Despite not having access to a kitchen, Lucifer Morningstar is reportedly an excellent cook. Throughout the show, fans have seen him make Grilled Cheese, French fries, truffle omelettes and casseroles. (The only thing he doesn’t do is the dishes.) And when he’s not cooking, he always knows the best place in LA to get a bite to eat.

Much like Lucifer, Canadian Chef Jessica Pommer,33, has a flare for food culture and great conversation. The task to create a “Lucifer” inspired cookbook grew from her desire to contribute to the fandom.

“I can’t draw, write fan-fiction, or craft items, but I’ve always had this knack for creating my own recipes and this love for ‘Lucifer’,” Pommer said. “It’s amazing how having a good meal and great conversation can make even the plainest meal that much more meaningful.  Sharing food is an important part of social interactions.”

In our email conversation; I get inside the culinary mind of British Columbia native as she shares the concepts and creations behind her Devil’s Food.

How did you find out about “Lucifer?”

I was already a huge fan of the cop procedural genre and I remember seeing the preview for Season 1 back in 2016,  and being intrigued by it— especially the Lucifer and Trixie exchange of  “What’s your name? Lucifer. Like the Devil?” That was a huge draw for me, initially, and intriguing to say the least. I started watching and the rest, as they say, is history.

Tell me about your culinary background and what led you to create food from fiction?

My first job was as a dishwasher in a local pub, so I’ve always been in the restaurant/food industry for most of my career. Currently, I’m a chef at an independently owned restaurant. 

 I have always had this knack for creating my own recipes, and this new love for “Lucifer.” But, it wasn’t really until I started my research on other [fandom food creators] that I realized how common it is to have cookbooks based on movies, books and TV shows.

Let’s talk about how you got the idea to do this “Lucifer” cookbook? 

The initial idea came back in about late 2018, when I realized, as I am sure you know as well, how creative the Lucifans are. I can’t draw, write fan fiction, craft items, and at the time, I couldn’t edit videos [for fancams], but I wanted to creatively contribute to the fandom. 

That’s when I realized, much like Chloe and the Season 4 Southwest sandwich, making recipes was the perfect answer. The pandemic left us all with a lot of time on our hands, so I used the opportunity to spend my free time on this project. 

The approach I am trying to take with this cookbook, unlike most similar books I have seen, is to create recipes that instead of literally food items mentioned in the show, I use episodes as inspirations for the recipes instead. For example, Trixie really enjoys chocolate cake, it’s a huge motivator for her. But, I don’t necessarily have a recipe for chocolate cake, instead, I like the character’s personalities to influence the recipes.  Another example, is Remiel being a hunter influenced her dish. I also tried to incorporate what I knew about the actors themselves where I could. My Mazikeen’s recipes are vegan and one is South African-inspired. 

What is your favorite recipe you’ve created with “Lucifer” in mind? 

Picking my favorite recipe is how I’d imagine picking a favorite child would feel like [laughs]. But, if I had to choose, I would go with my recipe for Candy Morningstar, more specifically from “Vegas with some Radish.” 

I was inspired by the comfort scene in which Candy and Lucifer are divulging their problems over a bottle of wine and ice cream. So, instead of trying to create a new ice cream flavor or think of a wine substitution, I thought of a way to combine both food and beverage.

The concept started after dining at a local Korean/Italian fusion restaurant called Gather. And on the menu, I noticed an interesting dessert combination for a listed tiramisu. I’m not a fan of the coffee flavor, so I didn’t order it, but what piqued my interest was the matcha coloring and powder infused with dessert. It was the same as the mint chocolate chip ice cream Candy and Lucifer share together. After some trial and error, this led to my own special Candy Morningstar-related twist. I ended up making and sharing the results with some former colleagues of mine at a restaurant I used to work in at the time, and they really loved it. So it stuck. 

What were some of the challenges you faced in trying to create a Lucifer Cookbook and what did you do to overcome them?

Other than trying to get it published? [laughs]. 

Most of the challenges are coming up with the main inspiration for some of the characters. Especially the minor ones. I often spend time rewatching episodes and asking for help from my friends, family and colleagues usually help with that particular obstacle. Even as a chef, sometimes finding the right measurements for certain ingredients is still a lot of trial and error, and finding a balance in food chemistry (how certain ingredients react with the dish) can be a little difficult. 

When I use country-specific dishes like South Africa (Lesley-Ann Brandt) or Wales (Tom Ellis), places I am unfamiliar with, that provided an extra layer of challenges that I didn’t consider. Another way to overcome some of these recipe challenges is to get others to try them and give me their feedback. (I had to use Middle Eastern ingredients for a particular Eve-inspired dish, so the number of different versions I went through that alone was surprising.)

 I do a lot of research, which includes talking to people from that county, and I want to make sure I write the recipes in a way that people other than myself can follow them and get the same results as I did, no matter what their culinary experience is. 

There’s quite a handful of food references in Lucifer. Apparently, he’s a great cook despite not having a stove in Lux. He can make casserole dishes, grilled cheese, french fries, Mexican food, truffle omelets, and more. He likes to have a good meal and a good time… Do you think these are underrated in the show? 

It’s amazing how having a good meal and great conversation can make even the plainest meal that much more meaningful.  Sharing food is an important part of social interactions. 

They explore that concept a little in “Pops”, and I’m guessing the upcoming “Family Dinner.” But yeah,  I do think that Lucifer’s culinary skills are a little bit more underappreciated by many of the characters most of the time. 

What is your own favorite meal? (not on the show)

A lot of my favorite meals are comfort foods from my childhood, one of which I actually modified a little for one of the “Lucifer” characters. The dish is called porcupines, although there isn’t actually any porcupine in it [laughs].  It is called that because the ground beef etc is shaped into a ball and has rice grains sticking out that look like porcupine quills. I modified that dish for Father Frank (“A Priest Walks into A Bar”) because it is a comfort dish for me, Father Frank is one of my comfort characters so it fits together naturally.  Beyond those, I love salads and pasta dishes because those are just a few things that you can create an almost endless variety of types with almost endless possibilities of ingredients. I think if it were practical I would be ok with eating a completely different dish for every meal, every day of my life. Unfortunately, it isn’t practical and sometimes I crave those comfort classics from my childhood.

Do you have your own website? Or a fandom page for this cookbook idea? 

Not yet but if this traditional publishing plan doesn’t work out I am looking at and working on potentially putting them all up on a website/blog in the future. I really enjoy sharing the recipes and ideas with people so they will all be available at some point in one form or another. Whatever happens, I will definitely share the information on Twitter. 

Can you pair a food with a character? Imagine it’s holiday time, and everyone is having dinner at Lucifer’s. Who is bringing what item/meal?

Linda: starch (mashed potatoes, yams, rolls etc) 

Dan: munchie things like chips, pretzels etc 

Chloe: salad/vegetable side dishes

Ella: anything required for making drinks

Amenadiel: whatever the main item is whether it is turkey, ham etc.

Lucifer: the entertainment [laughs.] but seriously the hors d’oeuvres

Maze: dessert

What are one (or two) things are you mostly looking forward to seeing in “Lucifer” S5B 

I would say “Family Dinner” for the assumed connection to a meal as well as many other reasons. Although it is hard to pick as I am trying to remain as spoiler free as possible so I am really looking forward to it all, including learning more about Michael and God so I can create their recipes.

Check out Jessica’s recipe for Candy Morningstar’s Tiramisu on the download link below or via Google docs here.

Lucifer Season 5B streams on Netflix: May 28 2021