NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • Featuring sixty delicious recipes from across the world of Critical Role, every Critter will find something to whet their appetites in this official cookbook.

Join a party of culinary adventurers in search of the fabulous flavors and delightful delicacies that make Exandria so exquisite. Here, they present their bounty: sixty dishes collected from each continent!

Start in Tal’Dorei, where you can nab a trio of pastries from the Slayer’s Cake, a staple of Whitestone’s patisserie scene. Journey next to the birthplace of civilization, Issylra, and devour some absolutely divine Highsummer Honey Polenta. Travel to Marquet and explore Jrusar’s Core Spire while enjoying some street meat. And finally, end in Wildemount, where you can unwind with a famous Ruby of the Sea Cocktail.

The recipes from these diverse dives are accompanied by the histories of each land—and stories of iconic culinary capers by Vox Machina, the Mighty Nein, Bells Hells, and more. Enjoy Percival de Rolo’s Revenge Pasta, stuffed with enough garlic to ward off even the strongest vampires, and blackberry and lemon hand pies inspired by Scanlan’s favorite spell. Prepare for battle with Jester’s Sweet Feast, a platter of pastries made complete with a dash of cinnamon and a covert sprinkle of the Dust of Deliciousness. And as the night comes to a close, settle down with Lord Eshteross’s Maple Ginger Cookies.

With a foreword by Quyen Tran and Sam Riegel, gorgeous illustrations and photography to accompany mouthwatering recipes, and lore from each corner of Exandria, this is a must-have cookbook for every Critical Role fan.

Review

“[ Exquisite Exandria ] promises to enchant both your party and your taste buds. But it’s not just about food—the cookbook is adorned with breathtaking artwork that rivals the finest D&D tomes, making it a culinary guide and a visual treat. . . . an essential addition to your collection.” — Tasting Table

“ Exquisite Exandria is an excellent cookbook and resource to learn about the world of Exandria through the eyes of a foodie. . . . the recipes within offer a range of styles and ingredients, are easy to follow, and are approachable to a wide range of chefs.” — TechRaptor

“Gathering with friends in person for game night often inspires players to cook up a dish and bring it along, and the recipes in Exquisite Exandria are the perfect, unique but tasty treats to dazzle the adventuring party with. . . . will resonate with fans and foodies alike.”—Comic Book Resources

“ Exquisite Exandria is a great cookbook, both from a recipe standpoint and a lore perspective. . . . a must have for any fan of Critical Role.” —Gaming Trend

About the Author

Founded by veteran voice actors Matthew Mercer, Ashley Johnson, Marisha Ray, Taliesin Jaffe, Travis Willingham, Sam Riegel, Laura Bailey, and Liam O’Brien, Critical Role has grown from a weekly improv storytelling campaign set in an ever-evolving world, to a media company centered on connecting with communities in new and meaningful ways, including books on the New York Times bestsellers list, comic books, graphic novels, collectibles, tabletop and role playing games, podcasts, live events, and a critically acclaimed animated series, The Legend of Vox Machina.

Liz Marsham has written books of all types for readers of all ages, including the New York Times bestseller The World of Critical Role. She runs a tiny fiefdom in southern California with her husband, son, two cats, and what she insists is a “perfectly reasonable” number of dice.

Jesse Szewczyk is a food stylist and recipe developer based in New York. He was named a Forbes 30 Under 30 of Food & Drink for 2021 and is the author of Tasty Pride , a collection of 75 recipes and stories from the queer food community that raised $50,000 for GLAAD, as well as Cookies: The New Classics , which was named one of the best cookbooks of 2021 by The New York Times.

Susan Vu lives in a multiverse where she splits her time between Los Angeles, New York, and wherever her next adventure is. She recipe develops, food styles, and culinary produces in between chasing her favorite band around the world.

Amanda Yee is the Creative Director of 4 Color Imprint and author of The Official Friends Cookbook. She has a background in English, Sociology, and Culinary Arts and often dabbles in food writing, recipe development, and food styling. When she’s not working, she’s dreaming about her next surf adventure.

Quyen Tran and Sam Riegel met at the University of Virginia, where Quyen converted Sam’s basic palette into the refined taste buds of a world-class food snob. The couple lives in Los Angeles with their two awesome kids, where Quyen shoots and directs film and television, and Sam plays make-believe, while savoring his wife’s haute cuisine. --This text refers to the hardcover edition.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

Introduction

It began, as the best things do, with a group of friends sitting around a table.

We were reading The Daring Trials and Tribulations of Sir Taryon Darrington in our book club. (If you haven’t read it yourself, give it a try: it is a wild ride.) Since most of us are good with food, and a book club is hardly worth the name without snacks, we try to bring treats themed to the book we’re reading. Sir Darrington does provide quite a bit of detail about everything in his adventures, including what he eats. Some of his accounts were confounding, though. For instance, a drink called Changebringer’s Nectar that he describes as “maple syrup grain alcohol” sounds terrible, but he declares it to be tasty. We were intrigued.

As we mentioned, most of us are skilled at experimenting with food and having it come out well. (One of us, it must be said, is hopeless in the kitchen. She’s great at complimenting the chefs, though, and she spins a good yarn.) But we found that Sir Darrington’s descriptions, while evocative, weren’t enough to actually cook from. We needed more information. How does one actually make this stuff?

Happily, one of us was traveling through Deastok soon after that, and she managed to talk the bartender at the Grumpy Lily tavern into giving up two of his recipes. He may have been willing to share his secrets because both drinks are nearly impossible to make at home, but we were undeterred. We tried. We failed. We tried again. Finally, we reproduced versions of both drinks that we were satisfied with, and we celebrated by drinking far too much of them.

We had triumphed, and we wanted to do it again. Now it was bothering us: there were so many special meals, so many delicious drinks, throughout Exandria that we had never tried, never mind tried to make. We wanted more exploration, more experimentation, more recipes. We aren’t cut out to be brigadiers like Taryon and his crew, but we could have adventures in our own way. We could find our own type of treasure. It turned into a hobby: go on vacation, bring back a recipe. Then it turned into a mission: who can get to Vasselheim in time for Highsummer?

In our search for food, we found far more stories than we were expecting. It turns out the two are tied together more often than not, and the food is so much better when you know how it came to be. So we collected recipes, and we collected tales, and we brought them back to share with one another around the table. Before we knew it, our book club had created a book. There is so much more to explore and eat and make in this world, but it became time for us to stop sharing with one another and start sharing with you.

Here, at last, is the product of our adventures, a list of our labors, little slices of this exquisite place we live in that you can re-create at home. We hope you enjoy these banquets, bites, and beverages from across Exandria—and the stories behind them.

— The Exquisite Exandria creators, formerly the First Draught Book Club --This text refers to the hardcover edition.