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The Ultimate Final Fantasy XIV Cookbook: The Essential Culinarian Guide to Hydaelyn

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Take a culinary adventure through one of gaming's most beloved franchises!

With stunning photography and step by step instructions, this book gives you everything you need to recreate some of this game's most iconic dishes.

192 pages, Hardcover

First published November 1, 2021

29 people are currently reading
208 people want to read

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Victoria Rosenthal

28 books23 followers

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5 stars
190 (68%)
4 stars
64 (23%)
3 stars
18 (6%)
2 stars
4 (1%)
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0 (0%)
Displaying 1 - 24 of 24 reviews
Profile Image for Lex.
143 reviews4 followers
May 28, 2024
A cute cookbook of recipes based on the game. There's no overall theme to the recipes other than that, and with 1,590 Culinarian recipes in the game you better believe there's variety! I saw a previous review that said this book is mostly Japanese home table fare - I have no idea where they got this idea. Bouillabaisse, roast beef, and cornbread are Japanese? News to me!

That said, the variety definitely leans to a mix of American, French, and Japanese. Potato salad, crab cakes, omelet, maki rolls, miso soup, meatloaf, stuffed cabbage rolls, ratatouille, cheese soufflé, espresso con panna... They're written simply, with cute flavor text from a moogle and Namazu buddy-chef-duo. I'd definitely try making some of these recipes but there's nothing terribly exciting.

I really would have liked it to be more of a "gastronomic tour of Etheirys" with sections for different regions, like Eorzea, Garlemald, Norvrandt, Othard, Ilsabard... Or maybe more focus on the Culinarian job quest items, or foods that actually feature in the game like Archon Loaf. Or raid food! Raiders need to eat! All in all it's a perfectly fine video game cookbook, but it isn't one that I'll keep on my shelf.
Profile Image for Aleya.
417 reviews50 followers
December 8, 2021
It's so cool to read a cookbook for a game I love. I've made some of the in-game versions of these recipes. Having a real version is fantastic. Loved the incorporation of the lore and the regions into the various recipes too. The namazu and moogle giving us the recipes was fun. Also really enjoyed the chibi versions of characters on pages as decoration. So cute.
Profile Image for Danni.
37 reviews3 followers
January 21, 2022
El mejor regalo de navidad ever done. "The Minstrel's ballad: croissants", I'm coming for you.
16 reviews
July 10, 2022
This was bought for me as a present from a friend and I have to say that I did greatly enjoy this. To be honest, I've wanted to do something similar (and simpler) with another game with all the recipes created in it. While I haven't played the game at all, therefore, I cannot assess to the accuracy and comprehensiveness of the collection of dishes in the book to the game itself, however, I enjoyed seeing a bit of a variety of styles of dishes. The book itself is visually appealing with thick pages that frequently contain images of the various prepared dishes and doubles as a collectible item as well as a functional cookbook.

I liked the bit of lore that came with the characters that introduced the dishes and would talk about circumstances for learning them and the regions they hailed from. Gives the notion of a diversity of different styles of food more readily.

There was a small glossary in the beginning that defined some less common terms with regards to food types that were used as ingredients. This was lovely and I wish that more would have been placed into this glossary, as I felt it was a bit minimal and less known items could have been added.

My main nitpicking element for the book would be the declaration that it was made with the notion that all the ingredients are readily available just about everywhere. Unfortunately, several definitely are NOT and could be harder to come by if truly searching for them, depending on where you live. With this in mind, I think a great alternative to combat this would have been to devise a substitute chart at the back of the book to signify some other items that would be similar in taste/texture/function that could be swapped in if less accessible ingredients were unavailable or too pricey. There's a wonderful gluten free, vegetarian, and vegan chart in the back to list which recipes qualify for each status with some handy substitutes listed in some of the recipes that don't by default fit into these classifications, so a general substitution chart for rarer ingredients could have easily been listed alongside the gf/v/v chart.

I think this could be an enjoyable (and collectible) cookbook for anyone, especially those enamored with the cuisine in Final Fantasy XIV.
Profile Image for Arisu.
39 reviews1 follower
March 1, 2023
Not sold on the recipes but still loved every bits of the book because I love the game.

Many of the recipes are common Japanese home dishes and this book westernised it which DID NOT work out for me.

I tried making "Stuffed Cabbage Roll" (which I've cooked numerous times following Japanese recipes) according to the cookbook and it was the MOST FRUSTRATING COOKING I've ever done. In my years of cooking I have never put a cabbage roll into an oven and mine came out half burnt and half raw. In the end I had to resort to doing it the Japanese way which was to simply simmer it in a pot..........

