I loved this cookbook! So many good recipes from so many good video games over the years. I've already made. few recipes and they were delicious. I have a bunch more I'm planning to make!

This would make a great gift or any video game lover/ cooking lover in your life.

A fun versatile cookbook! It was immediately something I HAD to see for myself and I’m glad I did. The recipes sound fun, exciting, and tasty! My only issue being that the lack of real photography was a quick downer for me. The illustrations were cute and fun but it just didn’t click the same.

As a gamer and a food lover I was thrilled by this book. It includes good ole classics and the nostalgia vibe is definitely there. The whole game UX experience is there too and I really appreciated the variety of recipes, the whole menu options, the index and all the tips. The level of difficulty is pretty useful and lots of the recipes are easy to execute. Some are... a bit acrobatic but... as an experiment they are absolute fun. The beverages and cookies options are great for a tabletop rpg day! Your friends will be amazed!

This is such a fun and unique cookbook, perfect fun for any gamer in your life! The design is really fun and well thought out throughout. I do wish there were more images of the dishes so you had a visual of the dish you were attempting, especially as some of these are so creative. Covers a great range of games with the quirky meals.

The Video Game Chef is a quirky cookbook based on video games, from the original retro Pac Man to 2022's Elden Ring. The games included are cult classics, and of course they all feature food in some way or form.

The book is laid out chronologically, rather than by theme or food type, so there sometimes seems a mishmash of roasts following desserts and noodles. But it works. There is a proper index, sorting them by type at the back.

As for the recipes themselves, they were well thought out and easy enough to follow. As I wasn't familiar with many of these games, I won't have liked some more graphics or illustrations so I could see what the finished product would be. These recipes aren't all child or family friendly, but there are (some) modifications you can make to them. There are definitely some I'll try!

Overall this was a well written recipe book, formatted in fantastic retro style.

~Many thanks to Netgalley for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review~

I loved each section, the references to the games and the pictures were amazing. This would be perfect for the birthday party of a gamer of any age, but especially one who would have played the games in earlier decades.
I received a copy via NetGalley and all opinions are my own.

I’m sorry to say, but 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘝𝘪𝘥𝘦𝘰 𝘎𝘢𝘮𝘦 𝘊𝘩𝘦𝘧 just wasn’t for me. I picked it up because I’m throwing my gamer husband a 1980s-themed birthday party soon and thought this would be a good source of inspiration. While the illustrations are cute and fun and the cookbook covers a good range of video games, the lack of real photography made it difficult to get excited about any of these dishes. Also, the way it was organized—by era rather than by recipe type or even by game—didn’t help me envision a meal. I should have taken the title at face value, this will likely appeal more to true gamers who like to dabble in cooking or own hobbyist items rather than party hosts or home chefs with a certain theme in mind.

Thank you to NetGalley and Quarto Publishing Group for an advance reader copy in exchange for an honest review. This review was posted on July 26, 2023 to https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/5723194934.

Though I'm very bad at it, I do love cooking so when I saw this book was up for advance copies I was definitely going to read it.
I love the 'title screen' and the level system, the variety of video games and the little opening for each recipe.
The instructions were clear and I really liked the stylised pictures. It would have been nice to have some kind of picture for all of them or real pictures to assist but it was mostly fine without.
My favourites were the Animal Crossing sandwiches and the Persona 5 pancakes : )


Thanks to Netgalley, the Publisher, and Cassandra Reeder for the arc.

OMG I absolutely love every aspect of this book and I am so excited that someone thought to do this! There are all kinds of treats from many of my fave home and arcade videogames. I actually cannot wait for this one to come out in print as I will definitely be buying one for my home and a few friends homes as well. Thank you for coming out with this much needed addition to any true gamer or game enthusiasts collection!!!

okay, recipes are easy to make, instructions easy to follow but I would have liked real photos in the book. Not a bad book but I would not purchase or gift.

With Thanks to Cassandra Reeder and Quarto Publishing Group for an advanced readers copy of this cookbook.

