Real Recipes From Imaginary Figures

By Andrea Borchert, Librarian, Science, Technology & Patents Department

Here at the Los Angeles Public Library we have a huge collection of cookbooks. We have cookbooks for slow cookers, blenders, and microwaves. We have cookbooks focused on individual ingredients and courses. Do you want to cook recipes from France or China or Norway or medieval Europe? We have cookbooks from all of those far off places and times. We even have cookbooks from that mysterious and exotic place: TV Land. Being a fictional character is no impediment to publishing cookbooks, just ask Betty Crocker. You can get cookbooks here from many of your favorite movies, books, and television shows. Here are a few of our favorites.

Many important works of fiction have led to cookbooks. But many other fictional landscapes remain cookbook-less. Personally, I would pay good money for a cookbook based on the Matrix trilogy. What kind of illusionary steak could make Cypher betray his teammates? Was that gruel that they ate on the Nebakanezer as gross as it looked? What flavor was that blue liquid feed to the people hooked up to the Matrix? Probably blueberry. Then there's that chocolate cake, yeah that one. You could have Matrix parties, eat a fine meal, then sit around arguing about who had to clean the silverware that didn't exist. Which stories do you think deserve a cookbook?