‘Gilmore Girls’ Cookbook Author Can Identify Episodes by What Food Was Eaten
Gilmore Girls gave fans of Stars Hollow a chance to eat at Luke’s Diner. In 2016, they opened a popup restaurant promoting A Year in the Life. Now you can make all the recipes Luke, Sookie, Emily and others served on Gilmore Girls. Kristen Mulrooney and Elena Craig wrote Gilmore Girls: The Official Cookbook and Mulrooney can name the episode by the meal featured.
Mulrooney was a guest on Scott Patterson’s I Am All In podcast to discuss Gilmore Girls: The Official Cookbook. She explained the importance of food on significant episodes of Gilmore Girls.
The No. 1. recipe request for the ‘Gilmore Girls’ cookbook
Mulrooney said as soon as Gilmore Girls: The Official Cookbook was announced, fans demanding one recipe. It wasn’t one of Sookie’s gourmet treats.
“One of the comments I keep hearing is it better include the Santa Burger,” Mulrooney said on I Am All In. “And there’s a reason why in a series where one of the characters is a gourmet chef, it’s the Santa Burger that people want. I think that’s because the scene where Luke serves it to Lorelai is so special because it’s the first time I really think we see him showing how much he cares for her. So I think over and over again in this show we see food being shared in moments of love and comfort and even sometimes anger.”
Naming the ‘Gilmore Girls’ episode by the food
Mulrooney discussed a few episodes of Gilmore Girls where even the most obscure food stood out to her.
“I feel like they all feature food to me now after writing this book,” Mulrooney said. “Some people look at an episode and identify it as this is the episode where Lorelai and Richard get into a fight at Yale. I’m like that’s the episode where they get takeout from Hector’s Tacos.”
Gilmore Girls: The Official Cookbook also includes recipes from Stars Hollow festivals. Now you can take a piece of Gilmore Girls home with you, if you can follow the recipe.
“As far as the ones that really feature food, I’m in New England,” Mulrooney said. “So I really like all the fall and Christmas and wintery episodes. Is it the Bracebridge Dinner, the medieval feast because it’s a very Stars Hollowy magical episode but there’s a lot of fun food in there. We did the medieval plum pudding.”
Finding the recipes
Gilmore Girls: The Official Cookbook was published May 10, 2020. Mulrooney shared how she gathered the material.
“So I actually had a great summer last summer,” Mulrooney said. “We wrote this whole thing and I had a great time because I have three small children. My husband took them and I was just like I have to work. And I put on Netflix and I just watched the show and it was wonderful. So every episode, every recipe we had, I think I watched the episode and saw what was going on and just tried to encompass that in what I was writing.”
Mulrooney credited Craig with figuring out the actual recipes from Gilmore Girls.
“Elena did most of that,” Mulrooney said. “I think she had the hard job here. Some of them, I think, were probably tougher than others for her. For example, we did mashed bananas on toast. And the whole thing about the mashed bananas on toast was that it was disgusting. Same with the drink The Rory, which was served at Rory’s 21st birthday and it was very, very pink. Again, it was just known for being disgusting. She revamped those recipes and made them tasty. That was kind of my job to take it and spin it in my test.”
