Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge – The Official Black Spire Outpost Cookbook Review

Titan Books has published a hardback book titled Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge – The Official Black Spire Outpost Cookbook available from numerous online retailers and high street book stores. Does Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge – The Official Black Spire Outpost Cookbook deliver what it sets out to by producing a detailed official cookbook to the Star Wars film franchise?

Star Wars originated in 1977 upon the release of the first Star Wars film later sub-titled as A New Hope which was created, written and directed by George Lucas with a budget of $11 million actually earned $775.4 million at the box office; securing its place in pop culture. Two sequels were released in the form of The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi in 1980 and 1983 respectively to complete the original trilogy, while the prequel trilogy began in 1999 with The Phantom Menace, Attack of the Clones in 2002 and Revenge of the Sith in 2005. A sequel trilogy began in 2015 with The Force Awakens to be followed by Episodes VIII and IX, alongside continued spin-off films such as Rogue One: A Star Wars Story and Han Solo. There has also been an animated film in 2008 called The Clone Wars which was accompanied by an animated television series of the same name from 2008 to 2014 followed by a further animated television series titled Star Wars: Rebels from 2014 and even a debut live action TV series titled The Mandalorian, alongside other types of media such as novels, comics, soundtrack albums, a wide range of toys and even theme parks, amongst many more types of media.

Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge – The Official Black Spire Outpost Cookbook is in expert hands as it is written by Chelsea Monroe-Cassel as she is a passionate artist and fan of fantasy; having created for the Game of Thrones food blog titled Inn at the Crossroads before going onto co-author New York Times bestseller A Feast of Ice and Fire: The Official Game of Thrones Companion Cookbook before venturing into creating World of Warcraft: The Official Cookbook and Firefly: The Big Damn Cookbook. Chelsea Monroe-Cassel continues to be focused on bringing more fantasy worlds to life via food, photography, art and digital media. Meanwhile, Marc Sumerak is an Eisner and Harvey award-nominated writer and editor having previously written Hidden Universe Travel Guides: The Complete Marvel Cosmos, Guardians of the Galaxy: Creating Marvel’s Spacefaring Super Heroes and Ghostbusters: Ectomile – Owner’s Workshop Manual.

Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge – The Official Black Spire Outpost Cookbook begins with an introduction from the perspective of Strono Tuggs also known as Cookie through the journey of his cooking. The following three chapters provide coverage of locations including Black Spire Outpost, Docking Bay 7 food and cargo and Sienar-Chall Utilipede transport. Another chapter focuses on the inspirations and specialists in Black Spire cuisine such as Ronto Roasters, Oga’s cantina, the milk stand and Kat Saka’s kettle.

Recipes are categorised into 7 sections including condiments, sauces and garnishes; sides, starters and snacks; soups and stews; breads; main courses; desserts; and drinks. All 70 recipes includes full guidance of food type, prep time, cooking time or alternative timings such as baking or chilling time, quantity of servings, difficulty and step-by-step instructions for ingredients and how to cook or bake it.

A dietary considerations chart showcases if a recipe is gluten free, vegetarian or vegan and if simple alterations can change it into a different dietary category, while measurement conversion charts include imperial, cups and metric volume; Fahrenheit, Celsius and gas temperatures; and imperial and metric weight provides extremely helpful assistance in understanding how to perfect each recipe.

The quality of writing is as amazing as Chelsea Monroe-Cassel’s themed cookbooks as every food or drink recipe has clearly depicted origins, alongside a step-by-step guide on how to recreate the recipe.

Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge – The Official Black Spire Outpost Cookbook’s is extremely well presented with an excellent hardback front and back cover design featuring food on the front cover, alongside a back cover including an interesting synopsis accompanied by half a dozen images of recipes. However, there is a lot of incredible photography of each recipe, alongside some sketches of Strono Tuggs and locations, although there is no official imagery from Star Wars films or TV series.

Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge – The Official Black Spire Outpost Cookbook’s value originates from 70 recipes set within the Star Wars universe throughout the duration of the 176 page Star Wars themed cookbook.

Fans of Chelsea Monroe-Cassel’s official themed cookbooks should also look at A Feast of Ice and Fire: The Official Game of Thrones Companion Cookbook, World of Warcraft: The Official Cookbook, The Elder Scrolls: The Official Cookbook, Firefly: The Big Damn Cookbook and Overwatch: The Official Cookbook.

Analysis
• Title: Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge – The Official Black Spire Outpost Cookbook
• Writer: Chelsea Monroe-Cassel and Marc Sumerak
• Publisher: Titan Books
• Length: 176 pages
• Cover: Hardback

Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge – The Official Black Spire Outpost Cookbook can be purchased in the UK from Amazon and Forbidden Planet, while Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge – The Official Black Spire Outpost Cookbook can be purchased in America and Canada from Amazon. You can also find Titan Books’ official website including a back catalogue of captivating books and product details regarding Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge – The Official Black Spire Outpost Cookbook.