What do you think?
Rate this book
Cooking With Lovecraft: Supernatural Horror In The Kitchen
TL;DR : Get this book and prepare to be deliciously horrified.
The book of which S.T. Joshi wrote "As a contribution to Lovecraftian humour, it ranks very high... a delightful compilation."; and that W.H. Pugmyr described as "... a real treat, deliciously delightful."
Cooking With Lovecraft is a collection of short gastronomical stories, that will tickle your weird bone but also give you directions to make real, tested, delicious dishes. Sometimes the recipe will be just an excuse for the story, sometimes the other way around, and occasionally there won't be no recipe at all. Most of the stories are tongue-in-cheek, even outright silly, as an affectionate tribute to Lovecraft and the Mythos; but a couple of tales are a bit different.
And this is not your typical "Lovecraftian cookbook" full of inedible witches' potions. All recipes here are real food, tested and tasted by friends and family, and fairly easy to make.
You will find treats like "Bratwurst mit Sauerkraut" (diary of the cook at the U-29 from "The Temple"); "Anziques Kebab"; "Gulab Jamun"; extra-crispy "Fried Honey-Garlic Chicken of Tindalos"; the Jermyn family recipe for "Banana Bread"; and Theodorus Philetas' Necronomicon "Spanakopita."
There is also a spine-chilling take on Robert Bloch ("How I Fed Your Mother"); an alternate-history riff ("The Horror From The Ice-Cream"); straight-out retellings of Lovecraft classics ("The Feastival", "Commonplace Cookbook", "The Flavor Out Of Space" and "The Uneatable"); a Kafka/Zappa pastiche ("The Dangerous Kitchen"); and much, much more for your literary and culinary pleasures.
The book of which S.T. Joshi wrote "As a contribution to Lovecraftian humour, it ranks very high... a delightful compilation."; and that W.H. Pugmyr described as "... a real treat, deliciously delightful."
Cooking With Lovecraft is a collection of short gastronomical stories, that will tickle your weird bone but also give you directions to make real, tested, delicious dishes. Sometimes the recipe will be just an excuse for the story, sometimes the other way around, and occasionally there won't be no recipe at all. Most of the stories are tongue-in-cheek, even outright silly, as an affectionate tribute to Lovecraft and the Mythos; but a couple of tales are a bit different.
And this is not your typical "Lovecraftian cookbook" full of inedible witches' potions. All recipes here are real food, tested and tasted by friends and family, and fairly easy to make.
You will find treats like "Bratwurst mit Sauerkraut" (diary of the cook at the U-29 from "The Temple"); "Anziques Kebab"; "Gulab Jamun"; extra-crispy "Fried Honey-Garlic Chicken of Tindalos"; the Jermyn family recipe for "Banana Bread"; and Theodorus Philetas' Necronomicon "Spanakopita."
There is also a spine-chilling take on Robert Bloch ("How I Fed Your Mother"); an alternate-history riff ("The Horror From The Ice-Cream"); straight-out retellings of Lovecraft classics ("The Feastival", "Commonplace Cookbook", "The Flavor Out Of Space" and "The Uneatable"); a Kafka/Zappa pastiche ("The Dangerous Kitchen"); and much, much more for your literary and culinary pleasures.
- GenresHumorLovecraftianHorror
160 pages, Paperback
First published August 1, 2016
21 people are currently reading
39 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews
July 11, 2018
Una lectura inesperada en mi lista que me ha sorprendido para bien! Divertida, amena, instructiva... Incluso tiene recetas reales de cocina! Un cocktail que funciona. Pronto reseña en el blog.
September 20, 2018
Cocinando con Lovecraft” no es un libro de cocina, aunque tiene recetas que se pueden realizar perfectamente, incluso si eres un mortal común y tienes que cambiar la carne humana por ternera. Tampoco es un ensayo sobre Lovecraft y la gastronomía, aunque tiene partes en las que se analiza la relación del autor con la comida, así como el empleo de la misma en su particular universo. Y también hay relatos, en los que la comida sigue siendo parte importante de los mismos.
Reseña completa:
https://cafedetinta.com/2018/09/05/co...
Reseña completa:
https://cafedetinta.com/2018/09/05/co...
May 15, 2019
Uno de los pocos libros de horror có(s)mico, aparte de Imposible pero incierto, que he encontrado.
Cuenta ni más ni menos que con el beneplácito de uno de los mayores expertos en la figura de Lovecraft, S. T. Joshi.
Este libro es muy original, pues mezcla recetas con relatos y a veces con elementos biográficos de la vida de Lovecraft, de la cual me consta que el autor es gran conocedor.
Algunos relatos te dejan con una sonrisa, otros te hacen reflexionar, sobre todo el que cuenta la visita de Lovecraft a una fábrica de helados (que es un hecho real), aunque el autor cambia el resultado de la misma creando una interesante ucronía.
