What I Learned Launching Winner Winner Chickpea Dinner at UKGE

Connecting Over Food Journeys

The launch of Winner Winner Chickpea Dinner at UK Games Expo was everything I hoped it would be.

It was surreal, rewarding, and genuinely encouraging to spend the weekend discussing nutrition science, board games, accessibility, and healthy cooking with so many wonderful people from the gaming community.

One theme came up again and again: food journeys.

People shared their own experiences of learning to cook, adapting recipes for dietary needs, managing busy schedules, and finding ways to make healthy eating more approachable. Those conversations reinforced exactly why I wrote this cookbook in the first place: to make cooking feel fun, accessible, and motivating.

The Features That Got People Talking

One of the biggest surprises was how often visitors commented on features that aren’t typically found in cookbooks.

The Dietary Dashboard drew comments such as:

“This is useful. Why don’t all cookbooks have this?”

People also loved discovering about the hidden recipes, scoring and unlockable content:

“Fantastic. You’ve really gamified this book.”

The achievement trackers and scorecards received particularly enthusiastic feedback:

“This is so ADHD-friendly. I can get my tick-box dopamine hits and remind myself when I’ve forgotten or changed an ingredient for next time.”

Visitors also appreciated having nutrition information, dietary labels, and a wide range of vegan, vegetarian, dairy-free and gluten-free options clearly signposted throughout the book.

And Yes, People Loved the Puns

It turns out I’m not the only person in the board gaming community who appreciates a good dad joke. Some favourites included:

CarcaSCONEs
Terraforming Maize: The Cornbread Expedition
Guacs of Quedlinburg
Root Soup

Meeting Press, Creators, and Fellow Enthusiasts

I also had the opportunity to chat with members of the press, who not only enjoyed the cookbook itself but also geeked out over the NFC-enabled keyrings.

My biggest lesson for next time? Practice talking while being filmed. Every time someone handed me a microphone, I seemed to forget how sentences worked. My apologies to the content creators editing that footage, I have such great respect for how difficult your work is! But I did have it better nailed by the end of Day 2, so more practice next time.

I’ve spotted Get into Games fun video, loved the idea of pitching to a Snake Oil character. Contact me if you spot any others!

Hosted by Tinkerbot Games

Roll and Bite was fortunate to be hosted on the Tinkerbot Games stand throughout the weekend, and I couldn’t have asked for a better experience.

The Tinkerbot Games team were incredibly welcoming, sharing insights from their decade of UKGE experience and helping create a collaborative, supportive atmosphere throughout the weekend.

Their UK gaming tables regularly stopped people in their tracks. Visitors would often assume custom gaming furniture was well beyond their budget, only to do a double take when they saw the price list. Tinkerbot have built a reputation for making dedicated board gaming tables far more accessible than many people expect, and it was great fun watching those reactions play out repeatedly across the weekend.

Con Survival Cookies

The real heroes of the weekend may have been the Con Survival Cookies.

Tony kindly made up a batch for the booth staff, and they kept us well fuelled through long convention days and quickly became a firm favourite behind the scenes.

In fact, we went through so many copies of the recipe that we completely ran out by the end of the show. That’s a useful lesson for next year: apparently 500 printed recipe sheets isn’t enough for the 50,000 of you!

If you missed out on a copy at UKGE, you can find the recipe here: Con Survival Cookies.

Authorbots

One of the pleasures of the weekend was sharing the stand with fellow Authorbot G Clatworthy, who had mentored me in my own self-publishing journey.

Alongside talking board games and food, I enjoyed chatting with visitors about her cosy and urban fantasy novels.

I’m particularly excited to see the newly illustrated edition of the Omensford Collection launching on Kickstarter soon.

But What About the Games?

One of my favourite parts of UK Games Expo is always discovering new games, and this year was no exception.

Our haul photo ended up being smaller than usual this year. While I was busy chatting to visitors about Winner Winner Chickpea Dinner, my partner and friends spent much of the weekend demoing games, though they did regularly stop by to give me much-appreciated breaks from the stand.

Some of our highlights included Trouble on the Tempus, Kano, Panda Spin, Compile, Spokes and Cats vs Cucumbers. And of course, see the stunning painted mechs from Of Oil and Iron.

We were booth neighbours with Cotswold Games who have the lovely Tabletop Inc., a game that we bought on kickstarter and loved playing.

We also learned a classic UKGE lesson the hard way: if you’re considering a deluxe edition, don’t wait. We spent too long debating whether to buy Tug of Roar, only to discover they had sold out on the Friday.

Thank You

Whether you stopped by to browse, bought a copy of Winner Winner, shared your own food journey, or simply came to chat, thank you.

The launch weekend reminded me that cooking and gaming have something important in common: both bring people together around shared experiences.

And that’s exactly what Winner Winner Chickpea Dinner was created to do.

Stay Connected

If you stopped by the stand and would like to follow the journey, I’d love to stay in touch.

You can:

Sign up to my newsletter for recipe updates, behind-the-scenes insights, convention stories, and the occasional terrible board game food pun.
Follow Roll & Bite on social media to see new recipes, upcoming events, and what I’m working on next.
Pick up a copy of Winner Winner Chickpea Dinner online if you didn’t get a chance to grab one at UK Games Expo.

If you’re a journalist, content creator, retailer, or event organiser, you’ll also find images, book information, and contact details in the press pack.

Thanks again to everyone who stopped by the stand, shared a conversation, or supported the launch. I can’t wait to see where the next chapter of this adventure leads.