EAT LIKE A WESTEROSI

Cook a Game of Thrones-inspired feast for more than mere crows Laura Brehaut

In fantasy fiction, as in real-life, food offers a window into a culture. From Sansa’s penchant for lemon cakes to King’s Landing potshops slinging bowls of “dubious brown,” food is integral to world- building. In the Song of Ice and Fire series, George R. R. Martin goes into great detail describing both elaborate feasts and everyday meals, giving fans a lot to go on when envisioning life in Westeros.

Each region has its own distinct culinary identity: warming mulled wine, strong ales and sturdy preserved foods at the Wall; fortifying roasted game and root vegetables in the North; elegant cream swans and fruit tarts in the Reach; grilled snake, olives and hummus in desertlike Dorne.

“Food is one way that you can really take a step into a fictional setting. Because everybody eats, whether they’re make- believe people or real-world people,” author Chelsea Monroe- Cassel says.

Inspired by Martin’s rich culinary depictions, she and co- author Sariann Lehrer created The Inn at the Crossroads in 2011, a blog where Monroe- Cassel still shares recreations of fictional foods. In 2012, after contacting Martin, they published A Feast of Ice and Fire: The Official Game of Thrones Companion Cookbook.

“It’s interesting to see if you can help people get a little bit closer to worlds that they would like to explore… from the comfort of their own house. Where they’re not likely to be murdered on the highway or something worse,” Monroe- Cassel says with a laugh.

Monroe- Cassel was a fan of the Song of Ice and Fire series long before the first episode of Game of Thrones aired in April 2011. She’s an occasional watcher of the show – prefer- ring the detail of the books – but counts the pigeon pie served at the wedding feast of King Joffrey Baratheon and Queen Margaery Tyrell in The Lion and the Rose (Season 4 Episode 2) as one of the most memorable food scenes.

“Because the show is so much smaller in scope than the books, (the food) doesn’t get too much of a showing. But the food they do have looks amazing – their food stylist is fantastic,” she says.

Examining the real-world origins of fictional Westerosi dishes and adapting them for today’s cooks has given Monroe- Cassel a deepened appreciation for Martin’s books. Through focusing on one specific facet of his world-building, she says she has a new respect for the effort that went into constructing the work as a whole.

For the most part, the series is heavily rooted in medieval European history, Monroe- Cassel says. To find the right match for the fare of Westeros, they researched recipes in medieval, Roman and Elizabethan cookbooks and married them with the descriptions in the novels.

Where applicable, they offered modern adaptations alongside historical recipes. For example, an Elizabethanera lemon cake ( Sansa’s favourite; recipe follows), and a modern (“sweeter and heavier”) petit four-style version.

“We found so many intriguing medieval recipes that sounded good, and when we made them, they tasted good,” she says. “They defied a lot of people’s misconceptions about historical food.”