Explore culinary delights from across the Pokémon universe in this official cookbook. Featuring favorite flavors from every region, dive into dishes that celebrate the world of Pokémon and fuel up for your next battle! Perfect for fans of all ages, My Pokémon Cookbook is the perfect addition to any Pokémon Trainer’s kitchen.
Publication Date: October 25, 2022
Publisher: Insight Editions
Game Publisher: The Pokémon Company
Number of Pages: 128
Number of Recipes: 48
Where to buy: Your Favorite Local Book Store, Amazon
My Contributions: Recipe Selection & Development, Photography, and Additional Text Writing
My Process
I’m still in a bit of shock that I was able to work on an official Pokémon product. I remember my days in grade school, talking with all my friends about the latest episodes of the show that aired, trading cards, and battling one another. I even attended a local tournament, where unfortunately none of my Pokémon were level 100, but I managed to beat my first competitor. Pokémon has been a part of my life in some form since this franchise started. To be able to add something to it has me over the moon.
This project was a very different one compared to my previous cookbooks. The My Pokémon Cookbook is not in universe and all of the recipes are inspired by a Pokémon. There was a lot of back and forth with how this one would go and what we ended up with is extremely adorable. Instead of my usual approach where I look for food information in games, we wanted to highlight several Pokémon and their attitude and characteristics through the lens of food.
With that starting point, I began by looking at all of the Pokémon types and trying to define what ingredients or cooking methods would make the most sense for each. For example, Fire-type Pokémon recipes will generally be spicy and/or keep you warm while Ground-type dishes are quite dense and very filling. After that, I began making a list of which Pokémon I wanted to highlight; some very iconic ones, a few of my personal favorites, and of course some unexpected surprises. From there it was a matter of figuring out what recipes would make sense to attach to these Pokémon.
Another thing I had to keep in mind with this project was to keep it family friendly so young Pokémon trainers could be a part of the cooking process with the assistance of an adult. There are a lot of beginner-friendly recipes in this book. One last layer was that I wanted to keep most of the recipes vegetarian. It was vital to me that the reader never felt like they were consuming their Pokémon friends. So 46 of the 48 recipes are vegetarian. This is a great way to get some picky eaters to try a few more vegetables.
Are there Vegan, Vegetarian, Gluten Free, etc recipes in the book?
Yes, each recipe notes any dietary notes that might apply to those items. There is also a note about adjusting the recipes in the book to adapt them to your dietary needs. As I always say, feel free to adapt recipes to make them work for you.
My Favorite Recipes
There are several recipes in this book that I’ve made pretty often since completing the project. One of my new go to’s for breakfast is the Gengar: Yogurt Bowl (pg 23). The granola recipe can honestly be used for a ton of other recipes, as a bowl of cereal, on top of ice cream, or just as a snack. I make this recipe at least once a month.
I am a huge fan of ube flavored desserts. I knew its vibrant purple coloring would be extremely helpful for this project and the Swalot: Ube Flan (pg 49) was the perfect candidate. When I came up with this concept, I was really happy with the overall idea. Swalot gives me flan vibes so I had to run with it. The end result is a very delicious flan with delightful dark chocolate cookies.
Recently, I’ve been trying to find ways to reduce my carb intake and one of my favorite methods is lettuce wraps. When looking through Grass-type Pokémon I looked at Swadloon and it immediately reminded me of a lettuce wrap. The Swadloon: Tofu Lettuce Wraps (pg 75) is a recipe I make on the regular now. If you aren’t feeling the lettuce wrap part, you can enjoy the filling on top of rice.
The Stunfisk: Flatbreads (pg 81) was a crazy idea from a friend that was helping with this project. He just declared out of the blue that Stunfisk is a flatbread and then we just ran from there. We got to highlight both of the variants by creating two unique flatbreads.
I love curry in any form; it is my peak comfort food. This Dedenne: Ramen (pg 95) is a curry ramen. There are a lot of layers to this but the flavors are just wonderful. I also had a ton of fun making Dedenne’s adorable face with the aburaage.
