The Mandalorian's Katy O'Brian Reveals What Imperial Biscuits Taste Like
One of the standout episodes of season 3 of "The Mandalorian" is Chapter 19, "The Convert," in which the show takes an episode-long interlude away from our protagonists Din Djarin (Pedro Pascal) and Bo-Katan Kryze's (Katee Sackhoff) adventures on Mandalore to update us on what life is like on Coruscant during the rise of the New Republic. Spoiler alert: underneath the thinly veiled surface of restored peace and democracy, it's not all that different from life under the Empire.
"The Convert" follows ex-Moff Gideon (Giancarlo Esposito) collaborator Dr. Pershing (Omid Abtahi), who has been given a chance to rehabilitate himself into society through the Amnesty Program (a "Star Wars" parallel for the disturbing real-world Operation Paperclip). Using his technological expertise for the New Republic, Pershing befriends a fellow ex-Imperial co-worker, Elia Kane (Katy O'Brian), who shares his strange love of Imperial travel biscuits they used to snack on. Though the New Republic forbids Pershing from continuing his research on cloning technology, Kane encourages Pershing to continue what he started working with Moff Gideon.
It soon turns out, Kane's motivations are a lot more nefarious, as she's not exactly the reformed model citizen she makes herself out to be. O'Brian's performance is captivating, enigmatic, and deliciously sinister — especially as she bites on an Imperial biscuit and watches as Pershing is tortured by the mind flayer machine.
Brutality aside, we can't help but wonder what those yellow, square biscuits taste like. Lucky for us, in an April interview with Entertainment Weekly, Katy O'Brian revealed that the Imperial biscuits she ate on set have a heavy coconut flavor.
'It's a very healthy, vegan, gluten-free biscuit'
"Someone told me the recipe is out online now! You'll have to look it up. But from what I recall — because again, this was like two years ago — it was just really heavy coconut," O'Brian explained. "I have one in my fridge right now, but I think I'm going to plasticize it and keep it forever. But yeah, it was really, really coconutty. It was pretty dry, and it was surprisingly filling."
As O'Brian mentioned, a few days after "The Convert" was released on Disney+, the official Star Wars blog posted a recipe for the Imperial travel biscuits. However, the recipe doesn't seem to contain any coconut. Instead, it seems like more of a shortbread recipe made from a lemon and cream cheese base that has been mildly essenced with rose water and ginger. However, this recipe could greatly differ from the actual version O'Brian had on set, as this recipe was designed to be made in an average kitchen. In fact, O'Brian describes the ones she ate on set leaned more towards a biscuit than a cookie:
"I think it could actually be used for a ration. It kind of expanded in your mouth in a very interesting way. It was healthy, or at least that's what I was told. It's a very healthy, vegan, gluten-free biscuit, which is what the Empire is all about."
From the blue noodles and cereal in "Andor," to the glowing popsicles and travel biscuits in this season of "The Mandalorian," this new era of "Star Wars" has been fixated on portraying mundane life in the galaxy, and that includes exploring what the citizens of the galaxy eat. Maybe it's all fodder for future merchandising and theme park tie-ins, but it's interesting nonetheless.