Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge: The Official Black Spire Outpost Cookbook Review
One of the several cool concepts behind Star Wars Galaxy’s Edge is the idea of eating food from a galaxy far, far away. Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge: The Official Black Spire Outpost Cookbook lets you bring that concept home. Written by Chelsea Monroe-Cassel and Marc Sumerak, this book presents condiments, sauces, garnishes, sides, starters, snacks, soups, stews, breads, main courses, desserts, and drinks that not only have Star Wars names, but look like they could be from there too.
The cookbook is framed with an in-universe story from Strono Tuggs, aka Cookie, the chef behind the traveling dinner known as Tugg’s Grub in Docking Bay 7 Food and Cargo. If you’re unfamiliar with the outpost and its food offerings or are looking for another tale from Maz’s Castle these can be an interesting read. Cookie also has an intro to every section of the book and some in-universe background on every recipe.
The first section Condiments, Sauces, and Garnishes is meant to be an easy place to start before you move on to the more complicated dishes. Those recipes also get used in others down the line, but of course you can use them on their own however you’d like. There’s beautiful photography by Ted Thomas throughout of every dish. Every recipe is confined to one page and has somewhere between three to seven steps. Ingredients are clearly marked out as well as prep times, cooking times, how much the recipe yields, and a difficulty level. There’s even a chart at the end to help out in determining which recipes will work for certain dietary considerations.
Some dishes seem to be the same or similar to what is served in Galaxy’s Edge while some are from different parts of the galaxy that seem like they could be served there too. I got especially excited over seeing Corellian Ryshcate, Polystarch Portion Bread, Port in a Storm, and Gormaanda’s Glowblue Noodles. Recipes that at least have the same name as park dishes include the Fried Endorian Tip-Yip, Ronto Wrap, Coruscant Cooler, Moogan Tea, Cliff Dweller, and the Dagobah Slug Slinger. Since I have yet to go to Galaxy’s Edge in either Disney Park, I unfortunately couldn’t compare any of the in-park food offerings to what’s in this book.
The two recipes I picked to try first were based on time and what ingredients I already had on hand. The Golden Lichen Tuile comes from the aforementioned first section while the Moss Chips are from the Sides, Starters, & Snacks. The prep time was pretty spot on for both and while the baking time was as well for the chips, the tuiles took twice as long as what was listed. It could have been my oven; although my tuiles didn’t look as flat as the ones pictured so that could have played a part too.
While the instructions for both were easy to follow, it feels like in some spots a little more specificity would be helpful. For example perhaps spreading out the dollop of batter would have helped the tuiles but the instructions just say to drop it on the sheet. Also the Moss Chips recipe doesn’t tell you to wash and dry the kale before using it nor to make sure it’s spread out as a single layer on the baking sheet – things I knew from making kale chips before. Maybe this is the trade-off for getting everything on one page, which is definitely nicer than having to turn pages in the middle of making something.
Even with those hiccups, both the Golden Lichen Tuiles (which are essentially a thin wafer cookie) and the Moss Chops (kale chips) turned out tasty. My tuiles’ edges crumbled really easily but the blend of turmeric and ginger was something I’ve never tried in a dessert format and I really liked it. I’d also never used honey and miso paste on kale chips before and I’m happy to add that combo to my repertoire.
If you want to bring part of your trip to Galaxy’s Edge home with you, or if you’d just would like to pretend your food is from another galaxy, The Official Black Spire Outpost Cookbook presents an elevated take on a fandom tie-in. It’d be a great gift for someone you know who likes Star Wars and making food – including if that person is you.
Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge: The Official Black Spire Outpost Cookbook is out now in hardcover format from Insight Editions.
The publisher provided FANgirl with a copy of the book for review. As usual opinions are my own.
Find this review helpful? Say thanks and encourage more books reviews by leaving a tip of a coffee on Ko-Fi.
Kay is FANgirl's resident geek fashion expert and co-host of the Hyperspace Theories podcast. She reviews books and movies for the site with a heart for storytelling and a mind that likes to analyze. Kay's been a guest on various podcasts sharing her love and knowledge of storytelling, film-making, fashion, and of course, Star Wars.
Most days are filled with her work as a creative services professional - designing websites & branding, photographing, voice acting, editing, and more. Kay spends the little bit of free time she has reading, costuming, and, of course, making pew pew noises. She would pick up more jobs and hobbies if she was a Time Lord.
- Review: Doctor Aphra, An Audiobook Original (Star Wars) - July 26, 2020
- Review: Bonds of Brass by Emily Skrutskie - April 7, 2020
- Review: The Art of The Rise of Skywalker - March 31, 2020
