Hack That Dish: Fantastic Famous Food Forgeries and Secret Tricks You Can Use to Copy Any Dish

July 2, 2026 / No Comments

Cookbook By: Todd Wilbur

“It’s uniquely rewarding to cook something you’re not supposed to know how to make, and to re-create your most beloved edible memories,” Todd Wilbur, Hack That Dish: Fantastic Famous Food Forgeries and Secret Tricks You Can Use to Copy Any Dish.

I love to try to make my favorite restaurant dishes at home, even when they don’t come out perfectly. Luckily, I was gifted a copy of Hack That Dish: Fantastic Famous Food Forgeries and Secret Tricks You Can Use to Copy Any Dish from the publisher. My first pass through the cookbook had me marking a ridiculous number of things I want to try – it was really difficult to narrow it down to two but I was in a mood for Mexican food so it made it a little easier.

Below you will find the two recipes I made and my thoughts on both. Overall, I really like this cookbook and plan to make a ton more recipes from it – don’t worry I’ll update this review as I make more dishes.

Taco Seasoning Mix

I make tacos pretty much every week and I use Old El Paso taco seasoning. Finding this recipe for the seasoning mix intrigued me as I have made homemade seasoning before but it didn’t taste exactly like Old El Paso.

I had all of the ingredients in my pantry, which made this a quick recipe to make. For me the seasoning mix was really good however, it tasted like it had a little more cumin than the Old El Paso that I normally use. Most of my spices are pretty new as I moved late last year and replaced them in the move and some hadn’t even been opened yet. As we all know spices are more potent when they are first opened so I think that had an effect on this recipe.

The taste was pretty good, but I actually think it tasted more like Ortega than Old El Paso. Although, this is an easy, good recipe to quickly make taco seasoning at home anytime that you need it.

3-Cheese Queso

Qdoba is one of my favorite restaurants and I was so excited to move back to Nashville where they had a few restaurants, however, they were closed just before I moved back. I always order the nachos with the 3-cheese queso, so you can imagine how excited I was to find this recipe!

Most of the ingredients were easy to find except the poblano pepper – had to go to a few stores to locate some and the store I found it at only had one left. The recipe is simple and easy to follow – it does take a little time as you have to roast the peppers prior to making the actual queso. My medium poblano did not equal a full 6 tbsp of diced poblano, however, I did have some extra red bell pepper, so I added a little more of that. Next time I will roast at least two poblanos to make sure I have enough.

I was really surprised by how much this tasted like the Qdoba 3-cheese queso. This is definitely on my list to make again – I’m keeping an eye out at the farmers market for fresh peppers so I can make the freshest queso.

Hack That Dish: Fantastic Famous Food Forgeries and Secret Tricks You Can Use to Copy Any Dish is a great cookbook. I love that the author encourages you to pay attention to what you’re eating when you are out so that you can recreate dishes that you don’t know the recipe for. I never really think about doing that on my own and normally go searching for a recipe, but now I am paying more attention to bring those details into my own cooking.

If you love to eat out and want to bring those dishes into your own kitchen, Hack That Dish: Fantastic Famous Food Forgeries and Secret Tricks You Can Use to Copy Any Dish, should be in your library. I know that I will be returning to this cookbook again and again.