Otros relatos, como Ghoulash, son estremecedores. Podrás encontrar homenajes a varios relatos del Genio de Providence, en los que podrás revisitar el relato desde el punto de vista de algunos de los personajes secundarios que, normalmente, están relacionados de alguna forma con la cocina.
Un soplo de aire fresco en un subgénero que comienza a estar sobresaturado.
Cuenta ni más ni menos que con el beneplácito de uno de los mayores expertos en la figura de Lovecraft, S. T. Joshi.
Este libro es muy original, pues mezcla recetas con relatos y a veces con elementos biográficos de la vida de Lovecraft, de la cual me consta que el autor es gran conocedor.
Algunos relatos te dejan con una sonrisa, otros te hacen reflexionar, sobre todo el que cuenta la visita de Lovecraft a una fábrica de helados (que es un hecho real), aunque el autor cambia el resultado de la misma creando una interesante ucronía.
Otros relatos, como Ghoulash, son estremecedores. Podrás encontrar homenajes a varios relatos del Genio de Providence, en los que podrás revisitar el relato desde el punto de vista de algunos de los personajes secundarios que, normalmente, están relacionados de alguna forma con la cocina.
Un soplo de aire fresco en un subgénero que comienza a estar sobresaturado.
November 30, 2022
The premise of this book - humorous food-inspired Lovecraftian stories interspersed with comical recipes - sounded interesting. The author states in the preface that he knew something about cooking as well as the Cthulhu Mythos and figured he could infuse both with some humor and produce a book. Unfortunately, his writing isn't as witty as he'd like to believe. The shtick of Lovecraftian recipes - Chicken of Tindalos, Biyaki wings, etc. - wasn't going to be enough to sustain more than a few entries before it got old (and get old quickly it did), but the short stories that center around food weren't all that and a bag of Fungi from Yuggoth chips. It was OK but nothing special.
October 5, 2018
Un delicioso plato que combina relatos, recetas y reflexiones sobre la obra de H.P. Lovecraft, siempre relacionándolo con el mundo culinario, y bien aderezado con lo sobrenatural y excelentes toques de humor. No por ello podemos considerarlo como una obra imprescindible, pero sí más que aconsejable para los fans de H.P. Lovecraft y os aseguro que lucirán con orgullo en sus estanterías y no dudarán en mostrarlo a familiares, amigos, y hablar sobre él en tertulias del género. Reseña completa: https://laestanteriadecho.blogspot.co...
October 28, 2019
Aunque al principio tenía muchas dudas sobre esta propuesta, quedé muy satisfecho con el resultado. Había olvidado todas esas referencias culinarias que Lovecraft incluyó en sus cuentos, y fue gratificante ver cómo a partir de ellas el autor elaboró ficciones y recetas con un exquisito humor negro. Chambers, Machen, Belknap Long y demás autores del terror cósmico también tienen su participación. Sin duda, un libro que todo cultista debe echarle un tentáculo e hincarle el diente.
November 25, 2016
Cooking with Lovecraft: Supernatural Horror in the Kitchen is an oddity in the world of H.P. Lovecraft inspired literature. Part cookbook, part short stories, and part the author’s own musings, Cooking with Lovecraft makes a noble attempt at juggling these various genres in a cohesive fashion. Some of the recipes are presented as translated entries from books, some of them are embedded inside the narrative of short stories that either have a Lovecraftian theme or overtly take place within the Cthulhu-Mythos. Other times its the author simply speaking candidly about his musings on various texts.
Such an attempt to juggle these different styles requires the hands of a skilled author as it is no easy feat. Unfortunately, Cooking with Lovecraft falters quite severely. The book is riddled with editorial, grammatical, formatting and punctuational errors and suffers inconstancy in both voice, narrative and quality, especially in regards to acting as a cookbook with interesting dishes.
In regards to errors, Cooking with Lovecraft is plagued by them. “Lovecraftian” alternates between being capitalized or not, punctuation appears outside quotation marks instead of inside, (though this may be a regional thing as the author reside in South America), and sentences suffers from missing words. For example, in the story “Anziques Kebab” the author says “What I believed it happened was,” instead of “What I believed happened was.” In the story “Ghoulash” he says “In the ferry made some chat with two cute girls” instead of something like “In the ferry I chatted with two cute girls.”
The e-copy of this book contains many blank pages, or pages with simply an end chapter graphic, showing some formatting and layout errors. The book also contains numerous hyperlinks to other websites outside the book. While this may be appropriate for a website, hyperlinks simply do not belong in a book. These either should be omitted all together, or if they are really required, they should’ve been relegated to and endnote section of sorts.