The Eldegoss: Spinach Mushroom Burger (pg 115) is easily the recipe I’ve made the most often from the book. I love a good excuse to enjoy a portobello mushroom and this recipe covers that need. This was also a fun one to come up with and I’m really happy with how the end result looked.
Most Difficult Recipe
The Munchlax: Custard Bao (pg 61) is probably the most difficult recipe to put together in the book. You can simplify this recipe a little bit by not placing Munchlax’s face on the bao and end up with a wonderful batch of custard bao. My biggest suggestion with this one is to take your time and have fun with it.
Recipe That Gave Me The Most Trouble
Cake recipes can be tricky to get right sometimes and the Spinda: Raspberry Marble Cake (pg 51) was no exception. It took a handful of attempts to make sure that the flavors were well balanced and that the coloring on the mini cakes were perfect.
Beginners: Where to Start?
There are many options for someone who is just starting in the kitchen. As I mentioned earlier, the target audience for this book is younger and beginner chefs. Here are a few great starting points depending on the kind of meal you are looking for.
For a main course, Charizard: Spicy Arrabbiata (pg 17) is a great way to try your hand at making your own pasta sauce. This one is a spicy dish but you can reduce the heat by using less dried chile flakes and calabrian chile peppers. In the end you’ll have a great base for a red pasta sauce.
One of the first things people want to make when learning to cook are desserts. The Swinub: Truffles (pg 37) are a great starting point. You’ll get a little messy with shaping the truffles but they are really easy to put together. If you want to keep these extra easy I would skip step 4, this removes the little strips and pink nose which can be a little finicky to work with.
The Flygon: Avocado Toast (pg 53) is a tasty but easier start for a breakfast option. This can be put together really easily and you can have fun by making your own Flygon poses out of the avocado, tomatoes, and pomegranate arils.
A great appetizer for beginners is the Pyroar: Bruschetta (pg 87). This is a great way to get more comfortable with your cutting skills. Getting used to using a knife is one of the most important skills to improve on when learning how to cook. This recipe will have you chopping many things to put this recipe together.
Most of the drinks in the book are really easy to put together. I think Toxtricity: Smoothies (pg 117) is a nice place to start. Smoothies are wonderful drinks that you can adjust and change to your liking. This recipe will inspire you to start mixing and matching your favorite fruits into a refreshing smoothie.
Thank You
Thank you to Insight Editions and The Pokémon Company for giving me the opportunity to work on this project and create these delicious recipes inspired by the wonderful world of Pokémon.
Thank you to my husband, Jeff, for all the help he provides with these projects. His assistance on these projects is always extremely helpful. Also, high five for the Exeggutor recipe with the nice variant touch.
Monique, the senior designer for this project, is so amazingly talented! She really made this book feel like a Pokémon cookbook. The layouts of this book are easily one of my favorites. I’ve enjoyed working with you over the years.
Thank you Irvin and Nick for all the help with coming up with interesting ideas for this project. We really had to think outside the box on this one. Your vast knowledge of the Pokémon franchise was extremely useful during this entire process. I’m also happy we got the chance to shine a light one some of the less popular (but our favorites) in this project.
Thank you to my agent, Kate McKean. You make my life so much easier with each of these projects and I’m happy for all the work you do! Without you, I would be getting confused reading all the contract legal speak.
Thank you to everyone who has supported me as I’ve been working on all these projects. I’m grateful that my family is always so excited to see what I’m cooking up, my friends for grabbing extra leftovers I demand they take off my hands, and for everyone who cooks any of the recipes I have written. It really means a lot to me and I thank you all from the bottom of my heart. Here are many more delicious meals!
Review and Coverage
Coming Soon
Errata
Between the quick timelines and large amount of writing and content, errors in the cookbooks can sneak through to print. I’ve started compiling a list for those that have been pointed out to me so far. If you find any other errors in any book, please feel free to reach out to me so they can be added to these lists and adjusted in future prints.
Coming Soon
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