3 stars for the book design and linking the recipes to the game, but have to take 2 off because some of the Japanese recipes are just so westernised it made cooking those dishes a hassle - just did not make any sense to me.
Profile Image for Keiry Ko.
58 reviews4 followers
January 8, 2022
Most of the recipes are Japanese inspired, but you can easily replace some of the ingredients, you can even make a vegan or vegetarian version of some of those but you already can find some diverse recipes. It's great cookbook for a FF XIV fan trying to recreate some of the meals on the game. It doesn't matter if you are a beginner or an expert, the are different difficulties: easy, medium, hard and even one extreme. There are breakfasts, breads, drinks, soups & stews, appetizers, main dishes, sides and desserts -all explained by Gyohan and Mogria, characters of the game that makes the experience very fun.
Profile Image for Rowan.
544 reviews6 followers
February 2, 2022
Themed cookbooks are always a mixed experience, but the primary appeal of this one is that it includes a ton of dairy-free and vegetarian recipes, or recipes that can be easily adjusted. Otherwise, it's such a strange mix of recipes. We start out of the gate with croissants, an incredibly time consuming recipe, and then at one point we have mashed potatoes. Just, mashed potatoes. I guess people might need a recipe for them, but if I'm picking up a book of recipes based on a fantasy video game, I guess I was hoping for some of the more interesting and unusual recipes and fewer staples.
Profile Image for Helena Giovanni.
1 review
September 1, 2025
My fiance and I met playing FFXIV, so we decided to use the game as the theme for our wedding. This cookbook has so many delicious recipes re-created from the game that we've been having a hard time narrowing down what we would like to serve to our small number of guests. (We're planning on having a more intimate ceremony with only family and close friends, some of who also play the game.)

I can't wait for the second volume to be released, even though it will likely make choosing dishes for the wedding even harder, lol.
Profile Image for Kristin.
838 reviews11 followers
November 17, 2021
Super cute, I love that it gives some information on what some of the Scions and your WOL (in their rare downtime) have been up to since returning from The First, plus little insights into other characters and their favorite foods (although I wasn't expecting to be punched in the heart with a little blurb about Haurchefant on the Knight Bread 😭).

The food looks delicious too, can't wait to give some of the recipes a try.
Profile Image for Katherine.
1,347 reviews17 followers
August 2, 2023
This is a very cute cookbook! I am not into FFXVI, but my husband is, and I got this for him a couple of Christmases ago as a lighthearted gift. Decided I should go through some of my outstanding cookbooks to see if there's anything worthwhile making in them, and this one has several recipes that I'm interested in giving a try. There's some excellent food styling in this, and the little snippets of story that there are are really cute!
Profile Image for Caleb Ross.
20 reviews3 followers
November 30, 2021
Solid cookbook with a nice blend of lore flavouring and solid recipes. Enjoyed the humour, as a huge fan of the game, and am looking forward to spending some time making most of these recipes. The drinks and baked goods especially are really appealing. But I wouldn't write off anything else either.
147 reviews1 follower
May 11, 2023
This book gives you everything you need to recreate some of this game's most iconic dishes. Take a culinary adventure through one of gaming's most beloved franchise.

This book is interesting, with unique names to amazing food! Not gonna lie, I didn't like most of the cocktails in the back of the book, but the actual recipes are pretty good.
Profile Image for mona.
11 reviews1 follower
January 13, 2022
Wouldn’t normally count a cookbook as a “read” book but in this case there is quite a bit stuff on the side on each recipe that i basically inhaled while going through the recipes that i would say it was a fun read LOL
Profile Image for Amanda.
12 reviews7 followers
December 4, 2021
Super cute book! Dietary restrictions are clearly marked making finding relevant recipes super easy, as well as marked difficulty levels.
Profile Image for SabyGosselin.
2 reviews
January 30, 2022
Very good recipes, easy to follow and easily adjustable for vegetarians. Great attention to detail
Profile Image for Troy Zaher.
285 reviews5 followers
February 9, 2023
I love that it features in universe food. The honey muffins and espresso cookies are some of our favorites, but we have reviews of almost every recipe (Rtc)
April 21, 2023
I have gone through the whole book and I love these recipes. Now I will be honest, they are not all easy to make but they are fun!
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
Profile Image for Jessica.
334 reviews53 followers
May 26, 2023
Looking forward ti making the Crab croquettes, Battered fish, Hi-Elixir, and X-Potion!
Profile Image for Nicole.
10 reviews
Read
December 24, 2023
This is a fun book for final fantasy fans, for the artwork and content, but as a cook and baker, the recipes are all ok.
Profile Image for Ikayuro.
331 reviews5 followers
February 2, 2022
If you're a fan of Final Fantasy XIV - or Final Fantasy in general, AND happen to like cooking, this is a cookbook you need to have! I'm always so terribly fond of video game cookbooks, so when the development team for XIV mentioned this one, I just knew I had to get my hands on one!

This book contains a wide array of dishes from varying cultures, and a range of difficulties. You have your stock 'good to know' recipes, like beef stew and eggs benedict, and some added niche ones like coffee biscuits or bacon bread!

Each page contains gorgeous photography of the dish in question, plus some fun lore snippits from the game. In the front, a letter from the lead developer Yoshida-san himself.

All in all, I plan to cook everything in this book cover to cover- and I'm starting with that hearty stew!
Profile Image for Angeles .
29 reviews
July 22, 2022
perfect recipe book for FF fans

Book has formulate step by step instructions, pictures of the dish and exactly replicate the dishes appeared in FF XIV. I can’t find any fault of this book and love it.
Profile Image for Deb.
621 reviews1 follower
March 12, 2024
Didn't find anything different enough in it to try.
Displaying 1 - 24 of 24 reviews

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