This all contributes to giving Cooking with Lovecraft an extreme amateurish quality. The book is self published, which may provide some explanation to the lack of editorial insight into the end product. The other aspect of low quality in this book is in regards to the photos used to compliment the recipes. They simply are not good. When it comes to cookbooks, photos need to be top of the line. Your kitchen becomes a studio for a photoshoot as you want the best pictures as possible. The pictures used in Cooking with Lovecraft do not convey the recipes as particularly appetizing. For example, the picture of bratwurst with sauerkraut that ends the story “Bratwurst mit Sauerkraut” is supposed to be an aged photo of a cherished recipe from a U-boat cook, however the end picture is muddled and looks unappetizing.
The choice of recipes in the book are fairly uninspired. For example, one recipe calls for slicing hot dogs in a particular way to make them look like octopi when cooked. Other recipes include hummus, buffalo wings, banana bread, and vegan spaghetti. The author providing dishes that are both vegetarian and vegan friendly is greatly appreciated though.
The majority of the stories and narratives in Cooking with Lovecraft are not particularly interesting save for two, the aforementioned “Bratwurst mit Sauerkraut” and “The Feastival.” Yes, that’s “Feastival” and not “Festival” - the title refers to it as the former, but the story’s actual text the latter. “Bratwurst mit Sauerkraut” is extremely suspenseful and this story has a knack at terrifying by flirting with the unknown. Told through the perspective of U-boat cook’s diary, the story concerns the crew who torpedo a British warship and recover a corpse that was clinging to a necklace with a figurine on it. As the days progress, strange things begin to happen on the U-boat, as a commander seems to go mad, crew mates disappear, and dolphins begin to swim with the submarine. The short story could be reworked and extended, and the end result would probably be quite impressive. In regards to “The Feastival,” this echoes a little bit of Lovecraft’s Dream Cycle style of writing. There’s no horror in this one, it’s actually a more humbling tale of a man making a pilgrimage to a town and eating dinner with an older couple. It’s written quite nicely, and stands out from the other entries in Cooking with Lovecraft due to its quality.
While Cooking with Lovecraft makes an earnest effort to differentiate itself from other Lovecraft inspired works, the end results are simply not up to task. It’s definitely an interesting curio of a book, and perhaps a second version of the book to correct its errors and have some quality control performed will certainly help.
Such an attempt to juggle these different styles requires the hands of a skilled author as it is no easy feat. Unfortunately, Cooking with Lovecraft falters quite severely. The book is riddled with editorial, grammatical, formatting and punctuational errors and suffers inconstancy in both voice, narrative and quality, especially in regards to acting as a cookbook with interesting dishes.
In regards to errors, Cooking with Lovecraft is plagued by them. “Lovecraftian” alternates between being capitalized or not, punctuation appears outside quotation marks instead of inside, (though this may be a regional thing as the author reside in South America), and sentences suffers from missing words. For example, in the story “Anziques Kebab” the author says “What I believed it happened was,” instead of “What I believed happened was.” In the story “Ghoulash” he says “In the ferry made some chat with two cute girls” instead of something like “In the ferry I chatted with two cute girls.”
The e-copy of this book contains many blank pages, or pages with simply an end chapter graphic, showing some formatting and layout errors. The book also contains numerous hyperlinks to other websites outside the book. While this may be appropriate for a website, hyperlinks simply do not belong in a book. These either should be omitted all together, or if they are really required, they should’ve been relegated to and endnote section of sorts.
This all contributes to giving Cooking with Lovecraft an extreme amateurish quality. The book is self published, which may provide some explanation to the lack of editorial insight into the end product. The other aspect of low quality in this book is in regards to the photos used to compliment the recipes. They simply are not good. When it comes to cookbooks, photos need to be top of the line. Your kitchen becomes a studio for a photoshoot as you want the best pictures as possible. The pictures used in Cooking with Lovecraft do not convey the recipes as particularly appetizing. For example, the picture of bratwurst with sauerkraut that ends the story “Bratwurst mit Sauerkraut” is supposed to be an aged photo of a cherished recipe from a U-boat cook, however the end picture is muddled and looks unappetizing.
The choice of recipes in the book are fairly uninspired. For example, one recipe calls for slicing hot dogs in a particular way to make them look like octopi when cooked. Other recipes include hummus, buffalo wings, banana bread, and vegan spaghetti. The author providing dishes that are both vegetarian and vegan friendly is greatly appreciated though.
