Interview: ‘The Way of the Househusband’ Cookbook Authors

Interview: ‘The Way of the Househusband: The Gangster’s Guide to Housekeeping’ authors Victoria Rosenthal and Laurie Ulster spoke to The Natural Aristocrat® about the anime/manga influenced cookbook and lifestyle guide.

‘The Gangster’s Guide to Housekeeping’ delves not only into traditional cooking recipes but general life skills you need in your arsenal.

From housekeeping tips to crafting & shopping guides. Going the extra mile, just like ex-Yakuza turned househusband extraordinaire Tatsu himself.

Photo Credit: © Kousuke Oono / J.C.Staff via Netflix

THE NATURAL ARISTOCRAT (NIR REGEV): Victoria, you’ve previously said your dream gaming cookbook is for Sega’s Yakuza: Like A Dragon. The Way of the Househusband is pretty close to your goal thematically, what does that mean to you?

Photo Credit: The Natural Aristocrat® – Nir Regev. Cookbook provided by VIZ Media

VICTORIA ROSENTHAL: The ‘Like a Dragon’ series definitely is the reason why I picked up ‘The Way of the Househusband’! At first, I had so many friends saying, ‘If you love that series, you really need to check this out.’

‘The Way of the Househusband: The Gangster’s Guide to Housekeeping’ Cookbook. Photo provided by VIZ Media

Then I started reading The Way of the Househusband and I was like, ‘Oh my gosh! This is exactly what I needed in my life!’

When I was given the opportunity to work on ‘The Gangster’s Guide to Housekeeping,’ it was so great! I almost couldn’t believe it was happening.

Photo Credit: The Natural Aristocrat® – Nir Regev. Cookbook provided by VIZ Media

THE NATURAL ARISTOCRAT: What do you both find most endearing about Tatsu as a character and househusband?

Photo Credit: © Kousuke Oono / J.C.Staff via Netflix

LAURIE ULSTER: For me, I would say there’s a sincerity and enthusiasm that I loved. He has a very unique voice and he’s so passionate. There’s no pretense, which was very fun to play in that territory.

Photo Credit: © Kousuke Oono / J.C.Staff via Netflix

VICTORIA ROSENTHAL: Yeah, I think he always puts other people before him. That’s the best part of his character!

THE NATURAL ARISTOCRAT: This cookbook is unique that it features not only recipes but tips for how to live your life like ‘decluttering’. Were you assigned the manga panels and built on that or did you have some creative freedom?

‘The Way of the Househusband: The Gangster’s Guide to Housekeeping’ Cookbook. Photo provided by VIZ Media

VICTORIA ROSENTHAL: With the recipes, we were able to kind of pick any of them. I went through the entire manga again and I was like, ‘Okay, here’s all the recipes that are in there!’

Then we were told to focus mostly on Tatsu’s handiwork. So we cut out a few of them and from there we thought, ‘Okay, let’s make sure we have a balanced menu and everything!’

But everything was kind of handpicked by myself to be like, ‘This is what we should do and we should run with’. And then it approved by the VIZ Media.

Photo Credit: The Natural Aristocrat® – Nir Regev. Cookbook provided by VIZ Media

LAURIE ULSTER: For me, I was given an outline that was really based on everything that was already in the in the manga pages.

From there I definitely would make some shifts like, ‘Oh, can we drop this, but do this?’ But it all came from the source.

THE NATURAL ARISTOCRAT: Is it challenging to keep the comedic tone of the series with serious life tips?
I thought the pest removal section balanced it out well.

‘The Way of the Househusband: The Gangster’s Guide to Housekeeping’ Cookbook. Photo provided by VIZ Media

LAURIE ULSTER: I mean, I didn’t find it that challenging because, it’s kind of how I view life anyway. Even in the heart of seriousness, there’s always room for a humor and a different perspective.

So it felt so natural to who Tatsu is. That part was not challenging. I mean it was equally challenging to everything, but not specifically more challenging.

‘The Way of the Househusband: The Gangster’s Guide to Housekeeping’ Cookbook. Photo provided by VIZ Media

THE NATURAL ARISTOCRAT: I noticed there’s vegetarian & vegan advice to substitute milk and butter in the recipes. But how vegan friendly would you say the recipes are in The Way of the Househusband: The Gangster’s Guide to Housekeeping without substitutes?

‘The Way of the Househusband: The Gangster’s Guide to Housekeeping’ Cookbook. Photo provided by VIZ Media

VICTORIA ROSENTHAL: There are a decent amount of vegan and vegetarian friendly recipes, more vegetarian than vegan obviously.

But I try to make sure there’s a balance that everyone has at least one recipe that they can explore in there.

THE NATURAL ARISTOCRAT: What’s your general process of formulating unique recipes for each cookbook? Is it challenging to come up with unique ones time after time?