5*

This cookbook was brilliant, I've only tried 3/4 of the recipes out but they each turned out great. The nostalgia going through the recipe list makes this a must buy for any gamer.

This cooking book was so good. And nostalgic. I have to make a lot of these recipes. I have a brother that will definitely love this book as present. I love that it combines food and games. I totally recommend it.

Lots of people play video games as a way to relax after a week of work. Have you ever noticed that some video games have some nice looking food in them? Well here in The Video Game Chef, you are able to recreate some of the food items that your favourite video game might have in game.

The Video Game Chef is broken down into different eras of video games: The 80’s and 90’s; the early 2000’s; 2010 to 2015; and 2016 to present (which is 2023 at the time of publishing). Each era of video games are equally represented, with different genres being represented as well. We have food from video games such as Diablo, The Legend of Zelda, World of Warcraft, Portal, Mass Effect 2, Final Fantasy XIV, Overwatch, and Genshin Impact (which is the reason why I actually requested a copy of this book to read, my brother is obsessed with Genshin Impact and I wanted to treat him to something).

Firstly, the font used in the cookbook for the recipe headers was really annoying. I understand that they are going for a retro video game vibe but it made my eyes hurt to look at the page for too long. Fortunately the recipe font is more standard for easy reading. Personally none of the recipes looked of particular interest to me, the only one that I am going to try is the one from Genshin Impact for my brother. While I have played a few of the games that are included in here, none of those recipes really sparked my interest. I think that the biggest reason why is that there is no photos of what any of the dishes look like. A handful of them have game style drawings of the dish, but since this doesn’t actually show what the dish looked like, I was not interested in trying to go online to see what the dishes looked like in game, if that is even possible.

If you are interested in trying to recreate your favourite food from your favourite video games then The Video Game Chef will be good for you, otherwise look elsewhere.

An adorable cookbook that took me down memory lane. All the recipes in it represent different known and unknown games from the 80s, 90s and 2000s. The artwork is cute, but I would have preferred photos of the dishes to illustrate.

Even so, the retro vibe throughout the book is very well done, and I love the short descriptions of each recipe and their connection to each game. How the levels of expertise needed for each recipe is also well thought of.

I’ll definitely be trying a few of these out!

The Video Game Chef Cookbook authored by Cassandra Reeder and published by Epic Ink is a very creative cookbook to say the least. I was pleasantly surprised to see a cookbook inspired by video games available for ARC review, since I love unique and themed cookbooks, and I've got to say it was a great cookbook to get ideas for dinner from if you want to try out some interesting recipes.

This cookbook's mission is to bring your favorite video games food to life which it does a very phenomenal job at.

Thoughts:

° The cover is nice, unique looking, and I was expecting more color from the rest of the cookbook like the cover, but the beginning and end were all black with white and green text. And the rest of the pages were all white with black and green text. And some boxes with information were green or black. I don't think this is a very big deal though as the coloring didn't distract from the recipe or the illustrations. And simple is sometimes better.

° Now onto the controversial subject in the other reviews for this cookbook: the illustrations. I know that real food pictures would have been better to know what it would look like, but since this is a themed cookbook I don't really mind. At least there are some form of pictures, some cookbooks don't even have those. And the recipe can look like whatever you want because there's no fixed real image. Just have fun with it! And the illustrations, they are very beautiful, and they look like their coming from the actual video game. The only thing that did bother me about this is that there weren't illustrations for every single recipe so you had to guess what those recipes looked like on your own.

° There are 76 recipes in the cookbook, each recipe inspired by a different video game which I think is pretty impressive.

Some video games listed: Dishonored, Don't Starve, Final Fantasy XIV, Destiny, Far Cry 4, Life Is Strange, Undertale, Dragon Age: Inquisition, etc.

° Some humourous quotes from the cookbook:

"The logic of video games dont always make sense. In the real world, it's not a good idea to eat a roast chicken that came out of a trash can, no matter how many pipe-related injuries you've sustained." (Page 8)

"It can be humorous, like a strange taco in a glovebox." (Page 8)

"It can even break the fourth wall, like a giant anthropomorphic cheeseburger appearing in the middle of the California desert." (Page 8)

° I thought some good additions were:

The hints - tips, suggestions, or supplementary information that'll help you with recipes and ingredients (such as what they are, what they taste like, etc.)

The easy mode tips - how to make a recipe easier and quicker to make (such as using boxed cake mix instead of making a cake from scratch, using a premade spice rub, etc.)

The mods - suggestions for alternative ingredients or cooking methods (such as how to make a recipe vegan, turn something a different color, etc.)

The difficulty levels for the recipes: Beginner, Normal, and Expert

The information blurbs about the recipe - the blurbs tell you about the recipe, where it came from, why it was chosen for this game, etc.

° There are a lot of ingredients for some of the recipes, but I'm sure it would be alright to omit some ingredients if you didn't mind. And if a recipe seems too spicy, add less spices. Or vice versa if there's not enough spice.

This was a fun-filled gaming inspired cookbook, and if I'm ever wanting to make a unique meal for fun or I'm having a game themed dinner night I'll be sure to try out a recipe or two from this cookbook.

I give the cookbook 4.2/5 controllers 🎮

* I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily *

This a great niche-style cookbook that, as a fan of my copy of The Geeky Chef Cookbook, was just the quality of cookbook I expect from the author.

The cookbook gets high marks for:
Commitment to the bit- everything is 100% in game lingo and it is adorable.
Cooking education- the way everything is explained and scalable to the skills and equipment you have makes for a really accessible cookbook.
Humor- the spot on game references and humor make for approachable recipes and will be a hit with any fandom.

I will ding a few marks for:
Lack of pictures- people love pictures of the food in real life as a guide for success.
The mass appeal of the recipes- these thematic recipes, while well written, tested and designed, might not always appeal to American/Eurocentric palettes. This is a good thing since trying new foods is fun and educational, but depending on the target audience, this might not be a great match.

Overall this is a very fun novelty cookbook that had, for me and my family, tons of great recipes to try. This would make a great gift for the video-game fans in your life.

I enjoyed the little blurbs about each of the games and how food fits into them more than the recipes themselves. I’m not sure I’ll make more than one or two of them, but I liked reading about the use of food in games like Portal and The Witcher.

Thank you to NetGalley for an ARC of The Video Game Chef.

What a great concept for a cookbook!

The author recreates favorite foods from popular and cult video games from the 1980s to the present day.

Some of the video games were familiar to me; others not so much, but I enjoyed reading about what video game the recipe originated from.

I loved how the layout and formatting of the recipes was set up like a video game.

My only caveat is there are no photos of the recipes, just illustrations of the food from the video game.

The illustrations are great, but photos are necessary because readers eat with their recipes and want to know what the dish looks like.

Major kudos to the author for the entirely crazy but utterly original concept. Loved that the book was formatted in video game style. I would have preferred if the recipes were accompanied with photos of the end result too though, and not just pictures of the food from the game. Still, a very fun idea. Great gift for video gaming cooks!

This cookbook is absolutely adorable. As someone who has played a lot of these games, I loved all the extra details like beginner, normal, & expert mode and the helpful hints along the way. The art is so retro and cool as well. I can’t wait to try some of these recipes out, especially Yoshi’s Cookies, The Elders Scrolls Sweet Rolls and the Spicy Ramen from Destiny!

I also appreciate the way these recipes and the games they represent are listed in chronological order so there’s something for everyone from the 80s to present day. The little tidbits about the connection between each game and its recipe were interesting and fun.

The one component I really think this cookbook is missing is photos of the actual food. The food artwork is cute, but it doesn’t motivate me to cook as much as seeing how good the real food will look when I’m done making it. I’ll still try some of these recipes out and I think this book would make a fun addition to a gamer’s kitchen.

Thank you NetGalley and Quarto Publishing Group for a free eARC in exchange for my honest review!