- A Whovian Feast: A Doctor Who Inspired Cookbook for Discriminating Fans by C.R. Maguire (Self-published, 2015)
- Dining with The Doctor by Chris-Rachael Oseland (Self-published, 2012)
By Cat Eldridge: This review is really an acknowledgement that there’s a nearly infinite number of writings about Doctor Who done by the fans of the show over the past fifty years. Yes, there’s fanfic where they’ve created their own stories, some using existing characters in new stories, some creating new characters in new situations. And then there are, err, cookbooks. Seriously you can’t be surprised that someone did this, as I’m sure that there’s a Harry Potter cookbook or two out there. One moment… H’h — I found twenty-seven listed for sale right now on Amazon with a culinary bent.
I’m not sure if these two Doctor Who cookbooks are actually fanfic but they come damn close. With the exception of the last series, I’m reasonably sure I’ve seen every episode of Doctor Who that still exists and has been broadcast. Now I must I admit other than the Fourth Doctor, Tom Barker, and the jelly babies that he offered to damn near everyone, I don’t remember food being mentioned at all on the series, let alone enough to compile a cookbook!
Well, A Whovian Feast: A Doctor Who Inspired Cookbook for Discriminating Fans doesn’t actually bother with basing anything on the actual text of the series itself, but riffs off the idea that well, let’s show you:
TIME VORTEX TARTLETS Season 9, Story 64, “The Time Monster”
MARSH MINNOWS Season 23, Story 143b, “Trial of a Timelord: Mindwarp”
WEEPING ANGEL FRUIT SALAD Don’t blink, or it will disappear into another dimension. A paradox, for sure. Series 3, Story 186, “Blink”
No explaining at all for how the recipes have anything to do with the episode. The recipes themselves seem to be workable though a little on the mundane side, and the author favors enough sugar to cause diabetic comas in individuals who aren’t diabetic: the Weeping Angel Fruit Salad calls for both one cup (225g) white granulated sugar and a half cup (100g) powdered sugar (icing sugar)! That’s for six to eight servings.
If you’re a Whovian, there’s little in this work that recommends it to you. No, let me correct that: there’s nothing here that a Whovian will find interesting unless you need a lot of boring, mundane recipes you get anywhere.
Chris-Rachael Oseland’s Dining with The Doctor is rather different. First is she herself to the new series: “This book includes a recipe for every episode of the reboot. I did my best to keep each recipe genuinely relevant to the episode, so yes, there are spoilers in every single recipe. I’m not too worried about this since it’s safe to assume anyone who owns this cookbook loves the show as much as I do. However, if you’re a new fan, stop reading before you reach your latest episode. You’ve been warned.”
Second, even if many of her recipes really don’t come from episodes, some do and she does have a great affection for both the characters and the series in a way that Maguire, for example, might well take the same recipes and create a Harry Potter cookbook or even a Hobbit one with just a wee bit of tinkering. She’s Whovian through and through.
Her Wartime Cheese and Potato Dumplings with Fried Spam Slices riffs very nicely a Rose and Second Doctor scene in “The Empty Child/ The Doctor Dances” episodes, where there’s a bountiful banquet set, which she notes couldn’t occur given wartime realities. So her recipe gives what would be on the table.
Another recipe for British style custard has this charming note: “Most Americans have never had the kind of pourable custard The Doctor drinks. The closest thing we have is vanilla pudding. To Americans, ‘pudding’ is kind of like a less eggy, more sweet custard made so thick it’ll hold a spoon upright. The Doctor’s dessert was just as mysterious to us as real Root Beer is to you. Sure, you’ve heard of it. You’ve even seen it on television. But taste and texture are still a mystery.”
It’s a slim volume at just a hundred pages but a fun, tasty read. It’s available pretty much everywhere in both traditional hardcopy and as an ebook. I’d certainly recommend as a read if you like to cook and are a Who fan.
Discover more from File 770
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
Jelly babies. Not jelly beans. Sorry, someone had to say it!
Food does appear in original Doctor Who, but a lot of it’s not really what you could get a recipe book out of: the Third Doctor’s wine and cheese tasting in Day of the Daleks, for instance, or the Second Doctor and Shockeye’s trip to a Spanish restaurant in The Two Doctors, or the First Doctor being offered a ham in The Myth Makers.
And of course Mel famously putting the Sixth Doctor on a diet of “carrot juice, carrot juice, carrot juice…”
Not ‘tall sure where that error came from but I should’ve have noticed it by now. I assume an editor who wasn’t a Who fan, yes they exist, corrected it to that. We’ve had a lot of editors since the 90s on our various publications over there. I’ll have Mike fix it.
SF series in general have very few references to food. Print or video.
Recipes created out of, well, sometimes just a name are common to cooks in love with other fictional works as well. There’s jammy devils from Discworld made into a jam filled dessert. The quote is from Men at Arms in the page 138 footnote – “Slumpie, Jammy Devils, Fikkun haddock, Distressed Pudding, Clooty Dumplings, and not to be forgotten, the Knuckle Sandwich.”
I remember hearing on one Classic Who DVD commentary that there’d been a classic series tie-in cookbook — the recipe mentioned was ‘The Kipper of Traken’ (because the corresponding episode was ‘The Keeper of Traken’).
@John there is, I own a copy and I’ve tried some of the recipes and posted them to my blog.
John Lucarotti’s novelisation of the 1964 story “Marco Polo” has more descriptions of food than probably any six other Doctor Who books combined (other than cookbooks).
Chapter 2: “Bean sprout and chicken broth”
Chapter 3: “two small Tan Chiao omelettes stuffed with minced fresh water shrimps and […] a bowl of tea”
Chapter 4: “a bowl of tea and two Tan Chiao omelettes stuffed with chopped water-chestnuts and pork”
Chapter 6: “sesame seed pings followed by soochow chiang, a delicious mixture of pork,
mushrooms and bamboo shoots served with a succulent sauce and rice wine”
Chapter 11: “‘Chicken-fat braised carp”
Chapter 12: “a mellow white wine”
Chapter 15 (banquet scene): “There was a choice of, at least, fifteen soups, including one called a ‘water-melon pond’, and egg dishes in profusion followed by fresh-water as well as sea-water fishes and crustaceans. Then, of course, came the poultry dishes which reminded the Doctor of the old adage that the Chinese eat everything bar the feathers. Next on the menu were the meat and vegetable bowls served with a multitude of rices, after which the meal was rounded out with a variety of desserts. The wines were of every hue and taste and to the Doctor’s astonishment there were Italian and French ones as well as champagne. / ‘My father imports them,’ Marco said modestly.”
Chapter 15 (later): “a succulent slice of pineapple roast duck” … “a dried shrimp wanton” … “a Lan-Chow steamed dumpling” … “chicken chessmen”
Chapter 16: “Yang-Chow shrimp balls”
Small correction, The 4th Doctor was famous for his Jelly Babies (UK), not jelly beans (more USA).
@susan So true.
🙂
Meanwhile….
Harry Potter cook books????
Here is a review of a sumptuous one from last year.