VICTORIA ROSENTHAL: A lot of it is looking at the universe that exists and what they have access to.

The Way of the Househusband does take place in Japan, so we are gonna be pulling a lot more Japanese ingredients. This cookbook more so than a lot of my other ones, will require a lot of individuals to make that trip to a Japanese market or another Asian grocery store to get some of the more unique things.

Photo Credit: © Kousuke Oono / J.C.Staff via Netflix

I’ve always wanted to push my readers to get out of their comfort zone. To go out there and try foods that you haven’t attempted cooking before.

Photo Credit: © Kousuke Oono / J.C.Staff via Netflix

Part of the process is figuring out if there’s any rules in the world. Then kind of working with a recipe, figuring out what would fit best there.

Photo Credit: © Kousuke Oono / J.C.Staff via Netflix

THE NATURAL ARISTOCRAT: Do you feel the anime/gaming cookbook will eventually overtake traditional chef cookbooks due to wide recognition of their IPs? Much like manga is overtaking comics in popularity.

VICTORIA ROSENTHAL: I don’t think it’s gonna overtake, but there definitely are a lot more of them because it’s a different audience. We’re specifically targeting fans of each fandom.

I am really happy to see them becoming more and more popular. Just because I think everyone needs a different way to convince themselves to get in the kitchen. And a boring cookbook might not be enough for them.

I know when I originally started writing my blog, I did a boring general food thing and I got bored of writing it… But then I had started the one that focused on video games and I’ve been doing it now for almost 12 years. So it’s worked out.

Photo Credit: © Kousuke Oono / J.C.Staff via Netflix

LAURIE ULSTER: Even as a consumer of this kind of thing, I have to say that I find these books fun to read whether or not you’re going to make the recipes.

I read a lot of Star Trek cookbooks and because that’s my particular thing.

Since I was a kid, I would just read those things. They’re so much fun! And if they capture the voice of the characters that they’re supposed to have, then it just adds to the whole picture of who those people are.

It’s fun no matter what!

Photo Credit: © Kousuke Oono / J.C.Staff via Netflix

VICTORIA ROSENTHAL: Yeah, I think that’s the biggest thing is making sure that it sounds in-universe and keeps consistent with the lores that do exist.

I’ve heard many people buy them, just to get the little extra tidbits of the characters that they like. ‘Oh this character likes this meal! Wow, I wouldn’t have guessed that!’

That’s another reason why a lot of the fandom loves these cookbooks.

THE NATURAL ARISTOCRAT: How much time till deadline do you usually get to put together a cookbook like this?

VICTORIA ROSENTHAL: It really varies per project and when the publishing date is.

I wanna say this one was around a month, maybe a month and a half. There’s no photography so there was a little bit of a quickness to it. There weren’t as many recipes as I usually have to deal with.

Photo Credit: © Kousuke Oono / J.C.Staff via Netflix

THE NATURAL ARISTOCRAT: Have you ever had a significant other that can prepare meals for you like Tatsu?

VICTORIA ROSENTHAL: I definitely do all the cooking because I’m constantly having to work on projects.

But he’s learned a lot from me. I think he has no more fear of getting into the kitchen and cooking a meal if I say, ‘I’m not feeling it today, can you do something?’

LAURIE ULSTER: My husband used to do all the cooking in our household.

We were living in New York City where you don’t have to cook your own food and when he wanted to move I was like, ‘We’re gonna start! We can’t just live on takeout’ And he said, ‘I’m gonna cook.’

For many, many years he did all the cooking in our house. Then during the pandemic I decided it was time.

I can only cook meals based on meal kits, like ‘Hello Fresh’ and things like that. But I do bake!

THE NATURAL ARISTOCRAT: How did you first get into making cookbooks professionally?

VICTORIA ROSENTHAL: It was kind of the luck of the draw.

I had my food blog Pixelated Provisions at that point. It was like four or five years and I got contacted for the Fallout Cookbook.

They were like, ‘Oh, we’ve seen your blog. You are pretty proficient on taking pictures and writing recipes. Do you think you wanna do a full book?’

And I said, ‘Yes, please!’ But it was years of just having fun. Whatever game I was playing, kind of cooking up recipes, teaching myself at the same time while teaching others is what I was coming up with.

THE NATURAL ARISTOCRAT: Thank you!

VICTORIA ROSENTHAL & LAURIE ULSTER: Thank you!

The Way of the Househusband: The Gangster’s Guide to Housekeeping releases on July 25, 2023.

You can directly purchase a copy of the cookbook right now on Amazon.

– Check out VIZ Media for more participating retailers.

About ‘The Way of the Househusband: The Gangster’s Guide to Housekeeping’

About Victoria Rosenthal – Bio

Headshot provided by Victoria Rosenthal

About Laurie Ulster – Bio

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