Jenn Fujikawa - Ghostbusters: The Official Cookbook

Ghostbusters

The Official Cookbook

Recipes by Jenn Fujikawa Written by Erik Burnham

GF = Gluten Free | V = Vegetarian | V+ = Vegan

FOREWORD

You never know what little thing is going to become important to your life. For me? I answered a crazy want ad on a whim. I didnt know Id get the job, and I didnt know how that job would change me.

But let me tell you, after youve saved the world (more than once), you wont be the same kind of person. You cant be.

I started a company, I started a family, and I found a lot of success in this world. And I owe all that to a confidence I might never have had without my experiences as a Ghostbuster. No matter who else I may become, I will always be a Ghostbuster. And as such, I want the memory of the Ghostbusters to be strong in the hearts and minds of the public.

Which brings me to this book.

As fellow Ghostbuster Peter Venkman once said, The road to peoples hearts is paved in merchandise.

Thats when I got a call from Ray Stantz.

Hed found the remains of a project in storagea cookbook, of all things. Something the Ghostbusters were involved with at the height of our fame. Ray decided he wanted to complete it (with the encouragement of and help from a new friend, a kid who calls himself Podcastthe first person Ive ever met that was as enthusiastic about things as Ray).

I was asked to invest in a small print run of the cookbook for Rays bookstore, and thats when I knew I had found the perfect thing to test the waters with. After all, who doesnt love a cookbook?

So, here we are, with the Ghostbusters cookbook, in all its glory. Im a big fan of completing projects, and thanks to Ray and Podcast, youre not just getting a pile of recipes. Youre getting a little piece of history.

Ghostbusters forever.

Winston Zeddemore

New York City, NY

The culinary manual youre currently holding in your hands was originally born of a deal that Peter Venkman put together back in the 80s, a way to pay off at least one of the mortgages on my childhood home. It shouldve been the perfect project for a ghostwriterbut Peter wasnt always one to read a contract. The terms were clear: We had to pick the dishes we wanted in the book and write introductions for each.

Sounds simple, and it wasexcept for the fact that we barely had time to eat, let alone write the material needed for a book.

But we could always talkso I came up with the idea of recording our thoughts and transcribing them later. We collected enough material en route to and from our regular caseload that we were able to get about halfway done before the whole thing was abruptly canceledat which point all the tapes wed recorded found a new home in a small box placed in the back corner of my storage locker in Queens, destined, most likely, to remain undiscovered until such time as the estate sale following my inevitable exit from this plane of existence.

Destiny, though, runs a crooked path

Decades after what I thought was the end of professional ghostbusting, a threat rose in the heartland: the return of a Sumerian god of death, intent on realizing its goal of planetary destruction.

Gozer had traveled back to this plane of existence, and the Ghostbusters rose to the occasion, facing the beast again in the dusty front yard of a farm once owned by our recently departed colleague, Egon Spengler.

But we were not alone in our resistance: Egons grandchildren and their friends not only identified and alerted us to the emerging threat but also joined us in putting an end to Gozer, this time for good.

Whats more, I met the host of Mystical Tales of the Unknown Universe, a delightful young man who goes by the moniker of Podcast. During an interview for his show, this unfinished project came up, and he insisted it be completed, offering his assistance. Podcast not only found a computer program to automatically transcribe our tapes from the early 80s but also was instrumental in gathering several new recipes from the next generation of Ghostbusters, which filled out this book.

Without Podcast and his expertise in technology, food reviews, and, yes, the paranormal, the book youre reading would never have been finished.

The introductions to each recipe are direct transcriptions of either newly recorded or archival audio from 1984, making this the literary equivalent of cinema verit.

Its both a moment in time, and of the moment.

Lets eat, shall we?

Dr. Ray Stantz

New York City, NY

BOX GRATER

Helpful for shredding foods such as cheese, or grates the skin off citrus fruits (aka zest)

COLANDER

Drains liquids through small holes

DRY MEASURING CUPS

Help you determine amounts of ingredients such as flour

FRYING PAN

Useful for cooking fried foods or for general cooking use

IMMERSION BLENDER

Turns foods into a puree

LADLE

Helpful for serving soups or stews

LIQUID MEASURING CUP

Determines exact amounts of liquids by lining up the top of a liquid to the marks on the glass

MEASURING SPOONS

Determine smaller amounts of ingredients

MINI CHOPPER

Chops small foods and ingredients like cilantro, mint, and other herbs

PROTON PACK

A necessary precaution against any ghosts that may haunt your kitchen

ROLLING PIN

Rolls out or flattens dough

RUBBER SPATULA

Helpful for folding ingredients into each other, or scraping the sides of bowls

SAUCEPAN WITH LID