Hellbent for Cooking!

French-Canadian Annick Giroux is the author of 'Hellbent for Cooking: the Heavy Metal Cookbook'. Featuring recipes by 102 bands from over 30 countries (Ireland's in there, too), 'Hellbent...'s range of dishes is superb, giving readers a fantastic amount of inspiration and local knowledge, while being funny and quirky at the same time. We emailed Annick to find out more about cooking and rocking.

Harry Guerin: How did the idea for 'Hellbent for Cooking' come about?
Annick Giroux: Cooking, food and metal are some of my favourite pleasures in this world. The concept idea came to me in the spring of 2007, when I was going used record/cooking shopping. I was hungover that day, and somehow I got a flash of asking metal bands for their favourite recipes, then compiling it into a book! Usually I only get stupid ideas when I'm out drinking the night before, but I actually thought it was achievable!

HG: How long from thinking 'That's quite a good idea' to starting to work on the actual book and pitching it to publishers?
AG: It was slightly different actually - as I am a very DIY person, I wanted to do it all by myself. I actually started the research as soon as I came home from my shopping trip, and started e-mailing bands right away for their favourite recipes (starting with the bands I already had contact with). I e-mailed tons of them, but it actually didn’t yield as many recipes as I would have liked to have - and eventually I lost interest to do a full blown cookbook. As I am a fanzine writer, and had my own 'zine, I decided to include the 24 recipes I had in a special section at the back of it, turning it into a 'cookzine'. When the fanzine came out in January ’09, people reacted really well to that feature. Some people even told me it got them into cooking! Haha! This is where the publisher, Bazillion Points, comes in. Ian [Christe], the owner and editor, whom I knew from a few years before, contacted me and asked me if I was interested in releasing this book as a real, full-colour cookbook. I was insanely stoked, and of course I accepted his offer!

HG: How did you choose the bands for the book?
AG: That’s easy! They are bands that I respect and enjoy. For me it was important that the bands included in the book were not just the “flavour of the month” kind of bands - I wanted it to be as pure as possible.

HG: Was it tough to chase them for recipes?
AG: Oh yes, definitely. Well, some of them were very excited and sent me their recipe the same day, but some I had to chase for months! I can understand them, though. It’s easy to do interviews because you only need your brain to answer the questions, but a recipe is different - you gotta have access to your kitchen, make sure the measurements are good, type it out, etc. It’s a lot of work, really!

HG: Were there any bands that got away? People you wrote to and they didn't write back or said they would give you a recipe but missed out on the deadline?
AG: Yeah, many bands didn’t write back - and some didn’t have correct addresses, etc. Only one band missed the deadline, though, so it wasn’t too bad!

HG: You have some Irish recipes in there, too.
AG: Yes, I got two totally typical Irish recipes. I had only three Irish bands in mind: Primordial, Thin Lizzy and Cruachan. Primordial didn’t have any recipes, Cruachan provided me an awesome Stout Irish Stew (it was so good after a few days!) and Mrs Philomena Lynott (Phil Lynott’s mum) gave me her son’s favourite recipe. The story behind that is that I actually called her and asked her if she wanted to participate. The phone crackling paired with my crazy French accent and her own Irish accent made the conversation unbearable, so she ended up giving me her address and we exchanged a few letters, including a delicious Sunday Lamb Roast recipe. Yum!

HG: How long did it take to get the book finished?
AG: After Ian contacted me, it took from 6-8 months to finish.

HG: Were there times you thought you would never finish it?
AG: Not at all! I was very confident actually! I had everything organised, and most of the things went as I planned. I am used to working under pressure, and this was nothing compared to working on the last issue of my fanzine, which made me develop extreme anxiety in the teeth! Haha! I was grinding my teeth non- stop during the making of that one. Phew! Never again!

HG: What are your favourite metal albums to cook to?
AG: I love cooking to late 70s to early 80s metal… Judas Priest, Motörhead, Witchfinder General, Pagan Altar, Saint Vitus, etc. Sometimes I listen to old school death metal, raw black metal, and other times I listen to newly acquired stuff. It truly depends - I don’t have a special album that I put on when I cook… unless I do a recipe from 'Hellbent for Cooking' :)

HG: Are you planning a sequel?
AG: I am definitely planning something, which may or may not see the light of the day. If it does happen, it will be really killer - I promise!

HG:What has been the level of interest about the book? Have you been on any TV shows in Canada?
AG: I really didn’t expect the intense amount of feedback and press we got from the book… it was just insane! We got people reacting from Turkey to Brazil, Liechtenstein to China… truly incredible! I have been on one TV show, yes. I made the Bull Testicle Surprise recipe on the Musique Plus TV channel (it’s like a French-language MTV) You can see it here: http://www.musiqueplus.com/l-univers-musiqueplus/videos/et-si-on-mangeait-des-testicules

HG: And finally, what your all-time favourite metal albums?
AG: Damn, that’s really, really hard. Ok, here is a short list - sorry for the length hahaha, but I am missing tons of other albums!

Legend (US) - 'From the Fjords'

Black Sabbath - 'Black Sabbath'

Death SS - 'The Story of Death SS'

Paul Chain - 'Alkahest'

Pagan Altar - 'Mythical & Magical'

Witchfinder General - 'Friends of Hell'

Black Hole - 'Land of Mystery'

Scald - 'Will of the Gods is Great Power'

Saint Vitus - 'Saint Vitus'

Judas Priest - 'Sad Wings of Destiny'

Vulcain - 'Rock’n’Roll Secours'

Acid - 'Maniac'

Slayer - 'Show No Mercy'

Destruction - 'Infernal Overkill'

Sacrifice - 'Torment in Fire'

Voïvod - 'War and Pain'

Celtic Frost - 'Morbid Tales'

Bathory - 'Under the Sign of the Black Mark'

Master’s Hammer - 'Ritual'

Barathrum - 'Hailstorm'

Samael - 'Blood Ritual'

Nastrond - 'Toteslaut'

Armoured Angel - 'Angel of the Sixth Order'

'Hellbent for Cooking' is published by Bazillion Points. RTÉ is not responsible for the content of external websites - or your cooking mishaps.