Despite having the word ‘book’ in the genre, cookbooks don’t exactly define reading for pleasure. Breaking away from the norm, The Unofficial Harry Potter Cookbook by Dinah Bucholz is the perfect mixture of practical and fun.

Each of the recipes could be found, in some way, in the Harry Potter series, and Bucholz delivers each recipe with some historical context behind the food, or by describing its place within the book series. This made the cookbook feel a bit like a revisitation of the series with food piecing the story of Harry Potter together. 

Among the biggest critiques, along with the lack of pictures to go along with the recipes, the recipes themselves could be questioned. For example, some recipes such as bacon and eggs seemed to exist only to make the list of recipes longer and fit better with the concept of the cookbook: to connect readers back to the Harry Potter universe through food. Additionally, the recipes for haggis and black pudding weren’t tested, but considering that black pudding contained an ingredient illegal for purchase in the United States (animal blood), this particular criticism is more easily overlooked. 

Because the complexity of some of the recipes, it’s best if younger fans are carefully watched and guided, by introducing readers more formally to Harry’s favorite desserts such as treacle tart or popular Hogwarts dinner meals, The Unofficial Harry Potter Cookbook is the perfect cookbook for every Potterhead to connect to the world of Harry Potter, regardless of age.