companions through each game were recruited and alive.
- Bull's Chargers and The Iron Bull are alive, implying that Iron Bull is Tal-Vashoth.
- Cullen was encouraged to stay off lyrium.
- The wording is vague, but it implies that Celene is still the empress of Orlais and possibly in a truce with Briala and Gaspard.
Additionally, some art accompanying some of the recipes are previously used as end credit slides, suggesting additional aspects of the world state. Such as:
- Cole being made human and traveling with the bard Maryden Halewell.
- Josephine Montilyet being romanced by The Inquisitor.
- Morrigan has Kieran.
- The Inquisitor disbanded the Inquisition.
- The Grey Wardens of Orlais were maintained and stayed to help rebuild.
- Cullen retired and establishes the sanctuary for former Templars.
The recipes featured in the cookbook are written in a way that makes it clear they are not written in-world and are separate from the lore blurbs above them, shown by how they either change the recipe, call for specific real world brands of ingredients like hot sauces, or clash with the lore blurb description of the recipe itself. Of the 72 recipes included, there are multiple recipes previously only shown in Dragon Age: The World of Thedas Volume 2 in the section The Whole Nug such as:
- Pickled eggs
- Hearth cakes
- Sera's yummy corn
- Starkhaven fish and egg pie
While all drinks in the book have been mentioned previously in the series, only a portion of the dishes have been, such as:
- Eggs à la Val Foret
- Fluffy Mackerel Pudding
- Seheron fish pockets - previously referred to as fish wraps in the series.
- Peasant bread
- The Hanged Man's mystery meat stew
- Fish chowder
- King Alistair's lamb and pea stew
- Nug pancakes
- Fish in salt crust - previously described as using clay rather than salt.
- Roasted wyvern
- Cacio e pepe
- Smoked ham from the Anderfels
- Dwarven plum jam
- Goat custard
- Found Cake
- Sugar Cake
Trivia[]
- The golden nug statues are mentioned to actually exist, referencing one in Haven and rumors that there are more elsewhere.
- In the recipe for nug pancakes, they have changed the description for the taste of nug meat from "unholy union of pork and hare" to tasting of "pork and rabbit".
- The Cousland family cook in Origins was a character named Nan, implying Devon to be her child.
- Devon states they are able to go to every place in Thedas, save for Seheron. Par Vollen is notably not mentioned or referred to once in the cookbook.
- Most of Devon's travels through Thedas are by carriage, allowing them to cross all of Thedas in a year.
- Devon formulates five recipes themselves in the cookbook; crab cakes from Kirkwall, stuffed deep mushrooms, snail and watercress salad, found cake, and lamprey cake. They also adapt three existing dwarven recipes; fried young giant spiders, cave beetles, and a version of lichen ale that isn't toxic to non-dwarves.
- There are a few recipes that Devon describes which are completely different from previous descriptions; Seheron fish pockets, fish in salt crust, sugar cake, and Rivaini tea blend.
- Devon describes Chasind Sack Mead as "a nearly overwhelming rush of honey, tinged with the sour-sweetness of apple blossoms, that fills the mouth with all the bright warmth of a summer’s day. But as the initial sweetness fades, there comes an unexpected bitterness, reminiscent of the slow decay into fall, then winter."
- Various props used in the set design of the photos are merch from the BioWare Gear Store, such as the prop necklace and note from the Alistair romance set, the templar banner, the three advisors coin set, and Cullen's lucky coin.
- Additional Dragon Age props include a map of Thedas, the Grey Warden charm, an Inquisition banner, a necklace resembling Varric's, and an Inquisition necklace.
- Some of the detail art in the cookbook depicts cutlery and dinner ware, most of which with details of either birds or feather-like motifs.
- While some of the art in the cookbook is from the ending credits or previously shown concept art, there are a few new pieces as well as altered concept art from what we know; such as the Fereldan Fineries piece.
Gallery[]
External Links[]
- Dragon Age: The Official Cookbook on Insight Editions
- Dragon Age: The Official Cookbook on Simon and Schuster
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