Forty years after The Legend Of Zelda first sent players into Hyrule, Milwaukee sous chef Josh Barto is celebrating the landmark video game series with a Breath Of The Wild-inspired 8-Bit Pop-Up at The Wolf restaurant on Monday, September 14. The one-night dinner will turn swift carrots, monster parts, simmered fruits, and other fantastical ingredients into a multi-course meal inspired by the foods Link cooks throughout the game.
The dinner marks Barto’s fourth 8-Bit Pop-Up, though this time he approached the concept a little differently. His previous events started with whatever he wanted to cook, with video game pairings added afterward. For Breath Of The Wild, he flipped that process around.
“This time I went from the game and said, okay, if I was making this food, what would I actually make while still trying to stay true to it?” Barto says.
That meant finding real-world counterparts for some of Hyrule’s fictional ingredients. Palm fruit becomes coconut, Stambulbs translate to leeks, and even the game’s mysterious monster extract gets a real-world interpretation.
The concept also lined up naturally with the food Barto has been cooking at The Wolf, where he has learned more about Southeast Asian and Indonesian flavors under executive Chef Kristen Schwab.
“If you look at the actual food you cook in the game, it’s a lot of curries, it’s a lot of skewers,” Barto says. “All those things kind of played into the Southeast Asian food that I’ve learned how to cook over the last few years.”
The menu gives several familiar Breath Of The Wild dishes Barto’s own spin. Spicy simmered fruit becomes melon compressed with rujak, Thai basil, and cashew; while carrot stew takes some inspiration from German potato salad, with pork belly, malt vinegar, and honey. Monster stew pairs seared scallops with squid ink laksa broth, charred Stambulb, greens, and peanut.
Dessert may be the most playful nod to the game. Barto’s version of Dubious Food combines ube and pandan haupia with graham cracker, coconut, berries, and “bone” (cookie), all partially obscured by cinnamon-sugar rice paper.
“The entire menu, I was like, well, I gotta do Dubious Food,” Barto says. “Everybody that plays the game makes it, and it’s the funniest one.” His goal for the finished plate is simple: “I hope it comes out pixelated.”
Barto also credits The Wolf and Schwab with giving him the freedom to pull the dinner together. “It’s crazy the amount of trust she puts in all her employees,” he says.
The restaurant is fully backing the pop-up and staffing the night, allowing Barto to concentrate on bringing Hyrule to the table.
The Breath Of The Wild 8-Bit Pop-Up takes place Monday, September 14 at The Wolf and will feature four courses and specialty cocktails inspired by the game, with vegetarian and vegan options available. If eating your way through Hyrule sounds like a worthy side quest, reservations are now open.
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