The Game of Thrones fans who run the Inn at the Crossroads recipe blog recently released a cookbook with recipes from the series, and George R.R. Martin shares his inspiration for the rich culinary descriptions.

The cookbook A Feast of Ice and Fire was published last week. It was created by the fans Chelsea Monroe-Cassel and Sariann Lehrer, who also run the popular blog, Inn at the Crossroads.

Speaking to The Denver Post, Martin says:

I would regularly get e-mails from the fans over the years saying why don’t you do a cookbook? I would say because I can’t cook, besides I am busy writing the novels. But then Chelsea and Sariann, instead of suggesting a cookbook, opened this website and actually began cooking all the recipes. They did such a great job of it and had such wonderful pictures, that it really did seem that they could have a cookbook. I told my editor to take a look at it and the next thing you know, they had a cookbook.

He also talks about writing the rich descriptions of feast scenes in the novels, and in particular Sansa’s fascination with lemon cakes (which inspired the blog in the first place):

She lives in the North — what would be something she would get occasionally but not regularly? Lemon cakes! Because lemons don’t grow in the North. They would get fruit in the summers, but it would not be an everyday thing. It would be special and exciting.

Will you be trying out some of the recipes for your own Feast of Ice and Fire?! Maybe for the season 3 premiere?