Video game cookbooks have emerged as something of a minor phenomeon in recent years, and the mix of gaming with everyday cooking recipes has become more common than one might expect. From consuming a 'Nuka Burger' in the post-apocalyptic wastelands of Fallout to the flavors of intergalactic travel in Destiny -- there's a cookbook for that.
And now we have a cookbook from the world of The Witcher. It's another fascinating take on the game-to-cooking crossover, but there's also a unique charm to settling in with some recipes straight out of Kaer Morhen and beyond. The authors of the book, Anita Sarna and Karolina Krupecka, have kindly agreed to discuss with IGN how they went about creating over 80 unique and engaging recipes ripped straight from the world of The Witcher, perfectly blending fantasy and real-world cuisines.
For those interested, The Witcher Official Cookbook: Provisions, Fare, and Culinary Tales from Travels Across the Continent is now available to buy for $34.99 MSRP (See Here).
IGN: Were there any specific guidelines or preferences from The Witcher team that influenced your work on the cookbook?
Anita Sarna and Karolina Krupecka: We aimed to be faithful to the world of The Witcher and its existing axis, but also to create something new instead of just simply repeating the very same content that fans are already familiar with. We had to be very careful to adjust our cookbook narrator’s character and new stories to the existing lore of The Witcher world; we had to look up all these little details that are not so visible at first glance, but play a big role in creating the solid base for the "reality" of the Continent.
We decided that our narrator’s story would take place some time after the events of The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, so that readers can still find some familiar traces of stories they know from the games. But we also have a few sentimental mentions from the timeline of the “Blood of Elves” book, regarding the witchers that we were allowed to bring into the narrative of our cookbook.
IGN: Did you draw inspiration from real-world cuisines to enhance the authenticity of the cookbook?
Anita Sarna and Karolina Krupecka: The majority of food in The Witcher universe is in fact based on real cuisine references — for example in Velen and White Orchard we see a lot of references to Polish and neighboring areas, Nordic influences on the Skellige Isles, and Italian and French motifs in Toussaint.
Still, while designing recipes for this book, we combined many references and inspirations and aimed to create our own interpretations based on multiple factors, in order to design recipes that were adjusted to the world of The Witcher.
IGN: Do you have a personal connection to The Witcher series, either as fans or anything else?
Anita Sarna and Karolina Krupecka: Yes! We both have known The Witcher since our late childhood. We started with books (basically grew up with them), then watched the Polish series (which aired 20 years ago, in 2002!), and then played the games. It’s quite common for people in Poland to broadly know The Witcher universe from its early years; it’s part of our national fantasy books canon.
IGN: Do you have a favorite recipe from the cookbook, and if so, what makes it special to you?
Anita Sarna and Karolina Krupecka: Each recipe in the book has some background story for us, but the Chicken Sandwich inspired by The Witcher 3 and the Mahakam Zalewajka recipe from the book “Season of Storms” are closest to our hearts. The former was the first recipe we made that was inspired by the game (and it got quite famous online at some point), and thanks to the latter we had a chance to meet (long story!) and combine our passion for The Witcher world and food motifs.
IGN: The Witcher universe is rich with cultural references. How did you incorporate these elements into the cookbook beyond just the recipes themselves?
Anita Sarna and Karolina Krupecka: We incorporated these elements through many different means, including ornaments, stylized photos with selected props, and culinary stories. Karolina is a huge fan of folklore patterns, European fairy tales, and regional superstitions and beliefs — so it was a great occasion for her to implement all these little elements connected with our culture into the design of the book, and also into stories we made together with the CDPR loremaster.
We implemented ornaments that refer to motifs taken from European patterns (for example in Skellige) and, especially close to our roots, Polish folklore motifs with some Slavic accents (in White Orchard or Velen). We gathered a library of symbols and patterns that are used in clothes and embroidery, furniture, architecture (wall paintings), or everyday items — we dove into ethnographic books and visited many museums, and then transferred this knowledge to the photographed scenes and props.
IGN: Can you share any insights into the collaboration process with CD Projekt Red when developing the cookbook?
Anita Sarna and Karolina Krupecka: We were working very closely with CD Projekt RED team on creating this book (with the art team, loremaster, localization, and also the marketing team). They were very dedicated to this project, trusted our vision, and helped us to shape and deliver it. It was a treat for us to have this close cooperation with such passionate people! Our mutual aim was to create a testament to the Witcher world itself that went beyond lore-inspired recipes, emphasizing the world-building role of food and using design means (such as stylized photos, culinary stories, and illustrations) to create an immersive Witcher experience.
IGN: And what about the author of The Witcher books, Andrzej Sapkowski?
Anita Sarna and Karolina Krupecka: We also had a chance to personally meet with Mr. Sapkowski — we had an inspiring chat about food! Even though he wasn’t directly involved in the process of creating the cookbook, he wrote such an insightful foreword (four pages long!) based on a cookbook sample that was presented to him.
He elaborated on how he introduced the culinary theme to his books, and their selection related to his own life experiences and memories. He also emphasized the role of food in world-building which truly aligns with our philosophy. It’s a real honor and dream come true for long-time fans of The Witcher like us.
IGN: Were there any particular recipes that posed unique challenges in terms of translating them from fantasy to reality?
It was a challenge to connect all of the food motifs that are in the books and games and then create, on that basis, one coherent cookbook. On top of that we decided to incorporate storytelling into the cookbook — there is a short story for each recipe — which aims to shape a complete culinary journey from the perspective of the cookbook’s narrator.
The most challenging recipes were those connected with monsters — such as Wight or Troll’s soup from the games. We had to make them in a creative way so they would actually be edible in real life, but still somehow sit safely within the lore. We supported these ideas by explaining their background within the in-world narrative.
The Kaer Morhen chapter was also tricky for us — according to lore it's not a place open to outsiders, so it would be strange for our narrator (who is a commoner, not a witcher) to be there and learn their cooking secrets (or potion recipes that are toxic for humans). So we came up with a particular idea to make some kind of “roundabout” reasoning for it — but we’ll let this be a surprise for readers!
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Robert Anderson is a deals expert and Commerce Editor for IGN. You can follow him @robertliam21 on Twitter.
