Is the Grateful Dead’s Vegetarian Cookbook Any Good? We Found Out

There’s a bizarre Jerry Garcia sketch from December 1987, where he’s standing in a backstage kitchen, wearing a goofy chef’s hat and apron. Next to him is comedian and Saturday Night Live writer Tom Davis, who starts speaking to the camera. “Some people thought New Year’s Eve had to be celebrated under the influence of drugs and alcohol, but by now, many of us have come to realize that we’re better off staying straight,” Davis says. Captain Trips, preparing a baking sheet of water chestnuts wrapped in bacon, alongside pitchers of virgin punch and bloody marys, joyfully agrees: “That’s right, Tom. We can still have just as much fun — maybe even more!”

The video was a cheeky nod to Garcia’s effort to adopt a healthier lifestyle back then, but these days, it feels like it fits right into Grateful Dead fan culture. The jam band and food are inextricably linked — being a Deadhead means you’ve probably indulged in grilled cheeses in the parking lot, or sampled some kind burritos on Shakedown Street. Now, you can bring those tasty treats from the road right into your home, with the new Grateful Dead cookbook, Dead in the Kitchen, out Oct. 21. 

Now, first things first: the Good Ol’ Grateful Dead always have an overwhelming amount of merch and licensed products available, especially for their 60th anniversary this year. Are you in the market to buy a $300 Beach Cruiser bicycle? If that’s too pricey, what about a doormat that says “Grateful to be Home”? Or what about an NBA shirt, like the adorable Miami Heat one, with dancing bears throwing flames into the net? Plus, we’ve seen several Dead-adjacent cookbooks before, from The Kind Veggie Burritos Cookbook to Cooking With the Dead: Recipes and Stories from Fans on the Road. So what makes Dead in the Kitchen so special? 

For starters, Dead in the Kitchen, created by Gabi Moskowitz, is authorized by the band. It also contains a list of Dave’s Picks, from their longtime archivist and legacy manager, David Lemieux (spoiler alert: Dave is partial to the pumpkin-kale lasagna). There’s even a foreword by the legendary food author Mollie Katzen, who wrote 1977’s Moosewood Cookbook — a staple in every vegetarian household — which really seals the deal. “To enjoy spontaneous music combined with a joyfully prepared meal was always the top center goal of our daily lives,” she writes. Amen, sister. 

With all of this in mind, I decided to give some of these recipes a try. And no, I’m not a vegetarian. But I was one for a decade, back when I had a cell phone made of corn-based plastic and wore organic vegetable rubber bands as bracelets. So words like “baked hemp falafel” and “tempeh satay” aren’t foreign to me — and with plant-based diets and wellness culture being all the rage in 2025, they probably aren’t to you, either.

First up: Buffalo tofu. As Moskowitz writes, “If you’ve ever felt left out watching your friends chow down on Buffalo wings, licking the bright-red sauce off their fingers while you glumly crunch on the celery and carrot sticks (which everyone knows are basically just a garnish), then this recipe is for you.” I genuinely cannot relate to this, because I’d probably just give in and eat a chicken wing, but I appreciate the struggle. Time to get cooking.

While stirring the homemade sauce on the stove (which consists of cayenne-based hot sauce, white vinegar, brown sugar, and so on), I threw on some 5/8/77, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY. You might find this to be a basic choice — Dead 101, for newbies only — but it was my tribute to Katzen, whose Moosewood Cookbook is named after a restaurant in Ithaca. And guess what? The meal was completed eons before I got through the two hour and 42-minute set, before “Lazy Lightning” even had a chance to get lazy. The dish was incredibly tasty, even without the meat. (Taking a bite, my friend said, “It tastes like tofu.” I took this as a compliment.)

For dessert, I whipped up some avocado brownies, which contain no butter, vegetable oil, or refined sugar. Moskowitz calls these bad boys the “platonic ideal of a brownie: ultra-rich, fudgy, and moist,” and I have to agree. While making the avocado brownies, I cranked up the new Blues for Allah (50th Anniversary Deluxe Edition), which sounds incredibly clean and crisp on my turntable, especially the cosmic “Crazy Fingers.” 

Using almond flour means you’ll have to pulse or blend the mixture a little longer than you would with regular flour, and I still found the batter to have a lumpy texture. But in the end, it was a solid dessert. I probably went a little overboard with the flaky salt and chocolate chips on top, but who wouldn’t? Life may be sweeter for this, I don’t know.

When he was standing in that backstage kitchen, it’s funny to imagine what Garcia might have thought of an official Grateful Dead cookbook — that nearly 40 years later, fans would still be eager to connect the band and food, the vibes and bites. With Dead in the Kitchen, it’s one harmonious universe.