Rare Flavours, Cooked to Perfection
Creative Team
writer: RAM V
illustrator: FILIPE ANDRADE
publisher: BOOM! Studios
Reviewed by Xenia “Xenon” Honchar
Rare Flavours is a love letter to human motivations for creation, primarily but not exclusively, through cooking.
Rare Flavours is a self-contained story that explores themes of self-discovery, Indian mythology, and the magnificence of the mundane through a realistic fantasy setting. Written by Ram V and Illustrated by Filipe Andrade, the two come together in order to tell a story that is rich, vibrant, and wholly alive.
The story begins a few years out of Covid, in a modern day India, where it seems demons walk (and eat) among us. We are introduced to Rashid, a Rakshasa (a charismatic, shapeshifting demon of Hindu mythology), who looks to our other main character Mo in order to bring his love of food to life through film. Reluctant at first Mo comes out of a quite recent retirement from his film career after Rashid makes him an offer he can't or rather shouldn't refuse. Mo joins Rashid on a journey across many places in India unaware at first of his benefactors' torrid past and the men following close behind.
The story is interlaced with recipes shown to us through character’s stories that the reader is able to follow if so willing. Cooking sequences are often used to build upon the plot seamlessly and each dish is given life and love through the way it's not only written but visually depicted.
The whole book is warm, with resounding color choice and expressive loose illustrative style making each page feel spiced, marinated, and cooked to perfection. Specifically, hatching and the limited color palette are two aspects of the illustrations that make the book so unique and eye-catching. The orange tones and soft gentle blues do some incredible heavy lifting welcoming us into the desert, a meal or a memory.
Following the two characters, exploring both of their respective past and motivations, Rare Flavours is deeply explorative into why people are inspired to do what they do. Whether that be for the good of your family or the detriment, to follow a dream or because one was crushed or even surviving off of your abilities because it's the only thing you’ve ever known. No direction is labeled inherently correct and the only thing that the narrative begs is that you look around, see the world we live in, create until you can no longer create and then indulge.