The majority of the stories and narratives in Cooking with Lovecraft are not particularly interesting save for two, the aforementioned “Bratwurst mit Sauerkraut” and “The Feastival.” Yes, that’s “Feastival” and not “Festival” - the title refers to it as the former, but the story’s actual text the latter. “Bratwurst mit Sauerkraut” is extremely suspenseful and this story has a knack at terrifying by flirting with the unknown. Told through the perspective of U-boat cook’s diary, the story concerns the crew who torpedo a British warship and recover a corpse that was clinging to a necklace with a figurine on it. As the days progress, strange things begin to happen on the U-boat, as a commander seems to go mad, crew mates disappear, and dolphins begin to swim with the submarine. The short story could be reworked and extended, and the end result would probably be quite impressive. In regards to “The Feastival,” this echoes a little bit of Lovecraft’s Dream Cycle style of writing. There’s no horror in this one, it’s actually a more humbling tale of a man making a pilgrimage to a town and eating dinner with an older couple. It’s written quite nicely, and stands out from the other entries in Cooking with Lovecraft due to its quality.
While Cooking with Lovecraft makes an earnest effort to differentiate itself from other Lovecraft inspired works, the end results are simply not up to task. It’s definitely an interesting curio of a book, and perhaps a second version of the book to correct its errors and have some quality control performed will certainly help.
May 18, 2024
Here's the thing about cookbooks. They’re not really meant to be read cover to cover. Often I tend to do so, particularly when it comes to a themed cookbook like the Necronomnomnom (by Mike Slater, which I'd previously read) or this wonderful little book, but mostly they’re meant to be references you pull from here and there as you see fit. But that’s not really the case with Cooking With Lovecraft, because it’s not just a cookbook (though it is that) but also a book ABOUT cooking.
It's the kind of book that’s genuinely delightful to read—I particularly enjoyed a tale in which a 419 scammer accidentally gets involved with none other than a member of the Marsh clan of Shadow Over Innsmouth fame (or perhaps infamy). Let’s just say I don’t normally like to engage in schadenfreude but I make an exception for scammers.
But that gives you some idea what this book is like. Not every chapter is simply a recipe. Some are. Some are, rather, short stories. And many are some combination of the two. It’s a short book, but I’d consider it a must-read for both Lovecraft fans and those who enjoy novelty cookbooks. And it makes a perfect companion to Slater’s Necronomnomnom for those of you who’ve read that probably better-known offering.
Admittedly I haven’t cooked any of the recipes from the book yet but I did study them with a reasonably well-trained home chef’s eye and I’ve already singled out a few that look particularly delightful. You want to get a copy of this book.
It's the kind of book that’s genuinely delightful to read—I particularly enjoyed a tale in which a 419 scammer accidentally gets involved with none other than a member of the Marsh clan of Shadow Over Innsmouth fame (or perhaps infamy). Let’s just say I don’t normally like to engage in schadenfreude but I make an exception for scammers.
But that gives you some idea what this book is like. Not every chapter is simply a recipe. Some are. Some are, rather, short stories. And many are some combination of the two. It’s a short book, but I’d consider it a must-read for both Lovecraft fans and those who enjoy novelty cookbooks. And it makes a perfect companion to Slater’s Necronomnomnom for those of you who’ve read that probably better-known offering.
Admittedly I haven’t cooked any of the recipes from the book yet but I did study them with a reasonably well-trained home chef’s eye and I’ve already singled out a few that look particularly delightful. You want to get a copy of this book.
February 22, 2018
This is a wonderfully bizarre collection of writings! Imagine Lovecraftian horror that centers on food -- with some actual recipes mixed in. Who would think of such a collection? Apparently Miguel Fliguer would, and did, and I am glad of it. It is a wonderful work of Lovecraftian humor, with a few nods to others authors (Douglas Adams, Arthur Machen, and Franz Kafka, for example). My favorite piece is "The Horror from the Ice-Cream," in which Lovecraft and his friends James Morton and Donald Wandrei, visit a Vermont ice cream shop called Benedict & Jeremiah (sound familiar?) and proceed to take the challenge of eating a monster sundae called The Frozen Beast. This story is quite funny, but I also found it to be rather poignant. All in all, this collection is great fun and no Lovecraft fan should miss it!
November 18, 2017
A great and funny cookbook.
May 28, 2018
EXQUISITO
Entretenimiento, buena literatura y recetas que gustan a todos (y que SÍ se pueden poner en práctica!). Si van a entrar por primera vez al universo lovecraftiano, pues que sea por aquí. Y si ya son expertos, coincidirán con los elogios que los críticos especializados han hecho de la primera edición de este impecable libro (¿menú?) de Miguel Fliguer.
Entretenimiento, buena literatura y recetas que gustan a todos (y que SÍ se pueden poner en práctica!). Si van a entrar por primera vez al universo lovecraftiano, pues que sea por aquí. Y si ya son expertos, coincidirán con los elogios que los críticos especializados han hecho de la primera edición de este impecable libro (¿menú?) de Miguel Fliguer.
December 28, 2025
Strange little book of recipes and a short story. Crazy.
Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews